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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13958538\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1634px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13958538\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/museumofeye.jpg\" alt=\"A Victorian illustration of two men seated in chairs, holding a cylinder up to their faces.\" width=\"1634\" height=\"889\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/museumofeye.jpg 1634w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/museumofeye-800x435.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/museumofeye-1020x555.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/museumofeye-160x87.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/museumofeye-768x418.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/museumofeye-1536x836.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1634px) 100vw, 1634px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Actina was manufactured by Professor* William C. Wilson [*not a real professor] and was advertised as a cure-all for deafness, loss of sight and loss of smell. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the Museum of the Eye)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>If you’ve heard of Paul Bragg, it’s likely because you’re a fan of \u003ca href=\"https://www.bragg.com/products/liquid-aminos?variant=39960770248800\">Bragg Liquid Aminos\u003c/a>, the soy-based flavoring favored by vegans. Back in the 1920s, though, Bragg was a traveling salesman shilling holistic cures for human ailments. One such item was the Better Sight Vibrator: a wooden stick with spiral ridges down its length and a small cup on top. Bragg instructed people to hold the cup over their eyes and run a piece of wood along the length of the stick to create vibrations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Promotional materials for the vibrator asserted:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>The inventor of the Better Sight Vibrator at one time did aerial and juggling acts … From these, he learned when his eyes tired from reading or deciphering intricate drawings, doing some juggling tricks would relieve his eye strain. After much research and experimenting, the Better Sight Vibrator and a set of exercises were developed.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13957514']Needless to say, the object was entirely useless and, in 1935, Bragg was arrested and charged with practicing medicine without a license. (His pivot into vegan condiments was clearly much more successful.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Better Sight Vibrator is just one of the antique ophthalmology-related objects currently on display at San Francisco’s Museum of the Eye. Its new exhibit \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.aao.org/museum/special-exhibitions\">Hoodwinked: 19th Century Quack Medicine\u003c/a>\u003c/em> gathers other such devices, some of which made the preposterous claim to correct poor eyesight entirely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13958532\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1779px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13958532\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/eye-suction-scaled-e1716593605170.jpg\" alt=\"A rubber contraption resembling theater binoculars with a rotating device on the handle.\" width=\"1779\" height=\"1920\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An ‘Ideal Sight Restorer’ from 1920, made by Professor* Charles A. Tyrell [*not a professor]. \u003ccite>(Rae Alexandra)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One 1920 pamphlet by Doctor* Wesley M. Barrett [*not a doctor] declared that his specific system of eye training could cure every eye condition known to man as long as it wasn’t related to a specific disease. These included “such eye troubles as nearsightedness, farsightedness, astigmatism, old-age eyes, weak eyes, undeveloped eyes, eyestrain, squint and various eye muscle troubles, including cross-eyes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pamphlet went on to state:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>The greatest crime of this age, against old and young alike, is the wholesale fitting of glasses for functional disorders and inharmonies of the eyes. The generation that witnesses the adoption of the principles and practice of the Natural Eyesight System in the schools of the land will also witness the passing of ‘The Age of Spectacles.’\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>The contraptions on display at the museum include suction cups, massagers, eye-rinsers that resemble tiny goblets and one so-called “coagulating” machine that claimed to use electricity to infuse eyes with oxygen and ozone. One small, metal, cylindrical object manufactured by William C. Wilson was advertised as a cure-all for deafness, loss of sight \u003ci>and\u003c/i> loss of smell. In reality, the “Actina” was a cone filled with oil of mustard and sassafras that would irritate the senses to no objective end.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13958530\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2110px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13958530\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/doctress.jpg\" alt=\"A turn-of-the-century postcard featuring an illustration of a stern woman under the title ‘The Blind May See.’\" width=\"2110\" height=\"1244\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/doctress.jpg 2110w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/doctress-800x472.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/doctress-1020x601.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/doctress-160x94.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/doctress-768x453.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/doctress-1536x906.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/doctress-2048x1207.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/doctress-1920x1132.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2110px) 100vw, 2110px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Doctress* Narcissa Waterman [*not a doctor] sold an ‘eye water’ between 1872 and 1927. She often used mail order advertisements like this one from 1897 to sell her product. \u003ccite>(Rae Alexandra)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>You might be wondering how and why people were willing to give such devices the time of day at all. And the answers lie elsewhere in the museum. Eye doctors at the turn of the century used some brutal instruments on people’s eyeballs in the course of their treatments. One “artificial leech” on display, dating from 1890, is a silver instrument that ends in a series of small spikes. Faced with the prospect of a supposed professional sticking multiple needles in their eyes, it’s no wonder people turned to quacks instead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the more delightful elements of \u003cem>Hoodwinked\u003c/em> is the art on display. Beautifully rendered, hand-painted anatomical diagrams can be seen in books dating all the way back to 1838. The Victorian artwork used to promote fraudulent “sight restorers” is also a marvel — the 19th-century equivalent of girls in movies who suddenly become desirable the second they take their glasses off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13958533\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1552px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13958533\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/museumexhibit.jpg\" alt=\"A Victorian advertisement featuring illustrations of a girl clutching her forehead, then holding small cups against her eyes, then looking brighter and happier.\" width=\"1552\" height=\"1150\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/museumexhibit.jpg 1552w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/museumexhibit-800x593.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/museumexhibit-1020x756.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/museumexhibit-160x119.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/museumexhibit-768x569.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/museumexhibit-1536x1138.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1552px) 100vw, 1552px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Many of the solutions sold to Victorians for use with eye cups were about as useful as water. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the Museum of the Eye)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Hoodwinked\u003c/em> as an exhibition is small but mighty, though I do wish there were even more artifacts on display. What is here will make you feel nothing but gratitude for modern medicine. And the Better Sight Vibrator? Well, that’s something that has to be seen to be believed.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘\u003ca href=\"https://www.aao.org/museum/special-exhibitions\">Hoodwinked: 19th Century Quack Medicine\u003c/a>’ is on view at San Francisco’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.aao.org/museum-of-the-eye\">Museum of the Eye\u003c/a> (645 Beach St.) through spring 2025. Entry is free.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13958538\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1634px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13958538\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/museumofeye.jpg\" alt=\"A Victorian illustration of two men seated in chairs, holding a cylinder up to their faces.\" width=\"1634\" height=\"889\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/museumofeye.jpg 1634w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/museumofeye-800x435.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/museumofeye-1020x555.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/museumofeye-160x87.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/museumofeye-768x418.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/museumofeye-1536x836.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1634px) 100vw, 1634px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Actina was manufactured by Professor* William C. Wilson [*not a real professor] and was advertised as a cure-all for deafness, loss of sight and loss of smell. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the Museum of the Eye)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>If you’ve heard of Paul Bragg, it’s likely because you’re a fan of \u003ca href=\"https://www.bragg.com/products/liquid-aminos?variant=39960770248800\">Bragg Liquid Aminos\u003c/a>, the soy-based flavoring favored by vegans. Back in the 1920s, though, Bragg was a traveling salesman shilling holistic cures for human ailments. One such item was the Better Sight Vibrator: a wooden stick with spiral ridges down its length and a small cup on top. Bragg instructed people to hold the cup over their eyes and run a piece of wood along the length of the stick to create vibrations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Promotional materials for the vibrator asserted:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>The inventor of the Better Sight Vibrator at one time did aerial and juggling acts … From these, he learned when his eyes tired from reading or deciphering intricate drawings, doing some juggling tricks would relieve his eye strain. After much research and experimenting, the Better Sight Vibrator and a set of exercises were developed.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Needless to say, the object was entirely useless and, in 1935, Bragg was arrested and charged with practicing medicine without a license. (His pivot into vegan condiments was clearly much more successful.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Better Sight Vibrator is just one of the antique ophthalmology-related objects currently on display at San Francisco’s Museum of the Eye. Its new exhibit \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.aao.org/museum/special-exhibitions\">Hoodwinked: 19th Century Quack Medicine\u003c/a>\u003c/em> gathers other such devices, some of which made the preposterous claim to correct poor eyesight entirely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13958532\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1779px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13958532\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/eye-suction-scaled-e1716593605170.jpg\" alt=\"A rubber contraption resembling theater binoculars with a rotating device on the handle.\" width=\"1779\" height=\"1920\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An ‘Ideal Sight Restorer’ from 1920, made by Professor* Charles A. Tyrell [*not a professor]. \u003ccite>(Rae Alexandra)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One 1920 pamphlet by Doctor* Wesley M. Barrett [*not a doctor] declared that his specific system of eye training could cure every eye condition known to man as long as it wasn’t related to a specific disease. These included “such eye troubles as nearsightedness, farsightedness, astigmatism, old-age eyes, weak eyes, undeveloped eyes, eyestrain, squint and various eye muscle troubles, including cross-eyes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pamphlet went on to state:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>The greatest crime of this age, against old and young alike, is the wholesale fitting of glasses for functional disorders and inharmonies of the eyes. The generation that witnesses the adoption of the principles and practice of the Natural Eyesight System in the schools of the land will also witness the passing of ‘The Age of Spectacles.’\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>The contraptions on display at the museum include suction cups, massagers, eye-rinsers that resemble tiny goblets and one so-called “coagulating” machine that claimed to use electricity to infuse eyes with oxygen and ozone. One small, metal, cylindrical object manufactured by William C. Wilson was advertised as a cure-all for deafness, loss of sight \u003ci>and\u003c/i> loss of smell. In reality, the “Actina” was a cone filled with oil of mustard and sassafras that would irritate the senses to no objective end.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13958530\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2110px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13958530\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/doctress.jpg\" alt=\"A turn-of-the-century postcard featuring an illustration of a stern woman under the title ‘The Blind May See.’\" width=\"2110\" height=\"1244\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/doctress.jpg 2110w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/doctress-800x472.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/doctress-1020x601.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/doctress-160x94.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/doctress-768x453.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/doctress-1536x906.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/doctress-2048x1207.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/doctress-1920x1132.