Louis C.K.

Louis C.K. Beats Off the Mob

When I was growing up, my great passion was comedy. Monty Python, National Lampoon, George Carlin, etc. As a kid, I was obsessed with deconstructing humor. I’m not a laugh-out-loud kind of guy (except when I’m humoring a girl on a date). I’m more into appreciating jokes than laughing at them. More than any other person or program, SCTV, in its ...


More People, More Nonsense

It's not often that a Salon writer produces a lit piece that doesn"€™t make me grunt with rage. Aside from their hysterical loathing for male writers who won"€™t check their man parts at the door, their M.O. for dealing with the ...

Science Fiction for the Fourth Generation

Here's a brilliant idea for an anthology: collect essays about the changing face of war and war technology, then alternate them with short stories and novel excerpts from the cutting edge of military-focused sci-fi and fantasy. Riding ...

Good Advice, Bad Examples

I can"€™t resist a writing style guide, especially one that promises to be lively. Steven Pinker made his name as a linguistic and cognitive scientist; his 2002 book The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature is a level-headed ...

Ceasefire

The rigged game of publishing is no less rotten today than on any other, but it's unnatural to be contentious on Christmas. I"€™d rather talk truces. Most readers will have already heard my favorite yuletide tale, but indulge me: who ...

Anomie en Masse

I love those sweet, fleeting moments of near-lucidity when the janitors at the mainstream pop-culture echo chamber almost manage to notice how annoying the echo is. Full disclosure: A decade ago I briefly crossed paths with Atlantic ...

Learning Not to Love

Making fun of millennials is all kinds of fish-in-a-barrel fun. Their creepy, dehumanized fixation on their smartphones reminds me of lab rats, pushing the Tweet button to light up the ego centers in their brains. Perhaps this smacks ...

Pardon Me, Gents: Of Quintus Curtius

It's taken me a few weeks to work up the gall to write about the pseudonymous Quintus Curtius"€™ first book. Thirty Seven: Essays on Life, Wisdom, and Masculinity, released this September, is a series of meditations on history and ...

Philistines, Arise!

Have you heard that big, bad Amazon is destroying the book industry? To be more accurate, they"€™re plowing the major publishers under: ah, nobility in tears. I"€™m not a fan of the sheer volume of garbage that's being dumped out on ...

Dystopia Lives!

The old "€œmen don"€™t read fiction"€ saw is making the rounds of the publishing industry again. It's more a self-fulfilling prophecy than a valid judgment against the nature of men, and rather rich, in fact: Isn"€™t it odd ...


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