Hrag Vartanian

A blog of art, culture, photography, writing and ideas.

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Entries Tagged as 'literary criticism'

Faster Hipster, Kill, Kill

April 24th, 2008 · No Comments

It was only a matter of time before hipster lit (hip-lit?) hit the bookstands with full force. Rayo Casablanca’s 6 Sick Hipsters is the latest entry to the genre and check out a review I came across (italics mine):
The premise of Casablanca’s 6 Sick Hipsters is enticing: someone is murdering those atrocious denizens of Williamsburg, [...]

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Tags: American · Brooklyn · New York · fiction · literary criticism · pop culture

A Review of “The Argument” by Matt Bai

January 31st, 2008 · No Comments

Here is the text of my review that originally appeared in Boldtype this week:
Something is stirring in the Democratic Party, and New York Times Magazine regular Matt Bai set out to get to the bottom of it. He found himself on the trail of another Progressive movement — the contemporary incarnation of that 19th-century groundswell [...]

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Tags: American · literary criticism · pop culture

Gay 101 at U of M

January 8th, 2008 · No Comments

The Univ. of Michigan is offering an English class unfortunately titled “How to Be Gay,” and the course description explains:
n particular, we will examine a number of cultural artifacts and activities that seem to play a prominent role [...]

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Tags: literary · literary criticism · pop culture

Arthur Nersesian’s Alternate History of NYC

January 6th, 2008 · No Comments

I’ll admit it, Arthur Nersesian is one of my favorite writers. Not because he is the hoity-toity wordsmith Ian McEwan can be or the hipper-than-thou Douglas Coupland who seems to shit out bundles of well-phrased ideas, but because Nersesian crafts interesting stories with strong characters with fun to read prose that grapple with issues relevant [...]

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Tags: American · Armenian · New York · fiction · literary · literary criticism · pop culture

Colin Channer’s Golden New Novella

December 10th, 2007 · 1 Comment

Recently, I discovered the writing of Jamaican American writer Colin Channer during a bookreading at McNally Robinson on Prince Street. He read from his new novella, The Girl With The Golden Shoes published this year by Akashic Books. The writer has some prominent fans, including Russell Banks, who in his afterwood calls the book [...]

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Tags: fiction · literary · literary criticism · photography