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2110px) 100vw, 2110px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Doctress* Narcissa Waterman [*not a doctor] sold an ‘eye water’ between 1872 and 1927. She often used mail order advertisements like this one from 1897 to sell her product. \u003ccite>(Rae Alexandra)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>You might be wondering how and why people were willing to give such devices the time of day at all. And the answers lie elsewhere in the museum. Eye doctors at the turn of the century used some brutal instruments on people’s eyeballs in the course of their treatments. One “artificial leech” on display, dating from 1890, is a silver instrument that ends in a series of small spikes. Faced with the prospect of a supposed professional sticking multiple needles in their eyes, it’s no wonder people turned to quacks instead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the more delightful elements of \u003cem>Hoodwinked\u003c/em> is the art on display. Beautifully rendered, hand-painted anatomical diagrams can be seen in books dating all the way back to 1838. The Victorian artwork used to promote fraudulent “sight restorers” is also a marvel — the 19th-century equivalent of girls in movies who suddenly become desirable the second they take their glasses off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13958533\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1552px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13958533\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/museumexhibit.jpg\" alt=\"A Victorian advertisement featuring illustrations of a girl clutching her forehead, then holding small cups against her eyes, then looking brighter and happier.\" width=\"1552\" height=\"1150\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/museumexhibit.jpg 1552w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/museumexhibit-800x593.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/museumexhibit-1020x756.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/museumexhibit-160x119.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/museumexhibit-768x569.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/museumexhibit-1536x1138.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1552px) 100vw, 1552px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Many of the solutions sold to Victorians for use with eye cups were about as useful as water. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the Museum of the Eye)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Hoodwinked\u003c/em> as an exhibition is small but mighty, though I do wish there were even more artifacts on display. What is here will make you feel nothing but gratitude for modern medicine. And the Better Sight Vibrator? Well, that’s something that has to be seen to be believed.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘\u003ca href=\"https://www.aao.org/museum/special-exhibitions\">Hoodwinked: 19th Century Quack Medicine\u003c/a>’ is on view at San Francisco’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.aao.org/museum-of-the-eye\">Museum of the Eye\u003c/a> (645 Beach St.) through spring 2025. Entry is free.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>It’s taken the better part of 60 years, but the bold women who helped kickstart America’s sexual revolution seem to finally be getting their due on film.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13953248']Earlier this year, San Francisco’s own Carol Doda was honored with \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13953248/topless-at-the-condor-movie-review-carol-doda-documentary-north-beach-history\">\u003cem>Topless at the Condor\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, a documentary recounting the dancer’s fame as North Beach’s first topless performer and the hardships she faced after her heyday. Now comes \u003ca href=\"https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10445326/\">\u003cem>Naked Ambition\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, a film that captures the life story of Bunny Yeager, a photographer and model who created some of the most iconic pin-up images of the 1950s and ’60s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Naked Ambition\u003c/em> is careful to pay tribute to what made Yeager so special. Though attention early in her career came from being dubbed the “world’s prettiest photographer,” the documentary explains in detail just why her work was so special at the time and why it continues to endure now. The film also demonstrates the ways in which her photographs and stylistic choices have impacted popular culture in the decades since.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iwy83i5XDx8\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As seen in Dennis Scholl and Kareem Tausch’s film, Yeager didn’t merely shoot images that titillated, she made sure that each of her models’ personalities had space to shine through. Her ability to put women at ease and to present their nudity in joyful, celebratory ways was born from her own experiences as a model in the 1940s. It was Yeager’s inherent humor and playfulness that transformed Bettie Page from an underground fetish model to the leopard-print-clad icon she is most commonly thought of today. Yeager’s own work with self-portraits also broke new ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s so important that she was a bombshell pin-up girl,” burlesque star Dita Von Teese notes in the film. “It really made all the difference in how she photographed other people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the most fascinating elements of \u003cem>Naked Ambition\u003c/em> is the way in which Yeager managed to walk a line between sexually liberated creative and 1950s domestic goddess. Though dedicated to her two daughters and to building a suburban home in Miami, Yeager also had zero qualms about taking photos of women in various states of undress for publications like \u003cem>Playboy\u003c/em>. (Yeager was one of the magazine’s first regular contributors and first female photographers. She counted Hugh Hefner as a close personal friend.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Interviewees in the documentary include cultural commentators, Yeager’s friends and family members, individuals tasked with safeguarding Yeager’s legacy, and models with fond memories of working with the photographer, including \u003ca href=\"https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/herald/name/marcia-ludwig-obituary?id=33129914\">Marcia Valibus\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.maikaihistory.com/2016/08/07/nani-maka-tropical-maiden/\">Nani Maka\u003c/a>. There is also wonderful archival footage of Yeager at work, as well as some words between her and Bettie Page recorded in a 1993 conversation for \u003cem>Interview\u003c/em> magazine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13958173\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13958173\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/bunny_self_portrait_four_copy-e1716246569243.jpg\" alt=\"A beautiful 1950s-era woman wearing a low cut top, looks down towards her camera.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">When her career behind the camera began in the 1950s, Bunny Yeager was dubbed the ‘world’s prettiest photographer.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy SF DocFest)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As with many women who make their names working in the sex industry, Yeager’s later life came with some extra challenges. The photographer struggled financially because her tone and aesthetics fell out of favor in the 1970s, as porn hit the mainstream. (“The Yeager photographic style does not parallel the contemporary mood and image of \u003cem>Penthouse\u003c/em> magazine,” one stinging rejection letter reads.) Only with the 1990s rise of rockabilly and swing did Yeager’s work find a new generation of fans. During the lull before, she made ends meet with work in graphic design and even as a nightclub singer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yeager’s personal life was also impacted by her career. One of her daughters, Cherilu Irwin, remains ashamed of her mother’s catalog of work, speaking openly of her disapproval in \u003cem>Naked Ambition\u003c/em>. When asked what she thinks her mother’s legacy is, Irwin leaves a long pause before openly wishing Yeager had not followed the career path she followed. Irwin’s longing to disassociate from her mom’s work has also clearly been a source of tension between her and her sister Lisa, who, in contrast, feels very proud of Yeager’s accomplishments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13954358']\u003cem>Naked Ambition\u003c/em> isn’t all perfect. One gets the sense that darker elements of Yeager’s story are glossed over for the sake of a more upbeat veneer. There is no commentary about the fact that her husband Bud Irwin was fired from the police force after being charged with falsifying burglary reports. There is little mention of the toll that his suicide in 1977 took on her. The fact that one of her best friends — and favorite models — \u003ca href=\"https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1790519-maria-stinger?language=en-US\">Maria Stinger\u003c/a> died by suicide in 1967 isn’t even touched on, despite the fact that Yeager’s working relationship with Stinger is prominently featured.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Overall, \u003cem>Naked Ambition\u003c/em> is an entertaining snapshot of a resourceful and endlessly creative woman who was determined to live life on her own terms. It works fabulously as an introduction to an often-forgotten talent. It’s just a shame that, now and again, it leaves a little too much to the imagination.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://roxie.com/film/sf-docfest-2024-naked-ambition-steph-and-the-customers/\">‘Naked Ambition’ screens at San Francisco’s Roxie Cinema\u003c/a> as part of SF DocFest, on May 31, 2024 at 6:30 p.m.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Earlier this year, San Francisco’s own Carol Doda was honored with \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13953248/topless-at-the-condor-movie-review-carol-doda-documentary-north-beach-history\">\u003cem>Topless at the Condor\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, a documentary recounting the dancer’s fame as North Beach’s first topless performer and the hardships she faced after her heyday. Now comes \u003ca href=\"https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10445326/\">\u003cem>Naked Ambition\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, a film that captures the life story of Bunny Yeager, a photographer and model who created some of the most iconic pin-up images of the 1950s and ’60s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Naked Ambition\u003c/em> is careful to pay tribute to what made Yeager so special. Though attention early in her career came from being dubbed the “world’s prettiest photographer,” the documentary explains in detail just why her work was so special at the time and why it continues to endure now. The film also demonstrates the ways in which her photographs and stylistic choices have impacted popular culture in the decades since.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/Iwy83i5XDx8'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/Iwy83i5XDx8'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>As seen in Dennis Scholl and Kareem Tausch’s film, Yeager didn’t merely shoot images that titillated, she made sure that each of her models’ personalities had space to shine through. Her ability to put women at ease and to present their nudity in joyful, celebratory ways was born from her own experiences as a model in the 1940s. It was Yeager’s inherent humor and playfulness that transformed Bettie Page from an underground fetish model to the leopard-print-clad icon she is most commonly thought of today. Yeager’s own work with self-portraits also broke new ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s so important that she was a bombshell pin-up girl,” burlesque star Dita Von Teese notes in the film. “It really made all the difference in how she photographed other people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the most fascinating elements of \u003cem>Naked Ambition\u003c/em> is the way in which Yeager managed to walk a line between sexually liberated creative and 1950s domestic goddess. Though dedicated to her two daughters and to building a suburban home in Miami, Yeager also had zero qualms about taking photos of women in various states of undress for publications like \u003cem>Playboy\u003c/em>. (Yeager was one of the magazine’s first regular contributors and first female photographers. She counted Hugh Hefner as a close personal friend.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Interviewees in the documentary include cultural commentators, Yeager’s friends and family members, individuals tasked with safeguarding Yeager’s legacy, and models with fond memories of working with the photographer, including \u003ca href=\"https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/herald/name/marcia-ludwig-obituary?id=33129914\">Marcia Valibus\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.maikaihistory.com/2016/08/07/nani-maka-tropical-maiden/\">Nani Maka\u003c/a>. There is also wonderful archival footage of Yeager at work, as well as some words between her and Bettie Page recorded in a 1993 conversation for \u003cem>Interview\u003c/em> magazine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13958173\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13958173\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/bunny_self_portrait_four_copy-e1716246569243.jpg\" alt=\"A beautiful 1950s-era woman wearing a low cut top, looks down towards her camera.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">When her career behind the camera began in the 1950s, Bunny Yeager was dubbed the ‘world’s prettiest photographer.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy SF DocFest)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As with many women who make their names working in the sex industry, Yeager’s later life came with some extra challenges. The photographer struggled financially because her tone and aesthetics fell out of favor in the 1970s, as porn hit the mainstream. (“The Yeager photographic style does not parallel the contemporary mood and image of \u003cem>Penthouse\u003c/em> magazine,” one stinging rejection letter reads.) Only with the 1990s rise of rockabilly and swing did Yeager’s work find a new generation of fans. During the lull before, she made ends meet with work in graphic design and even as a nightclub singer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yeager’s personal life was also impacted by her career. One of her daughters, Cherilu Irwin, remains ashamed of her mother’s catalog of work, speaking openly of her disapproval in \u003cem>Naked Ambition\u003c/em>. When asked what she thinks her mother’s legacy is, Irwin leaves a long pause before openly wishing Yeager had not followed the career path she followed. Irwin’s longing to disassociate from her mom’s work has also clearly been a source of tension between her and her sister Lisa, who, in contrast, feels very proud of Yeager’s accomplishments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cem>Naked Ambition\u003c/em> isn’t all perfect. One gets the sense that darker elements of Yeager’s story are glossed over for the sake of a more upbeat veneer. There is no commentary about the fact that her husband Bud Irwin was fired from the police force after being charged with falsifying burglary reports. There is little mention of the toll that his suicide in 1977 took on her. The fact that one of her best friends — and favorite models — \u003ca href=\"https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1790519-maria-stinger?language=en-US\">Maria Stinger\u003c/a> died by suicide in 1967 isn’t even touched on, despite the fact that Yeager’s working relationship with Stinger is prominently featured.