March-April 2005
GILGAMESH IS the first significant work of literature in history-not Western history, but all of history-an epic that was first written down (ca. 2100 BCE) over a thousand years before The Iliad and The Odyssey or the Bible. …
More… Gay activist Vladislav Topchev echoed Nahorna’s pessimism. “The presentation of us in the media is to satisfy heterosexual interest. Even if journalists are gay-friendly, information tends to be distorted.” He has heard about physical attacks everywhere in Ukraine. Homophobia is rampant both in the industrial, largely Russian-speaking east, and in the Europe-turning, Catholic west, he told me. “There is no difference in the level of homophobia.” …
MoreTHE MALE NUDE has been a staple of photography since shortly after the invention of cameras and film over a century and a half ago, although for much of that time it was an underground staple owing to various conservative, sexophobic and homophobic cultural forces unwilling to view it as anything but pornography. …
MoreReader’s thoughts
MoreDo you care much that greasy ol’ Pizza Hut gave tens of thousands in PAC money to the Republican Party last year? How about the fact that Taco Bell stopped pumping out their happily toxic semi-rancid meat-like substances just long enough to write a fat check to the conservative Right? …
MoreIT IS HARROWING to watch, but Jonathan Caouette’s Tarnation is a stunning, one-of-a-kind achievement. Screened at Cannes and around the world, Tarnation was made for a couple hundred bucks using iMovie. But that’s the least interesting thing about it. …
MoreJT LeRoy’s new novella Harold’s End has the shape and feel of a personal diary or journal. Small in size and squarish in shape, the book sports a black cover (under the dust jacket) and, inside, the text is illustrated throughout with drawings of the story’s characters by Australian artist Cherry Hood. …
MoreSIXTEEN-YEAR-OLD Anamika Sharma is an overly earnest, overachieving high school girl in a hurry. As the head prefect at her academically rigorous and slightly progressive high school in Delhi, India, she’s respected by most of her peers and teachers. …
MoreAMONG THE WRITERS whose names are associated with the Beat Generation-Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, and the rest-perhaps only Paul Bowles is destined to transcend that association and secure his own place as an artist of the late 20th century. …
More