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Overall, \u003cem>Naked Ambition\u003c/em> is an entertaining snapshot of a resourceful and endlessly creative woman who was determined to live life on her own terms. It works fabulously as an introduction to an often-forgotten talent. It’s just a shame that, now and again, it leaves a little too much to the imagination.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://roxie.com/film/sf-docfest-2024-naked-ambition-steph-and-the-customers/\">‘Naked Ambition’ screens at San Francisco’s Roxie Cinema\u003c/a> as part of SF DocFest, on May 31, 2024 at 6:30 p.m.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Library Exhibit Honors the Prolific Output of an SF Artist and Puppeteer",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13958495\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2089px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/chesse_withbrbuzz_7x7_300dpi_53676981320_o.jpg\" alt=\"Man in glasses and bowtie holds puppet controls above small bee puppet\" width=\"2089\" height=\"2060\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13958495\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/chesse_withbrbuzz_7x7_300dpi_53676981320_o.jpg 2089w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/chesse_withbrbuzz_7x7_300dpi_53676981320_o-800x789.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/chesse_withbrbuzz_7x7_300dpi_53676981320_o-1020x1006.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/chesse_withbrbuzz_7x7_300dpi_53676981320_o-160x158.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/chesse_withbrbuzz_7x7_300dpi_53676981320_o-768x757.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/chesse_withbrbuzz_7x7_300dpi_53676981320_o-1536x1515.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/chesse_withbrbuzz_7x7_300dpi_53676981320_o-2048x2020.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/chesse_withbrbuzz_7x7_300dpi_53676981320_o-1920x1893.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2089px) 100vw, 2089px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ralph Chessé with his Brother Buzz puppet, year unknown. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the Chessé family)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As a library evangelist, it’s rather embarrassing for me to discover an area of San Francisco’s main branch that I have not visited before. Yet I have a feeling I’m not the only one who’s missed this particular corner of the building. Just inside the Larkin Street doors, down the first stairs on the right, is the 1,500-square-foot Jewett Gallery, offering rotating special exhibitions. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the next three months, that exhibition is well worth seeking out. \u003ci>\u003ca href=\"https://sfpl.org/exhibits/2024/05/16/ralph-chesse-san-francisco-century\">Ralph Chessé: A San Francisco Century\u003c/a>\u003c/i> is a delightful and unexpected local history lesson on the prolific output of an artist, actor, puppeteer and creator of the long-running KPIX television show, \u003ci>The Wonderful World of Brother Buzz\u003c/i>. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Born in 1900 in New Orleans, Chessé moved to California in the 1920s to pursue the arts, plural. The library’s show, curated by Glen Helfand, contains evidence of this multi-hyphenate life: paintings, drawings, prints, marionettes and video documentation of performances. On top of that are family photographs, a reproduction of Chessé’s Coit Tower mural and a 1966 article that calls the Chessé family “a full-fledged theatrical dynasty.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13958499\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1827px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/rc_linocut_emperorjones_8x11_300dpi_53676527411_o-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Black text on off-white paper advertising marionette performances\" width=\"1827\" height=\"2560\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13958499\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/rc_linocut_emperorjones_8x11_300dpi_53676527411_o-scaled.jpg 1827w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/rc_linocut_emperorjones_8x11_300dpi_53676527411_o-800x1121.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/rc_linocut_emperorjones_8x11_300dpi_53676527411_o-1020x1429.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/rc_linocut_emperorjones_8x11_300dpi_53676527411_o-160x224.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/rc_linocut_emperorjones_8x11_300dpi_53676527411_o-768x1076.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/rc_linocut_emperorjones_8x11_300dpi_53676527411_o-1096x1536.jpg 1096w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/rc_linocut_emperorjones_8x11_300dpi_53676527411_o-1462x2048.jpg 1462w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/rc_linocut_emperorjones_8x11_300dpi_53676527411_o-1920x2690.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1827px) 100vw, 1827px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Emperor Jones’ linocut print by Ralph Chessé, year unknown. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the Chessé family)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It’s a lot, to be sure — Chessé lived to the age of 91. But the challenge of concisely presenting his long career is aided by snippets of QR-code-activated audio from Bruce and Matt Chessé, his son and grandson. Here we get a more personal understanding of Chessé’s racial identity, which was mixed race, a fact that went unacknowledged during his life in San Francisco. The show posits that his two favorite roles, Hamlet and \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emperor_Jones\">Emperor Jones\u003c/a>, were his artistic way of exploring his Black and white heritage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a spread of black-and-white photographs capturing Chessé in different costumes and roles, detailing his height (5’ 4 ½”), weight (125 lbs) and membership in the Screen Actors Guild, we get a first hint at his versatility. With a switch of posture and overcoat, he slips between serious detective and shrugging goof. He ponders, he listens, he stands distinguished with a long beard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Entranced from an early age by Shakespeare (picture a 13-year-old chasing down audiences to recite monologues from \u003ci>The Merchant of Venice\u003c/i>), Chessé didn’t have the height to win stage roles. And so he transferred his love for the Bard into marionette productions. The exhibition takes care to note that these stagings were “true theater, not shows for kids.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13958497\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/rchesse_drawing_2000.jpg\" alt=\"Black and white photo of man in glasses drawing lines on a canvas\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1603\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13958497\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/rchesse_drawing_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/rchesse_drawing_2000-800x641.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/rchesse_drawing_2000-1020x818.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/rchesse_drawing_2000-160x128.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/rchesse_drawing_2000-768x616.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/rchesse_drawing_2000-1536x1231.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/rchesse_drawing_2000-1920x1539.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ralph Chessé drawing, year unknown. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the Chessé family)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A display of linocut posters, designed by Chessé and printed by his wife Jo on a laundry-wringer, shows both his sense of graphic design (punchy, lively) and the breadth of his theatrical material, which included \u003ci>Hamlet\u003c/i>, \u003ci>Hansel and Gretel\u003c/i> and \u003ci>H.M.S. Pinafore\u003c/i>. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Such ephemera shows Chessé moving his operations across the city, from the Yerba Buena Gardens neighborhood (long before it was Yerba Buena Gardens) to the bohemian hotbed that surrounded 628 Montgomery St. (aka the Monkey Block), before that building was demolished to make way for the Transamerica Pyramid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13958498\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/buss_busy_transparency_2000.jpg\" alt=\"Two bee puppets dressed in clothes on a rocky set\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2291\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13958498\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/buss_busy_transparency_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/buss_busy_transparency_2000-800x916.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/buss_busy_transparency_2000-1020x1168.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/buss_busy_transparency_2000-160x183.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/buss_busy_transparency_2000-768x880.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/buss_busy_transparency_2000-1341x1536.jpg 1341w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/buss_busy_transparency_2000-1788x2048.jpg 1788w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/buss_busy_transparency_2000-1920x2199.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A still from the set of ‘Brother Buzz’ showing Brother Buzz and Busy Bee, year unknown. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the Chessé family)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>These often hand-printed advertisements are also evidence of Chessé’s serious hustle. While he may have painted a mural in Coit Tower (children at play, strangely unsmiling in protest of the city’s response to the 1934 longshoremen’s strike) and served, in the ’30s, as the director of puppetry for the state of California for the Federal Theater Project, during WWII he worked in a Bay Area shipyard. As his son Bruce says in an audio clip, “He did not have a steady income until he was 56 years old.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That was when the \u003ca href=\"https://www.latham.org/\">Latham Foundation for the Promotion of Humane Education\u003c/a> approached Chessé about a children’s television show to encourage kindness to animals. \u003ci>The Wonderful World of Brother Buzz\u003c/i> was on the air from 1953 to 1969, and saw Chessé creating a new animal marionette each week to illustrate those lessons. Just a few of these presumably hundreds of characters are on display in the Jewett Gallery, including dapper Brother Buzz (he wears a top hat) and a bat wearing a sharp tan suit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s yet another tantalizing display of a smidgen of Chessé’s output (you can catch clips of the show the \u003ca href=\"https://vimeo.com/showcase/5048493\">Latham Foundation’s website\u003c/a>) in a show that might send you home Googling things like “unsmiling Coit Tower” and “City of Paris department store” — parts of San Francisco history graced by the seemingly inexhaustible talent of Ralph Chessé.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>‘\u003ca href=\"https://sfpl.org/exhibits/2024/05/16/ralph-chesse-san-francisco-century\">Ralph Chessé: A San Francisco Century\u003c/a>’ is on view at the San Francisco Public Library’s Jewett Gallery (100 Larkin St., Lower Level) through Aug. 18, 2024.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13958495\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2089px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/chesse_withbrbuzz_7x7_300dpi_53676981320_o.jpg\" alt=\"Man in glasses and bowtie holds puppet controls above small bee puppet\" width=\"2089\" height=\"2060\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13958495\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/chesse_withbrbuzz_7x7_300dpi_53676981320_o.jpg 2089w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/chesse_withbrbuzz_7x7_300dpi_53676981320_o-800x789.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/chesse_withbrbuzz_7x7_300dpi_53676981320_o-1020x1006.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/chesse_withbrbuzz_7x7_300dpi_53676981320_o-160x158.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/chesse_withbrbuzz_7x7_300dpi_53676981320_o-768x757.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/chesse_withbrbuzz_7x7_300dpi_53676981320_o-1536x1515.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/chesse_withbrbuzz_7x7_300dpi_53676981320_o-2048x2020.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/chesse_withbrbuzz_7x7_300dpi_53676981320_o-1920x1893.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2089px) 100vw, 2089px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ralph Chessé with his Brother Buzz puppet, year unknown. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the Chessé family)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As a library evangelist, it’s rather embarrassing for me to discover an area of San Francisco’s main branch that I have not visited before. Yet I have a feeling I’m not the only one who’s missed this particular corner of the building. Just inside the Larkin Street doors, down the first stairs on the right, is the 1,500-square-foot Jewett Gallery, offering rotating special exhibitions. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the next three months, that exhibition is well worth seeking out. \u003ci>\u003ca href=\"https://sfpl.org/exhibits/2024/05/16/ralph-chesse-san-francisco-century\">Ralph Chessé: A San Francisco Century\u003c/a>\u003c/i> is a delightful and unexpected local history lesson on the prolific output of an artist, actor, puppeteer and creator of the long-running KPIX television show, \u003ci>The Wonderful World of Brother Buzz\u003c/i>. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Born in 1900 in New Orleans, Chessé moved to California in the 1920s to pursue the arts, plural. The library’s show, curated by Glen Helfand, contains evidence of this multi-hyphenate life: paintings, drawings, prints, marionettes and video documentation of performances. On top of that are family photographs, a reproduction of Chessé’s Coit Tower mural and a 1966 article that calls the Chessé family “a full-fledged theatrical dynasty.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13958499\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1827px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/rc_linocut_emperorjones_8x11_300dpi_53676527411_o-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Black text on off-white paper advertising marionette performances\" width=\"1827\" height=\"2560\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13958499\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/rc_linocut_emperorjones_8x11_300dpi_53676527411_o-scaled.jpg 1827w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/rc_linocut_emperorjones_8x11_300dpi_53676527411_o-800x1121.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/rc_linocut_emperorjones_8x11_300dpi_53676527411_o-1020x1429.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/rc_linocut_emperorjones_8x11_300dpi_53676527411_o-160x224.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/rc_linocut_emperorjones_8x11_300dpi_53676527411_o-768x1076.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/rc_linocut_emperorjones_8x11_300dpi_53676527411_o-1096x1536.jpg 1096w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/rc_linocut_emperorjones_8x11_300dpi_53676527411_o-1462x2048.jpg 1462w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/rc_linocut_emperorjones_8x11_300dpi_53676527411_o-1920x2690.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1827px) 100vw, 1827px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Emperor Jones’ linocut print by Ralph Chessé, year unknown. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the Chessé family)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It’s a lot, to be sure — Chessé lived to the age of 91. But the challenge of concisely presenting his long career is aided by snippets of QR-code-activated audio from Bruce and Matt Chessé, his son and grandson. Here we get a more personal understanding of Chessé’s racial identity, which was mixed race, a fact that went unacknowledged during his life in San Francisco. The show posits that his two favorite roles, Hamlet and \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emperor_Jones\">Emperor Jones\u003c/a>, were his artistic way of exploring his Black and white heritage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a spread of black-and-white photographs capturing Chessé in different costumes and roles, detailing his height (5’ 4 ½”), weight (125 lbs) and membership in the Screen Actors Guild, we get a first hint at his versatility. With a switch of posture and overcoat, he slips between serious detective and shrugging goof. He ponders, he listens, he stands distinguished with a long beard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Entranced from an early age by Shakespeare (picture a 13-year-old chasing down audiences to recite monologues from \u003ci>The Merchant of Venice\u003c/i>), Chessé didn’t have the height to win stage roles. And so he transferred his love for the Bard into marionette productions. The exhibition takes care to note that these stagings were “true theater, not shows for kids.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13958497\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/rchesse_drawing_2000.jpg\" alt=\"Black and white photo of man in glasses drawing lines on a canvas\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1603\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13958497\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/rchesse_drawing_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/rchesse_drawing_2000-800x641.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/rchesse_drawing_2000-1020x818.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/rchesse_drawing_2000-160x128.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/rchesse_drawing_2000-768x616.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/rchesse_drawing_2000-1536x1231.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/rchesse_drawing_2000-1920x1539.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ralph Chessé drawing, year unknown. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the Chessé family)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A display of linocut posters, designed by Chessé and printed by his wife Jo on a laundry-wringer, shows both his sense of graphic design (punchy, lively) and the breadth of his theatrical material, which included \u003ci>Hamlet\u003c/i>, \u003ci>Hansel and Gretel\u003c/i> and \u003ci>H.M.S. Pinafore\u003c/i>. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Such ephemera shows Chessé moving his operations across the city, from the Yerba Buena Gardens neighborhood (long before it was Yerba Buena Gardens) to the bohemian hotbed that surrounded 628 Montgomery St. (aka the Monkey Block), before that building was demolished to make way for the Transamerica Pyramid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13958498\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/buss_busy_transparency_2000.jpg\" alt=\"Two bee puppets dressed in clothes on a rocky set\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2291\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13958498\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/buss_busy_transparency_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/buss_busy_transparency_2000-800x916.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/buss_busy_transparency_2000-1020x1168.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/buss_busy_transparency_2000-160x183.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/buss_busy_transparency_2000-768x880.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/buss_busy_transparency_2000-1341x1536.jpg 1341w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/buss_busy_transparency_2000-1788x2048.jpg 1788w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/buss_busy_transparency_2000-1920x2199.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A still from the set of ‘Brother Buzz’ showing Brother Buzz and Busy Bee, year unknown. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the Chessé family)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>These often hand-printed advertisements are also evidence of Chessé’s serious hustle. While he may have painted a mural in Coit Tower (children at play, strangely unsmiling in protest of the city’s response to the 1934 longshoremen’s strike) and served, in the ’30s, as the director of puppetry for the state of California for the Federal Theater Project, during WWII he worked in a Bay Area shipyard. As his son Bruce says in an audio clip, “He did not have a steady income until he was 56 years old.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That was when the \u003ca href=\"https://www.latham.org/\">Latham Foundation for the Promotion of Humane Education\u003c/a> approached Chessé about a children’s television show to encourage kindness to animals. \u003ci>The Wonderful World of Brother Buzz\u003c/i> was on the air from 1953 to 1969, and saw Chessé creating a new animal marionette each week to illustrate those lessons. Just a few of these presumably hundreds of characters are on display in the Jewett Gallery, including dapper Brother Buzz (he wears a top hat) and a bat wearing a sharp tan suit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s yet another tantalizing display of a smidgen of Chessé’s output (you can catch clips of the show the \u003ca href=\"https://vimeo.com/showcase/5048493\">Latham Foundation’s website\u003c/a>) in a show that might send you home Googling things like “unsmiling Coit Tower” and “City of Paris department store” — parts of San Francisco history graced by the seemingly inexhaustible talent of Ralph Chessé.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>‘\u003ca href=\"https://sfpl.org/exhibits/2024/05/16/ralph-chesse-san-francisco-century\">Ralph Chessé: A San Francisco Century\u003c/a>’ is on view at the San Francisco Public Library’s Jewett Gallery (100 Larkin St., Lower Level) through Aug. 18, 2024.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "‘The Last Murder at the End of the World’ Is a Story of Survival and Memory",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13958515\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 844px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13958515\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Screen-Shot-2024-05-24-at-12.07.16-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover featuring an illustration of a lighthouse at dawn.\" width=\"844\" height=\"1214\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Screen-Shot-2024-05-24-at-12.07.16-PM.png 844w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Screen-Shot-2024-05-24-at-12.07.16-PM-800x1151.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Screen-Shot-2024-05-24-at-12.07.16-PM-160x230.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Screen-Shot-2024-05-24-at-12.07.16-PM-768x1105.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 844px) 100vw, 844px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘The Last Murder at the End of the World’ by Stuart Turton. \u003ccite>(Sourcebooks)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Stuart Turton’s \u003cem>The Last Murder at the End of the World\u003c/em> is a wild amalgamation of genre elements that pulls readers into a unique postapocalyptic world in which another end is imminent. Told with surprising speed, given its depth and scope, this bizarre whodunit also works as a science fiction allegory full of mystery that contemplates the end of the world and what it means to be human.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After a deadly fog destroyed the world and killed most of humanity 90 years ago, the few remaining survivors established themselves on a small Greek island and began salvaging whatever they could. Now, 122 villagers and three scientists share life on the island, working the land, taking care of each other, and respecting a strange set of rules and a curfew that makes them all go to bed and wake up at the same time. They also share an AI voice that lives inside their head and operates like their conscience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13958337']Outside the island, the same deadly fog that ended the world still exists, and it sometimes comes on land, which makes it a constant threat. When one of the scientists is murdered, the islanders lose the only protection they had against the fog. If they don’t solve the murder soon, the fog will cover the island and kill everyone. Unfortunately, the same security system failure that could allow the fog to take over the island has also erased everyone’s memories of what happened during the night before. This means that no one remembers seeing anything — and that maybe even the person who committed the murder might not remember they did it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Last Murder at the End of the World\u003c/em> works well, and it does so on two different levels. Right at the surface, this is a wonderful hybrid that blends postapocalyptic science fiction with a murder mystery. The elements of those genres never overpower each other. In fact, they complement each other and help Turton redefine the whodunit. The science fiction elements — the end of the world, the AI inside everyone’s head, the gems that can contain a person’s memories, the way people can buy memories to experience things — are interesting and make the narrative more engaging, while also placing the novel comfortably in the terrain of smart speculative fiction. Meanwhile, the murder mystery occupies center stage in a story where new revelations are always around the corner and where nothing is exactly at it seems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While genre elements are right at the surface here, \u003cem>The Last Murder at the End of the World\u003c/em> is also a deep novel about big ideas. Turton delves deep into the way humans tend to fight each other, for example. He also addresses the end of the world obliquely, with only short descriptions of how it happened and a few details about how some of the characters who were part of the original group of survivors fared after the fog killed almost everyone. Also, the narrative deals a lot with control — who possesses it and why and how it often comes accompanied by some kind of dishonesty. The plethora of ideas Turton plays with makes this a wonderfully layered story that’s about much more than a mysterious murder no one can remember.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trekking into uncharted territory is always tricky, and that means narratives that do so might have slight flaws from their perilous journeys. In the case of \u003cem>The Last Murder at the End of the World\u003c/em>, there are only two small blemishes, which isn’t much when considering everything Turton accomplishes with the novel. The first one is that the large cast of characters prevented Turton from giving them all the same level of character development. The second is that despite short chapters and dialogue that carries the action well, the pacing isn’t constant and the telling feels a tad mechanical in some passages, probably because of everything that’s going on in the story, and the need to push things forward at all times while also engaging with big ideas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13958207']\u003cem>The Last Murder at the End of the World\u003c/em> is a gripping tale that reads like a Sherlock Holmes novel set in a broken future. This is a novel that explores what makes us human but that does so with characters that aren’t all human and with a narrator that is an artificial intelligence that may or may not know more about the future than everyone else. Turton is an exciting writer with a knack for strange tales that push the envelope, and this strange story of murder, survival, and the importance of memory might be his best work yet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Gabino Iglesias is an author, book reviewer and professor living in Austin, Texas. Find him on X, formerly Twitter, at @Gabino_Iglesias.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘The Last Murder at the End of the World’ by Stuart Turton is out now via Sourcebooks.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Outside the island, the same deadly fog that ended the world still exists, and it sometimes comes on land, which makes it a constant threat. When one of the scientists is murdered, the islanders lose the only protection they had against the fog. If they don’t solve the murder soon, the fog will cover the island and kill everyone. Unfortunately, the same security system failure that could allow the fog to take over the island has also erased everyone’s memories of what happened during the night before. This means that no one remembers seeing anything — and that maybe even the person who committed the murder might not remember they did it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Last Murder at the End of the World\u003c/em> works well, and it does so on two different levels. Right at the surface, this is a wonderful hybrid that blends postapocalyptic science fiction with a murder mystery. The elements of those genres never overpower each other. In fact, they complement each other and help Turton redefine the whodunit. The science fiction elements — the end of the world, the AI inside everyone’s head, the gems that can contain a person’s memories, the way people can buy memories to experience things — are interesting and make the narrative more engaging, while also placing the novel comfortably in the terrain of smart speculative fiction. Meanwhile, the murder mystery occupies center stage in a story where new revelations are always around the corner and where nothing is exactly at it seems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While genre elements are right at the surface here, \u003cem>The Last Murder at the End of the World\u003c/em> is also a deep novel about big ideas. Turton delves deep into the way humans tend to fight each other, for example. He also addresses the end of the world obliquely, with only short descriptions of how it happened and a few details about how some of the characters who were part of the original group of survivors fared after the fog killed almost everyone. Also, the narrative deals a lot with control — who possesses it and why and how it often comes accompanied by some kind of dishonesty. The plethora of ideas Turton plays with makes this a wonderfully layered story that’s about much more than a mysterious murder no one can remember.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trekking into uncharted territory is always tricky, and that means narratives that do so might have slight flaws from their perilous journeys. In the case of \u003cem>The Last Murder at the End of the World\u003c/em>, there are only two small blemishes, which isn’t much when considering everything Turton accomplishes with the novel. The first one is that the large cast of characters prevented Turton from giving them all the same level of character development. The second is that despite short chapters and dialogue that carries the action well, the pacing isn’t constant and the telling feels a tad mechanical in some passages, probably because of everything that’s going on in the story, and the need to push things forward at all times while also engaging with big ideas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cem>The Last Murder at the End of the World\u003c/em> is a gripping tale that reads like a Sherlock Holmes novel set in a broken future. This is a novel that explores what makes us human but that does so with characters that aren’t all human and with a narrator that is an artificial intelligence that may or may not know more about the future than everyone else. Turton is an exciting writer with a knack for strange tales that push the envelope, and this strange story of murder, survival, and the importance of memory might be his best work yet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Gabino Iglesias is an author, book reviewer and professor living in Austin, Texas. Find him on X, formerly Twitter, at @Gabino_Iglesias.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘The Last Murder at the End of the World’ by Stuart Turton is out now via Sourcebooks.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "This is Her, Now, in Space: J.Lo Heads to a New Galaxy for AI Love Story in ‘Atlas’",
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"content": "\u003cp>Let’s all be clear, if we weren’t already, that when it comes to Jennifer Lopez, it’s about the love story. Always the love story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>J.Lo the pop star, singing about rekindled love on her latest album, \u003cem>This is Me … Now\u003c/em>. J.Lo the rom-com regular, making movies about seeking love (including the extremely autobiographical film of the same name.) J.Lo the real-life celebrity goddess, in countless headlines about … what else?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13957540']Love, for better or worse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And so if we tell you that now, we have J.Lo in \u003cem>Atlas\u003c/em>, playing a data analyst who travels to a planet populated solely by evil AI bots preparing to extinguish humanity, well, your only question really should be, “Where’s the love story?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Glad you asked! Because there is one. It may not be with a human. It may actually be with a computer program. But there is one. Because \u003cem>Atlas\u003c/em>, an often ridiculous sci-fi epic with dialogue cheesier than a Brie wheel but also an old-fashioned, human heart o’ gold, is a J.Lo movie. Through and through.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We’ll give the filmmakers some credit: \u003cem>Atlas\u003c/em>, directed by Brad Peyton (\u003cem>San Andreas\u003c/em>) is timely. And not just because Lopez has been in the news lately, but because the subject is AI — which has been in the news even more than Bennifer, believe it or not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We begin our story on Earth, way off into the future, at a time where someone can say “Remember there used to be things called smartphones?” and everyone laughs. A montage of news reports informs us that things have not been going well for the human race. AI, created to advance humanity, has turned against it, killing over 1 million civilians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The evil AI leader is Harlan (Simu Liu), who after turning on humanity has escaped to an unknown location far from Earth. But when an associate of his, Casca, is captured on Earth, the head of ICN, a coalition of nations fighting the AI menace, calls on Atlas Shepherd (Lopez) to help question him. Who better than the woman who’s devoted her life to the hunt for Harlan?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jokpt_LJpbw\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We learn Atlas is not a happy person. Also, she’s addicted to coffee — quad Americanos, to be precise. And she hates — absolutely hates — AI, for reasons unknown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13957803']Anyway, Atlas deftly manages to obtain Harlan’s location from Casca, and soon finds herself begging to join a mission to his far-off planet to capture the villainous bot, with whom she shares a mysterious past connection. At first, mission commander Banks (Sterling K. Brown) objects strenuously, but quickly and rather illogically changes his mind. (Both Liu and Brown deserve much better roles than the generic, lifeless ones they’re given.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soon they’re off, to GR-39 in the Andromeda galaxy, where the ICN space rangers fall into a disastrous trap laid by Harlan. It’s here that Atlas meets the most important other person in the movie — well, not a person. It’s her AI software, who proves her crucial ally once Atlas is forced to crash land, in her mechanized battle suit, onto the planet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The key issue is trust-building. Atlas, as we said, doesn’t trust AI. As the two get to know each other, the software gives himself (he has a “default” male voice) a name: Smith\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Atlas: “Is that really necessary?” Smith: “Names create an emotional reaction.” Atlas: “You’re a computer program.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plan consists of finding Harlan, defeating his dastardly plot to destroy humanity and getting off the planet — all while hopefully staying alive. At every step, Smith informs Atlas with all the data at his disposal how precisely desperate the odds are. This results in some amusing banter as Smith, voiced by Gregory James Cohan, “learns” sarcasm and humor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for Atlas, she needs to learn how to let down her guard — or rather, her brain walls. Her mistrust of AI leads her to stubbornly refuse (at first) Smith’s entreaties to use the “neural link” — a pathway into each other’s brains — that will vastly enhance Atlas’ chances of survival, combining her analytic capacity with Smith’s data access.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13958145']Harlan doesn’t appear until halfway into the movie, and we soon learn something about the tragic past he shares with Atlas. In any case, it’s Smith, not Harlan, that ultimately evokes real feeling from Atlas — and gives Lopez a chance to emote, which she does reasonably well given the mediocre dialogue. You could call it a futuristic triangle: Human, bad AI, good AI.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Who will win out? Our protocol, as Smith would say, doesn’t allow us to give spoilers. But you can guess one idea that emerges shining bright: It’s a four letter word that starts with “L.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Atlas’ begins streaming on Netflix on May 24, 2024.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Let’s all be clear, if we weren’t already, that when it comes to Jennifer Lopez, it’s about the love story. Always the love story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>J.Lo the pop star, singing about rekindled love on her latest album, \u003cem>This is Me … Now\u003c/em>. J.Lo the rom-com regular, making movies about seeking love (including the extremely autobiographical film of the same name.) J.Lo the real-life celebrity goddess, in countless headlines about … what else?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Love, for better or worse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And so if we tell you that now, we have J.Lo in \u003cem>Atlas\u003c/em>, playing a data analyst who travels to a planet populated solely by evil AI bots preparing to extinguish humanity, well, your only question really should be, “Where’s the love story?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Glad you asked! Because there is one. It may not be with a human. It may actually be with a computer program. But there is one. Because \u003cem>Atlas\u003c/em>, an often ridiculous sci-fi epic with dialogue cheesier than a Brie wheel but also an old-fashioned, human heart o’ gold, is a J.Lo movie. Through and through.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We’ll give the filmmakers some credit: \u003cem>Atlas\u003c/em>, directed by Brad Peyton (\u003cem>San Andreas\u003c/em>) is timely. And not just because Lopez has been in the news lately, but because the subject is AI — which has been in the news even more than Bennifer, believe it or not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We begin our story on Earth, way off into the future, at a time where someone can say “Remember there used to be things called smartphones?” and everyone laughs. A montage of news reports informs us that things have not been going well for the human race. AI, created to advance humanity, has turned against it, killing over 1 million civilians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The evil AI leader is Harlan (Simu Liu), who after turning on humanity has escaped to an unknown location far from Earth. But when an associate of his, Casca, is captured on Earth, the head of ICN, a coalition of nations fighting the AI menace, calls on Atlas Shepherd (Lopez) to help question him. Who better than the woman who’s devoted her life to the hunt for Harlan?\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/Jokpt_LJpbw'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/Jokpt_LJpbw'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>We learn Atlas is not a happy person. Also, she’s addicted to coffee — quad Americanos, to be precise. And she hates — absolutely hates — AI, for reasons unknown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Anyway, Atlas deftly manages to obtain Harlan’s location from Casca, and soon finds herself begging to join a mission to his far-off planet to capture the villainous bot, with whom she shares a mysterious past connection. At first, mission commander Banks (Sterling K. Brown) objects strenuously, but quickly and rather illogically changes his mind. (Both Liu and Brown deserve much better roles than the generic, lifeless ones they’re given.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soon they’re off, to GR-39 in the Andromeda galaxy, where the ICN space rangers fall into a disastrous trap laid by Harlan. It’s here that Atlas meets the most important other person in the movie — well, not a person. It’s her AI software, who proves her crucial ally once Atlas is forced to crash land, in her mechanized battle suit, onto the planet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The key issue is trust-building. Atlas, as we said, doesn’t trust AI. As the two get to know each other, the software gives himself (he has a “default” male voice) a name: Smith\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Atlas: “Is that really necessary?” Smith: “Names create an emotional reaction.” Atlas: “You’re a computer program.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plan consists of finding Harlan, defeating his dastardly plot to destroy humanity and getting off the planet — all while hopefully staying alive. At every step, Smith informs Atlas with all the data at his disposal how precisely desperate the odds are. This results in some amusing banter as Smith, voiced by Gregory James Cohan, “learns” sarcasm and humor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for Atlas, she needs to learn how to let down her guard — or rather, her brain walls. Her mistrust of AI leads her to stubbornly refuse (at first) Smith’s entreaties to use the “neural link” — a pathway into each other’s brains — that will vastly enhance Atlas’ chances of survival, combining her analytic capacity with Smith’s data access.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Harlan doesn’t appear until halfway into the movie, and we soon learn something about the tragic past he shares with Atlas. In any case, it’s Smith, not Harlan, that ultimately evokes real feeling from Atlas — and gives Lopez a chance to emote, which she does reasonably well given the mediocre dialogue. You could call it a futuristic triangle: Human, bad AI, good AI.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Who will win out? Our protocol, as Smith would say, doesn’t allow us to give spoilers. But you can guess one idea that emerges shining bright: It’s a four letter word that starts with “L.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Atlas’ begins streaming on Netflix on May 24, 2024.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13957998']June is around the corner, meaning summer is almost here! As we look forward to travel and staycations, plane rides and trips to the beach, we’ve asked our book critics for some advice: What upcoming fiction and nonfiction are they most looking forward to reading?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their picks range from memoirs to sci-fi and fantasy to translations, love stories and everything in between. Here’s a look:\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch3>June\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/05/13/daughter_custom-b786e59ae645b23b705710ab415dc3a27f150a5f.jpg?s=1200&c=75&f=jpeg\">\u003cfigcaption>\u003ccite> (Redhook)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘Daughter of the Merciful Deep’ by Leslye Penelope\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I was hooked when I first saw the gorgeous cover for \u003cem>Daughter of the Merciful Deep\u003c/em> by Leslye Penelope. But the novel’s premise put it at the top of my summer reading list. Penelope is known for unforgettable characters, world-building, beautiful writing and robust storytelling. Her latest work, inspired by actual events — the drowned Black towns of the American South — promises a magical, mythical and powerful tale of a young woman’s quest to save her town. A historical fantasy must-read. (June 4) — \u003cem>Denny Bryce\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/05/13/futurewascolor_custom-8cf072dcb45a69feb8bf38d30adb3a03422fce58.jpg?s=1200&c=75&f=jpeg\">\u003cfigcaption>\u003ccite> (Counterpoint LLC)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘The Future Was Color’ by Patrick Nathan\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Future Was Color\u003c/em> by Patrick Nathan has everything I look for in a book: a unique and startling voice, a queer protagonist and a deep understanding of a particular time and place. George — once György — is a gay Hungarian immigrant working as a screenwriter in McCarthy-era Hollywood, occasionally fantasizing about his officemate, Jack. When a once-famous actress named Madeline invites George to stay and write at her spacious Malibu house, she won’t take no for an answer — and so George finds himself in a hedonistic milieu where pleasure, politics and strong personalities intermingle. (June 4) — \u003cem>Ilana Masad\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/05/13/mirrored_custom-278fb8c0571ce760702cf2f0b0e763480f39862b.jpg?s=1200&c=75&f=jpeg\">\u003cfigcaption>\u003ccite> (S&S/Saga Press)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘Mirrored Heavens: Between Earth & Sky, Book 3’ by Rebecca Roanhorse\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rebecca Roanhorse is one of my auto-read authors — and one major reason is because of her fire \u003cem>Between Earth and Sky\u003c/em> series. That trilogy comes to a stunning, fevered conclusion with \u003cem>Mirrored Heavens\u003c/em>. All of the characters you love, hate and love to hate will converge on the city of Tova. Get ready for an epic battle between ancient gods, their human avatars and the mortals caught in between. (June 4) \u003cem>— Alex Brown\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/05/13/singlikefish_custom-08ec44af144d163477bad03e23664864c096488f.jpg?s=1200&c=75&f=jpeg\">\u003cfigcaption>\u003ccite> (Crown)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘Sing Like Fish: How Sound Rules Life Under Water’ by Amorina Kingdon\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You may know about \u003ca href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/13/loneliest-whale-in-the-world-search\">52 Blue\u003c/a>, whose vocalizations likely go unheard by some other whales; it captured worldwide sympathy and became a pop-culture metaphor. But did you know \u003cem>all\u003c/em> \u003ca href=\"https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-68358414\">whale song is critically disrupted by ships\u003c/a>? If that gets you wondering, keep an eye out for \u003cem>Sing Like Fish\u003c/em>, which promises to illuminate the fragile symphony of the deep. (June 4) —\u003cem> Genevieve Valentine\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/05/13/consent_custom-08d1ad496975300988db3f69077a2990ae9a4073.jpg?s=1200&c=75&f=jpeg\">\u003cfigcaption>\u003ccite> (Pantheon)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘Consent: A Memoir’ by Jill Ciment\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I look forward to reading Jill Ciment’s \u003cem>Consent \u003c/em>and to the discussions it’s sure to provoke. In this follow-up memoir to \u003cem>Half a Life,\u003c/em> Ciment reconsiders what she wrote 25 years ago about her teenage affair and marriage to her art teacher, 30 years her senior. \u003cem>Half a Life \u003c/em>was written before the #MeToo movement, and before her husband died at the age of 93 after 45 years of marriage. \u003cem>Consent \u003c/em>promises a fuller picture. (June 11) — \u003cem>Heller McAlpin\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/05/13/godmother_custom-ff8270a1d4a20fda0c303d080ef095532b512f9d.jpg?s=1200&c=75&f=jpeg\">\u003cfigcaption>\u003ccite> (Publisher Union Square & Co.)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘Do What Godmother Says’ by L.S. Stratton\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As we continue to experience the frenzy of Harlem Renaissance celebrations, commemorations and historical resonance, \u003cem>Do What Godmother Says\u003c/em> by L.S. Stratton is the perfect addition to the litany of works set in this artistic period this year. It examines the intense and frequently degenerating relationship between patrons and artists during this intellectual and cultural movement. In this dual-timeline gothic thriller, a modern writer discovers a family heirloom painting by a Harlem Renaissance artist, which connects her family to a mysterious past. This historical novel is one I’m eager to read because it deftly exposes the layers of creative ownership, especially when race and wealth are involved. (June 11) — \u003cem>Keishel Williams\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/05/13/horrormovie_custom-585da57f9b35c75005e2591f96db69eb8900038d.jpg?s=1200&c=75&f=jpeg\">\u003cfigcaption>\u003ccite> (William Morrow)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘Horror Movie: A Novel’ by Paul Tremblay\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Paul Tremblay is one of the most entertaining and innovative voices in contemporary fiction regardless of genre. \u003cem>Horror Movie\u003c/em>, a story about a cursed movie that never came out and is about to get a remake, is a love letter to horror novels and horror movies, as well as a tense narrative that will redefine the cursed film subgenre. Tremblay is one of the modern masters of horror, and this new novel promises to be packed with the author’s distinctive voice, knack for ambiguity and intrigue, and superb atmosphere. (June 11) —\u003cem> Gabino Iglesias\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/05/13/cuethesun_custom-d017b905e1f57c346bd155e2b1e00b7e8a5018b3.jpg?s=1200&c=75&f=jpeg\">\u003cfigcaption>\u003ccite> (Random House)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘Cue The Sun! The Invention of Reality TV’ by Emily Nussbaum\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every so often there’s a nonfiction title I covet like it’s the next installment in my favorite mystery series. This summer it’s \u003cem>Cue the Sun! \u003c/em>Based on in-depth interviews with more than 300 sources from every aspect of the production process, this book is a cultural history of the genre that ate American entertainment, from \u003cem>New Yorker\u003c/em> critic Emily Nussbaum. It combines the appeal of a page-turning thriller and the heft of serious scholarship. Juicy and thoughtful, it’s a must-read for anyone interested in television or popular culture. (June 25) — \u003cem>Carole V. Bell\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch3>July\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/05/13/undermining_custom-0ab0ee15894c33905bc361a0c1dd2073df28cf79.jpg?s=1200&c=75&f=jpeg\">\u003cfigcaption>\u003ccite> (Orbit)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘The Undermining of Twyla and Frank’ by Megan Bannen\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In this return to the delightfully wacky world established in one of my personal top-five romance novels of all time, \u003cem>The\u003c/em> \u003cem>Undertaking of Hart and Mercy\u003c/em>, Megan Bannen takes on the friends to lovers trope with a combination of madcap \u003cem>joie de vivre\u003c/em> and the exhausted practicality of a mom who’s had enough. Also, there are dragons! (July 2) \u003cem>— Caitlyn Paxson\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/05/13/anthropologists_custom-fafa91131dbe50c4d7e17dad7a6d5e8262282d1f.jpg?s=1200&c=75&f=jpeg\">\u003cfigcaption>\u003ccite> (Bloomsbury Publishing)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘The Anthropologists’ by Ayşegül Savaş\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I am eagerly awaiting Ayşegül Savaş’ \u003cem>The Anthropologists\u003c/em>. Born in Istanbul, Savaş has lived in England, Denmark and the U.S. also and now resides in France; in this novel she takes up themes of cultural migration through focus on a young couple seeking an apartment in a foreign city. I’m intrigued to discover how Savaş gifts her characters with an anthropological lens of exploration. (July 9) — \u003cem>Barbara J. King \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/05/13/elevator_custom-dcdd9705bb7ed0ee4d0cd6c1044b7affb5f454c9.jpg?s=1200&c=75&f=jpeg\">\u003cfigcaption>\u003ccite> (New Directions)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘Elevator in Saigon by Thuân’ translated by Nguyen An Lý\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Elevator in Saigon\u003c/em> is a literal and structural \u003cem>exquisite corpse\u003c/em>, capturing Vietnam’s eventful period from 1954 to 2004. Mimicking an elevator’s movement, the novel heightens our yearning for romance and mystery, while unflinchingly exposing such narrative shaft. Channeling Marguerite Duras and Patrick Modiano, the book also offers a dead-on tour of a society cunningly leaping from one ideological mode to the next. As if challenging Rick’s parting words to Ilsa in \u003cem>Casablanca\u003c/em>, Thuận’s sophomore novel in English implies that geopolitical debacles might have been mitigated if personal relations were held in more elevated regard than “a hill of beans.” (July 9) —\u003cem> Thúy Đinh\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/05/13/goodnighttokyo_custom-5e0f418add83234a499f5adf8225cb5a1671c022.jpg?s=1200&c=75&f=jpeg\">\u003cfigcaption>\u003ccite> (Europa Editions)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘Goodnight Tokyo’ by Atsuhiro Yoshida, translated by Haydn Trowell\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Atsuhiro Yoshida’s \u003cem>Goodnight Tokyo\u003c/em> begins with a film company procurer who’s tasked with finding fresh kumquats for a production. From there, interlinked tales of Tokyo residents unspool in unpredictable directions. Characters range from a cabdriver to a star of a detective TV series who might be an actual detective. Readers will be reminded of Jim Jarmusch’s 1991 movie \u003cem>Night on Earth\u003c/em>, which also takes place in the wee hours of the morning and threads together the stories of strangers. (July 9) — \u003cem>Leland Cheuk \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/05/13/navola_custom-9ffec1a70800c395d9dfba994a9592218ea4b9ca.jpg?s=1200&c=75&f=jpeg\">\u003cfigcaption>\u003ccite> (Knopf)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘Navola: A Novel’ by Paolo Bacigalupi\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I love when a beloved author — especially one known mostly for a certain type of book — throws us a daring curveball. \u003cem>Navola\u003c/em> is exactly such a pitch. Paolo Bacigalupi, who has won pretty much every major award in the science-fiction field with his climate-conscious dystopianism, is veering hard left with his new novel. It doesn’t take place in the future, and it isn’t a cautionary tale. Instead, it’s a hefty tome of high fantasy set in a dreamed-up world akin to Renaissance Florence. Only with, you guessed it, dragons. But also high finance, political intrigue, and de’ Medici-esque opulence. Bacigalupi is one of today’s most gripping spinners of speculative fiction, and I can’t wait to dive into this surprising magical foray. (July 9) \u003cem>— Jason Heller \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/05/13/luckyones_custom-d83a34ee0f3f90aaf4c10d5cf111eea0a9af1313.jpg?s=1200&c=75&f=jpeg\">\u003cfigcaption>\u003ccite> (Crown)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘The Lucky Ones: A Memoir’ by Zara Chowdhary\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2002, two train carriages were set on fire in Gujarat, India. Within three weeks, more than 2,000 Muslims were murdered in response by Hindu mobs. By the end of the year, more than 50,000 Muslims became refugees in their own country. \u003cem>The Lucky Ones \u003c/em>is a unique memoir in English of this largest-ever \u003ca href=\"http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/01/india.arson.case/index.html\">massacre in independent India\u003c/a>. It is also about a communal crisis bringing a fractured family together. A must-read in our warring world today. (July 16) — \u003cem>Jenny Bhatt\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/05/16/sharks_custom-b9e1d9ca19799e9b94e3376fd8cb3928daa3b31d.jpg?s=1200&c=75&f=jpeg\">\u003cfigcaption>\u003ccite> (Pantheon)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘Sharks Don’t Sink: Adventures of a Rogue Shark Scientist’ by Jasmin Graham\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Author Jasmin Graham is a marine biologist specializing in smalltooth sawfish and hammerhead sharks. Who are the real sharks in this story? Graham had to face the sharp-teethed truths of academia, while creating a world of curiosity and discovery around the complex lives of sharks. To combat the racism she encountered in academia, Graham created an “ocean of her own” to become an independent scientist and a champion of social justice, a journey she unspools in this new memoir. (July 16) —\u003cem> Martha Ann Toll\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/05/13/liars1_custom-61788f1e8cc522d62ed49db9f9f6f48b020cd8bd.jpg?s=1200&c=75&f=jpeg\">\u003cfigcaption>\u003ccite> (Hogarth)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘Liars’ by Sarah Manguso\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I have long been a fan of Sarah Manguso’s crystalline prose, from her fragmented illness memoir\u003cem> The Two Kinds of Decay \u003c/em>to her tightly constrained 2022 novel \u003cem>Very Cold People\u003c/em>. Her second novel\u003cem>,\u003c/em> \u003cem>Liars\u003c/em>, marries restraint with rage — in it, Manguso traces the full arc of a 15-year relationship between Jane, a successful writer, and John, a dilettante artist-cum-techie, in aphoristic vignettes. The result is a furious, propulsive meditation on wifehood, motherhood and artistic ambition. (July 23) —\u003cem> Kristen Martin \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/05/13/horse_custom-03be9b1d7e9c48e6deeff68af65f228511ae27be.jpg?s=1200&c=75&f=jpeg\">\u003cfigcaption>\u003ccite> (Harper)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘The Horse: A Novel’ by Willy Vlautin\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Musician and \u003cem>Lean on Pete\u003c/em> author Willy Vlautin captures the American West like few other writers. His prose is always excellent, his characters always beautifully drawn, and that promises to be the case with his next novel, about an isolated Nevada man in his 60s who is visited by a blind horse that refuses to leave. (July 30) — \u003cem>Michael Schaub\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch3>August\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/05/13/einstein_custom-e50a08faa4e05056ec6279194d5b40d0db8a1b74.jpg?s=1200&c=75&f=jpeg\">\u003cfigcaption>\u003ccite> (Bloomsbury Publishing)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘Einstein in Kafkaland: How Albert Fell Down the Rabbit Hole and Came Up With the Universe’ by Ken Krimstein\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Art and science collide in Ken Krimstein’s new graphic biography\u003cem>.\u003c/em> In this book, the author of the brilliant and whimsical \u003cem>The Three Escapes of Hannah Arendt \u003c/em>similarly translates careful research into scenic, emotive comics — in this case tracking the potential effects of an adventitious meeting in Prague between two geniuses on the cusp of world-changing discoveries. (Aug. 20) —\u003cem> Tahneer Oksman \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/05/13/survivalisapromise_custom-256957d8e07e0104d0900cb0fc8b729fbf4ae29f.jpg?s=1200&c=75&f=jpeg\">\u003cfigcaption>\u003ccite> (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘Survival Is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde’ by Alexis Pauline Gumbs\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’d probably be interested in a new biography of Audre Lorde if it focused on the eating habits of the brilliant thinker, poet, feminist and activist. But biographer Alexis Pauline Gumbs promises to more than exceed that bar. An award-winning poet, writer, feminist and activist in her own right, Gumbs is among the first researchers to delve into Lorde’s manuscript archives. The resulting book highlights the late author’s commitment to interrogating what it means to survive on this planet — and how Lorde’s radical understanding of ecology can guide us today. (Aug. 20)\u003cem> — Ericka Taylor \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/05/13/etcetera_custom-bea1fc18ec2ef90d7c5e32a84f79290c07f0168e.jpg?s=1200&c=75&f=jpeg\">\u003cfigcaption>\u003ccite> (Andrews McMeel Publishing)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘Et Cetera: An Illustrated Guide to Latin Phrases’ by Maia Lee-Chin, illustrated by Marta Bertello\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To those claiming Latin is dead, I say \u003cem>res ipsa loquitur — \u003c/em>the thing speaks for itself — in \u003ca href=\"https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ey_LPYFFvl0__;!!Iwwt!S7fnrtv-9xP8yJIcvz_iIknkh59ohTNRYWNdqCxOk8CoFzscVIHtud8YlvSylNTgXvfFeFbNxVUQUDkPow%24\">children’s cartoons\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4Q_DCgbEz0__;!!Iwwt!S7fnrtv-9xP8yJIcvz_iIknkh59ohTNRYWNdqCxOk8CoFzscVIHtud8YlvSylNTgXvfFeFbNxVV4VxiN2Q%24\">Hollywood cartoons\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/classics.mit.edu/Virgil/aeneid.html__;!!Iwwt!S7fnrtv-9xP8yJIcvz_iIknkh59ohTNRYWNdqCxOk8CoFzscVIHtud8YlvSylNTgXvfFeFbNxVV5MbcrQA%24\">enduring epics\u003c/a>. As a fan of both Mr. Peabody and the Muses, the idea of combining Maia Lee-Chin’s thoughtful scholarship and Marta Bertello’s dynamic artistry is captivating. Their new book reimagines the world of Latin’s invention and tops my summer reading list. (Aug. 27) — \u003cem>Marcela Davison Avilés\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>June is around the corner, meaning summer is almost here! As we look forward to travel and staycations, plane rides and trips to the beach, we’ve asked our book critics for some advice: What upcoming fiction and nonfiction are they most looking forward to reading?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their picks range from memoirs to sci-fi and fantasy to translations, love stories and everything in between. Here’s a look:\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch3>June\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/05/13/daughter_custom-b786e59ae645b23b705710ab415dc3a27f150a5f.jpg?s=1200&c=75&f=jpeg\">\u003cfigcaption>\u003ccite> (Redhook)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘Daughter of the Merciful Deep’ by Leslye Penelope\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I was hooked when I first saw the gorgeous cover for \u003cem>Daughter of the Merciful Deep\u003c/em> by Leslye Penelope. But the novel’s premise put it at the top of my summer reading list. Penelope is known for unforgettable characters, world-building, beautiful writing and robust storytelling. Her latest work, inspired by actual events — the drowned Black towns of the American South — promises a magical, mythical and powerful tale of a young woman’s quest to save her town. A historical fantasy must-read. (June 4) — \u003cem>Denny Bryce\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/05/13/futurewascolor_custom-8cf072dcb45a69feb8bf38d30adb3a03422fce58.jpg?s=1200&c=75&f=jpeg\">\u003cfigcaption>\u003ccite> (Counterpoint LLC)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘The Future Was Color’ by Patrick Nathan\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Future Was Color\u003c/em> by Patrick Nathan has everything I look for in a book: a unique and startling voice, a queer protagonist and a deep understanding of a particular time and place. George — once György — is a gay Hungarian immigrant working as a screenwriter in McCarthy-era Hollywood, occasionally fantasizing about his officemate, Jack. When a once-famous actress named Madeline invites George to stay and write at her spacious Malibu house, she won’t take no for an answer — and so George finds himself in a hedonistic milieu where pleasure, politics and strong personalities intermingle. (June 4) — \u003cem>Ilana Masad\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/05/13/mirrored_custom-278fb8c0571ce760702cf2f0b0e763480f39862b.jpg?s=1200&c=75&f=jpeg\">\u003cfigcaption>\u003ccite> (S&S/Saga Press)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘Mirrored Heavens: Between Earth & Sky, Book 3’ by Rebecca Roanhorse\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rebecca Roanhorse is one of my auto-read authors — and one major reason is because of her fire \u003cem>Between Earth and Sky\u003c/em> series. That trilogy comes to a stunning, fevered conclusion with \u003cem>Mirrored Heavens\u003c/em>. All of the characters you love, hate and love to hate will converge on the city of Tova. Get ready for an epic battle between ancient gods, their human avatars and the mortals caught in between. (June 4) \u003cem>— Alex Brown\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/05/13/singlikefish_custom-08ec44af144d163477bad03e23664864c096488f.jpg?s=1200&c=75&f=jpeg\">\u003cfigcaption>\u003ccite> (Crown)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘Sing Like Fish: How Sound Rules Life Under Water’ by Amorina Kingdon\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You may know about \u003ca href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/13/loneliest-whale-in-the-world-search\">52 Blue\u003c/a>, whose vocalizations likely go unheard by some other whales; it captured worldwide sympathy and became a pop-culture metaphor. But did you know \u003cem>all\u003c/em> \u003ca href=\"https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-68358414\">whale song is critically disrupted by ships\u003c/a>? If that gets you wondering, keep an eye out for \u003cem>Sing Like Fish\u003c/em>, which promises to illuminate the fragile symphony of the deep. (June 4) —\u003cem> Genevieve Valentine\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/05/13/consent_custom-08d1ad496975300988db3f69077a2990ae9a4073.jpg?s=1200&c=75&f=jpeg\">\u003cfigcaption>\u003ccite> (Pantheon)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘Consent: A Memoir’ by Jill Ciment\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I look forward to reading Jill Ciment’s \u003cem>Consent \u003c/em>and to the discussions it’s sure to provoke. In this follow-up memoir to \u003cem>Half a Life,\u003c/em> Ciment reconsiders what she wrote 25 years ago about her teenage affair and marriage to her art teacher, 30 years her senior. \u003cem>Half a Life \u003c/em>was written before the #MeToo movement, and before her husband died at the age of 93 after 45 years of marriage. \u003cem>Consent \u003c/em>promises a fuller picture. (June 11) — \u003cem>Heller McAlpin\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/05/13/godmother_custom-ff8270a1d4a20fda0c303d080ef095532b512f9d.jpg?s=1200&c=75&f=jpeg\">\u003cfigcaption>\u003ccite> (Publisher Union Square & Co.)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘Do What Godmother Says’ by L.S. Stratton\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As we continue to experience the frenzy of Harlem Renaissance celebrations, commemorations and historical resonance, \u003cem>Do What Godmother Says\u003c/em> by L.S. Stratton is the perfect addition to the litany of works set in this artistic period this year. It examines the intense and frequently degenerating relationship between patrons and artists during this intellectual and cultural movement. In this dual-timeline gothic thriller, a modern writer discovers a family heirloom painting by a Harlem Renaissance artist, which connects her family to a mysterious past. This historical novel is one I’m eager to read because it deftly exposes the layers of creative ownership, especially when race and wealth are involved. (June 11) — \u003cem>Keishel Williams\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/05/13/horrormovie_custom-585da57f9b35c75005e2591f96db69eb8900038d.jpg?s=1200&c=75&f=jpeg\">\u003cfigcaption>\u003ccite> (William Morrow)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘Horror Movie: A Novel’ by Paul Tremblay\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Paul Tremblay is one of the most entertaining and innovative voices in contemporary fiction regardless of genre. \u003cem>Horror Movie\u003c/em>, a story about a cursed movie that never came out and is about to get a remake, is a love letter to horror novels and horror movies, as well as a tense narrative that will redefine the cursed film subgenre. Tremblay is one of the modern masters of horror, and this new novel promises to be packed with the author’s distinctive voice, knack for ambiguity and intrigue, and superb atmosphere. (June 11) —\u003cem> Gabino Iglesias\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/05/13/cuethesun_custom-d017b905e1f57c346bd155e2b1e00b7e8a5018b3.jpg?s=1200&c=75&f=jpeg\">\u003cfigcaption>\u003ccite> (Random House)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘Cue The Sun! The Invention of Reality TV’ by Emily Nussbaum\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every so often there’s a nonfiction title I covet like it’s the next installment in my favorite mystery series. This summer it’s \u003cem>Cue the Sun! \u003c/em>Based on in-depth interviews with more than 300 sources from every aspect of the production process, this book is a cultural history of the genre that ate American entertainment, from \u003cem>New Yorker\u003c/em> critic Emily Nussbaum. It combines the appeal of a page-turning thriller and the heft of serious scholarship. Juicy and thoughtful, it’s a must-read for anyone interested in television or popular culture. (June 25) — \u003cem>Carole V. Bell\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch3>July\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/05/13/undermining_custom-0ab0ee15894c33905bc361a0c1dd2073df28cf79.jpg?s=1200&c=75&f=jpeg\">\u003cfigcaption>\u003ccite> (Orbit)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘The Undermining of Twyla and Frank’ by Megan Bannen\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In this return to the delightfully wacky world established in one of my personal top-five romance novels of all time, \u003cem>The\u003c/em> \u003cem>Undertaking of Hart and Mercy\u003c/em>, Megan Bannen takes on the friends to lovers trope with a combination of madcap \u003cem>joie de vivre\u003c/em> and the exhausted practicality of a mom who’s had enough. Also, there are dragons! (July 2) \u003cem>— Caitlyn Paxson\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/05/13/anthropologists_custom-fafa91131dbe50c4d7e17dad7a6d5e8262282d1f.jpg?s=1200&c=75&f=jpeg\">\u003cfigcaption>\u003ccite> (Bloomsbury Publishing)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘The Anthropologists’ by Ayşegül Savaş\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I am eagerly awaiting Ayşegül Savaş’ \u003cem>The Anthropologists\u003c/em>. Born in Istanbul, Savaş has lived in England, Denmark and the U.S. also and now resides in France; in this novel she takes up themes of cultural migration through focus on a young couple seeking an apartment in a foreign city. I’m intrigued to discover how Savaş gifts her characters with an anthropological lens of exploration. (July 9) — \u003cem>Barbara J. King \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/05/13/elevator_custom-dcdd9705bb7ed0ee4d0cd6c1044b7affb5f454c9.jpg?s=1200&c=75&f=jpeg\">\u003cfigcaption>\u003ccite> (New Directions)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘Elevator in Saigon by Thuân’ translated by Nguyen An Lý\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Elevator in Saigon\u003c/em> is a literal and structural \u003cem>exquisite corpse\u003c/em>, capturing Vietnam’s eventful period from 1954 to 2004. Mimicking an elevator’s movement, the novel heightens our yearning for romance and mystery, while unflinchingly exposing such narrative shaft. Channeling Marguerite Duras and Patrick Modiano, the book also offers a dead-on tour of a society cunningly leaping from one ideological mode to the next. As if challenging Rick’s parting words to Ilsa in \u003cem>Casablanca\u003c/em>, Thuận’s sophomore novel in English implies that geopolitical debacles might have been mitigated if personal relations were held in more elevated regard than “a hill of beans.” (July 9) —\u003cem> Thúy Đinh\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/05/13/goodnighttokyo_custom-5e0f418add83234a499f5adf8225cb5a1671c022.jpg?s=1200&c=75&f=jpeg\">\u003cfigcaption>\u003ccite> (Europa Editions)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘Goodnight Tokyo’ by Atsuhiro Yoshida, translated by Haydn Trowell\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Atsuhiro Yoshida’s \u003cem>Goodnight Tokyo\u003c/em> begins with a film company procurer who’s tasked with finding fresh kumquats for a production. From there, interlinked tales of Tokyo residents unspool in unpredictable directions. Characters range from a cabdriver to a star of a detective TV series who might be an actual detective. Readers will be reminded of Jim Jarmusch’s 1991 movie \u003cem>Night on Earth\u003c/em>, which also takes place in the wee hours of the morning and threads together the stories of strangers. (July 9) — \u003cem>Leland Cheuk \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/05/13/navola_custom-9ffec1a70800c395d9dfba994a9592218ea4b9ca.jpg?s=1200&c=75&f=jpeg\">\u003cfigcaption>\u003ccite> (Knopf)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘Navola: A Novel’ by Paolo Bacigalupi\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I love when a beloved author — especially one known mostly for a certain type of book — throws us a daring curveball. \u003cem>Navola\u003c/em> is exactly such a pitch. Paolo Bacigalupi, who has won pretty much every major award in the science-fiction field with his climate-conscious dystopianism, is veering hard left with his new novel. It doesn’t take place in the future, and it isn’t a cautionary tale. Instead, it’s a hefty tome of high fantasy set in a dreamed-up world akin to Renaissance Florence. Only with, you guessed it, dragons. But also high finance, political intrigue, and de’ Medici-esque opulence. Bacigalupi is one of today’s most gripping spinners of speculative fiction, and I can’t wait to dive into this surprising magical foray. (July 9) \u003cem>— Jason Heller \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/05/13/luckyones_custom-d83a34ee0f3f90aaf4c10d5cf111eea0a9af1313.jpg?s=1200&c=75&f=jpeg\">\u003cfigcaption>\u003ccite> (Crown)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘The Lucky Ones: A Memoir’ by Zara Chowdhary\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2002, two train carriages were set on fire in Gujarat, India. Within three weeks, more than 2,000 Muslims were murdered in response by Hindu mobs. By the end of the year, more than 50,000 Muslims became refugees in their own country. \u003cem>The Lucky Ones \u003c/em>is a unique memoir in English of this largest-ever \u003ca href=\"http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/01/india.arson.case/index.html\">massacre in independent India\u003c/a>. It is also about a communal crisis bringing a fractured family together. A must-read in our warring world today. (July 16) — \u003cem>Jenny Bhatt\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/05/16/sharks_custom-b9e1d9ca19799e9b94e3376fd8cb3928daa3b31d.jpg?s=1200&c=75&f=jpeg\">\u003cfigcaption>\u003ccite> (Pantheon)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘Sharks Don’t Sink: Adventures of a Rogue Shark Scientist’ by Jasmin Graham\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Author Jasmin Graham is a marine biologist specializing in smalltooth sawfish and hammerhead sharks. Who are the real sharks in this story? Graham had to face the sharp-teethed truths of academia, while creating a world of curiosity and discovery around the complex lives of sharks. To combat the racism she encountered in academia, Graham created an “ocean of her own” to become an independent scientist and a champion of social justice, a journey she unspools in this new memoir. (July 16) —\u003cem> Martha Ann Toll\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/05/13/liars1_custom-61788f1e8cc522d62ed49db9f9f6f48b020cd8bd.jpg?s=1200&c=75&f=jpeg\">\u003cfigcaption>\u003ccite> (Hogarth)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘Liars’ by Sarah Manguso\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I have long been a fan of Sarah Manguso’s crystalline prose, from her fragmented illness memoir\u003cem> The Two Kinds of Decay \u003c/em>to her tightly constrained 2022 novel \u003cem>Very Cold People\u003c/em>. Her second novel\u003cem>,\u003c/em> \u003cem>Liars\u003c/em>, marries restraint with rage — in it, Manguso traces the full arc of a 15-year relationship between Jane, a successful writer, and John, a dilettante artist-cum-techie, in aphoristic vignettes. The result is a furious, propulsive meditation on wifehood, motherhood and artistic ambition. (July 23) —\u003cem> Kristen Martin \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/05/13/horse_custom-03be9b1d7e9c48e6deeff68af65f228511ae27be.jpg?s=1200&c=75&f=jpeg\">\u003cfigcaption>\u003ccite> (Harper)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘The Horse: A Novel’ by Willy Vlautin\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Musician and \u003cem>Lean on Pete\u003c/em> author Willy Vlautin captures the American West like few other writers. His prose is always excellent, his characters always beautifully drawn, and that promises to be the case with his next novel, about an isolated Nevada man in his 60s who is visited by a blind horse that refuses to leave. (July 30) — \u003cem>Michael Schaub\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch3>August\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/05/13/einstein_custom-e50a08faa4e05056ec6279194d5b40d0db8a1b74.jpg?s=1200&c=75&f=jpeg\">\u003cfigcaption>\u003ccite> (Bloomsbury Publishing)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘Einstein in Kafkaland: How Albert Fell Down the Rabbit Hole and Came Up With the Universe’ by Ken Krimstein\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Art and science collide in Ken Krimstein’s new graphic biography\u003cem>.\u003c/em> In this book, the author of the brilliant and whimsical \u003cem>The Three Escapes of Hannah Arendt \u003c/em>similarly translates careful research into scenic, emotive comics — in this case tracking the potential effects of an adventitious meeting in Prague between two geniuses on the cusp of world-changing discoveries. (Aug. 20) —\u003cem> Tahneer Oksman \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/05/13/survivalisapromise_custom-256957d8e07e0104d0900cb0fc8b729fbf4ae29f.jpg?s=1200&c=75&f=jpeg\">\u003cfigcaption>\u003ccite> (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘Survival Is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde’ by Alexis Pauline Gumbs\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’d probably be interested in a new biography of Audre Lorde if it focused on the eating habits of the brilliant thinker, poet, feminist and activist. But biographer Alexis Pauline Gumbs promises to more than exceed that bar. An award-winning poet, writer, feminist and activist in her own right, Gumbs is among the first researchers to delve into Lorde’s manuscript archives. The resulting book highlights the late author’s commitment to interrogating what it means to survive on this planet — and how Lorde’s radical understanding of ecology can guide us today. (Aug. 20)\u003cem> — Ericka Taylor \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/05/13/etcetera_custom-bea1fc18ec2ef90d7c5e32a84f79290c07f0168e.jpg?s=1200&c=75&f=jpeg\">\u003cfigcaption>\u003ccite> (Andrews McMeel Publishing)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘Et Cetera: An Illustrated Guide to Latin Phrases’ by Maia Lee-Chin, illustrated by Marta Bertello\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To those claiming Latin is dead, I say \u003cem>res ipsa loquitur — \u003c/em>the thing speaks for itself — in \u003ca href=\"https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ey_LPYFFvl0__;!!Iwwt!S7fnrtv-9xP8yJIcvz_iIknkh59ohTNRYWNdqCxOk8CoFzscVIHtud8YlvSylNTgXvfFeFbNxVUQUDkPow%24\">children’s cartoons\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4Q_DCgbEz0__;!!Iwwt!S7fnrtv-9xP8yJIcvz_iIknkh59ohTNRYWNdqCxOk8CoFzscVIHtud8YlvSylNTgXvfFeFbNxVV4VxiN2Q%24\">Hollywood cartoons\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/classics.mit.edu/Virgil/aeneid.html__;!!Iwwt!S7fnrtv-9xP8yJIcvz_iIknkh59ohTNRYWNdqCxOk8CoFzscVIHtud8YlvSylNTgXvfFeFbNxVV5MbcrQA%24\">enduring epics\u003c/a>. As a fan of both Mr. Peabody and the Muses, the idea of combining Maia Lee-Chin’s thoughtful scholarship and Marta Bertello’s dynamic artistry is captivating. Their new book reimagines the world of Latin’s invention and tops my summer reading list. (Aug. 27) — \u003cem>Marcela Davison Avilés\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "‘Cujo’ Character Returns as One of 12 Stories in Stephen King’s ‘You Like It Darker’",
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"headTitle": "‘Cujo’ Character Returns as One of 12 Stories in Stephen King’s ‘You Like It Darker’ | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13958209\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 886px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13958209 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Screen-Shot-2024-05-20-at-7.49.42-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover illustration of a coast line and a rocky outcrop that resembles an alligator head.\" width=\"886\" height=\"1342\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Screen-Shot-2024-05-20-at-7.49.42-PM.png 886w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Screen-Shot-2024-05-20-at-7.49.42-PM-800x1212.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Screen-Shot-2024-05-20-at-7.49.42-PM-160x242.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Screen-Shot-2024-05-20-at-7.49.42-PM-768x1163.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 886px) 100vw, 886px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘You Like It Darker’ by Stephen King. \u003ccite>(Scribner via AP)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In Stephen King’s world, \u003cem>It\u003c/em> is a loaded word. It’s hard not to picture Pennywise the Clown haunting the sewers of Derry, Maine, of course, but in the horror writer’s newest collection of stories, \u003cem>You Like It Darker\u003c/em>, It ranges from a suspicious stranger on a park bench, to an extraterrestrial being bestowing a gift that helps best friends realize their potential, to telepaths whose sole job is to keep airplanes from falling out of the sky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Twelve stories makes up the book, with one of the longest (90 pages), “Rattlesnakes,” reintroducing readers to Vic Trenton, who King fans will remember as the father of Tad, the boy killed by the rabid St. Bernard Cujo in King’s 1981 novel of that name. Now 72, Trenton is riding out the pandemic at a friend’s waterfront property in the Florida Keys, where he meets a widow who also lost loved ones in a terrible accident. It’s fairly creepy, featuring long-dead twins trying to haunt their way back to life, but it’s hardly the darkest here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='pop_110691']I’d give that honor to “The Fifth Step,” which in just 10 pages should scare anyone who’s been paying attention to the true crime stories splashed across the screens of this country’s tawdrier news sources. But is it “darker,” really than any of the more than 60 books King has written in his illustrious career? Probably not, but perhaps the afterword quote from the author, also featured on the back of the hardcover — “You like it darker? Fine. So do I.” — helps sell books in today’s extreme world, even for a perennial bestseller like Mr. King.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The best of these stories, as is true with the best of King’s work, feature horror tempered with heart. I really enjoyed “On Slide Inn Road,” featuring a grandfather who’s still pretty accurate with a baseball bat, and “The Answer Man,” which poses the question, “If you could know anything about the future, what would it be?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’d like to know how much longer we’ll have to enjoy this uniquely American icon, who at the age of 76 continues to write and publish at a furious pace. This collection’s afterword reads like a recording from King’s therapist’s couch, or a confessional on a reality TV series. He admits “the only two times I ever came close to getting it all were in two prison stories: \u003cem>The Green Mile\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption\u003c/em>.” Here’s hoping he keeps trying, because like millions of others around the world, I’ll read every word.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘You Like It Darker’ by Stephen King (Scribner) is released on May 21, 2024.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13958209\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 886px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13958209 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Screen-Shot-2024-05-20-at-7.49.42-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover illustration of a coast line and a rocky outcrop that resembles an alligator head.\" width=\"886\" height=\"1342\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Screen-Shot-2024-05-20-at-7.49.42-PM.png 886w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Screen-Shot-2024-05-20-at-7.49.42-PM-800x1212.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Screen-Shot-2024-05-20-at-7.49.42-PM-160x242.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Screen-Shot-2024-05-20-at-7.49.42-PM-768x1163.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 886px) 100vw, 886px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘You Like It Darker’ by Stephen King. \u003ccite>(Scribner via AP)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In Stephen King’s world, \u003cem>It\u003c/em> is a loaded word. It’s hard not to picture Pennywise the Clown haunting the sewers of Derry, Maine, of course, but in the horror writer’s newest collection of stories, \u003cem>You Like It Darker\u003c/em>, It ranges from a suspicious stranger on a park bench, to an extraterrestrial being bestowing a gift that helps best friends realize their potential, to telepaths whose sole job is to keep airplanes from falling out of the sky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Twelve stories makes up the book, with one of the longest (90 pages), “Rattlesnakes,” reintroducing readers to Vic Trenton, who King fans will remember as the father of Tad, the boy killed by the rabid St. Bernard Cujo in King’s 1981 novel of that name. Now 72, Trenton is riding out the pandemic at a friend’s waterfront property in the Florida Keys, where he meets a widow who also lost loved ones in a terrible accident. It’s fairly creepy, featuring long-dead twins trying to haunt their way back to life, but it’s hardly the darkest here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>I’d give that honor to “The Fifth Step,” which in just 10 pages should scare anyone who’s been paying attention to the true crime stories splashed across the screens of this country’s tawdrier news sources. But is it “darker,” really than any of the more than 60 books King has written in his illustrious career? Probably not, but perhaps the afterword quote from the author, also featured on the back of the hardcover — “You like it darker? Fine. So do I.” — helps sell books in today’s extreme world, even for a perennial bestseller like Mr. King.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The best of these stories, as is true with the best of King’s work, feature horror tempered with heart. I really enjoyed “On Slide Inn Road,” featuring a grandfather who’s still pretty accurate with a baseball bat, and “The Answer Man,” which poses the question, “If you could know anything about the future, what would it be?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’d like to know how much longer we’ll have to enjoy this uniquely American icon, who at the age of 76 continues to write and publish at a furious pace. This collection’s afterword reads like a recording from King’s therapist’s couch, or a confessional on a reality TV series. He admits “the only two times I ever came close to getting it all were in two prison stories: \u003cem>The Green Mile\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption\u003c/em>.” Here’s hoping he keeps trying, because like millions of others around the world, I’ll read every word.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘You Like It Darker’ by Stephen King (Scribner) is released on May 21, 2024.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>At the beginning of \u003cem>Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga\u003c/em>, we are introduced to a kick-ass woman who rides a horse, then a motorbike, nails a few bad guys with sharpshooting finesse and fights off a mob. But it’s not Furiosa — it’s her mom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s one of the oddities of this latest offering in the Mad Max Cinematic Universe: Creator and director George Miller has taken the coolest role of 2015’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/10657581/a-visceral-inventive-blockbuster-roars-to-life-in-mad-max-fury-road\">\u003cem>Mad Max: Fury Road\u003c/em>\u003c/a> and built a whole prequel around her yet has her overshadowed by everyone else.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='pop_95111']The adult Furiosa — a coiled, clenched Anya Taylor-Joy — only appears after the first hour-mark — we get way too much preteen Furiosa — and she’s meek for another quarter of the film. We, frankly, wanted more. Charlize Theron as Furiosa promised a \u003cem>Top\u003c/em> \u003cem>Gun\u003c/em> swagger yet Taylor-Joy mostly does furious side eye.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What goes into making adult Furiosa is very unpleasant: She endures childhood kidnapping and torture, goes mute, passes herself as a boy, gets traded for gas, works her way up a madman’s hierarchy and only in the final scenes does she have real agency. We do learn how her left hand was maimed and that she was sweet on a guy. But making her mute? In her own movie?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back are some familiar, scarred faces — Immortan Joe, The People Eater and a legion of half-naked War Boys. The new mega villain is Chris Hemsworth’s Dementus, who has a hunger for human blood sausage and a knack for spectacularly murdering people who Furiosa cares about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Miller has added pretentious chapter titles like he was making a black-and-white Czech New Wave exposition on existentialism — “The Pole of Inaccessibility” and “The Stowaway” are among the sections — despite also employing a narrator.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVswuip0-co\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the time Miller is finished, he’s built an epic, gritty history in the Wasteland like \u003cem>Lord of the Rings\u003c/em> or \u003cem>Game of Thrones\u003c/em>. But was the point of this franchise a better understanding of the negotiating tactics of untrusty warlords in a hellscape? No: It was rocket-propelled grenades, motorcycles, chains, massive sandstorms and cracked skulls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The best action sequence happens at the halfway point — not a good omen — with a 15-minute sequence inside, over and under a barreling silver double-tanker War Rig while it is being attacked by motorbikes, buggies and parachuting adversaries. It’s a marvel, truly, but since 2015 we’ve had cooler moments in things like \u003cem>Mission: Impossible\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Fast and Furious\u003c/em> so, sorry, mind not blown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Viewers also spend time whipping through the Citadel, the Bullet Farm and Gas Town but there’s something missing, that unpredictable spark of madness, maybe. Perhaps once you’ve seen an insane guy chained to the outside of a zooming truck playing guitar solos in front of a wall of amps with fire coming out of the headstock, the shock wears off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13957803']Speaking of heavy metal, Hemsworth wears fingerless gloves, a codpiece, leather pants, a sleeveless leather vest and flowing hair, like he was a member of Mötley Crüe circa 1983. He has decided to perform his role in full psychotic camp — licking the tears of a victim, he describes them as “zesty” — and proves it by incorporating a teddy bear into his ensemble. Perhaps he should have his own stand-alone movie because he doesn’t really fit in here as the deranged comedy monster in a film with grim faces and famine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A large part of the problem here is that young Furiosa is on an epic hero’s quest to go home — like \u003cem>The Odyssey\u003c/em> or any \u003cem>John Wick\u003c/em> movie — but we know from \u003cem>Fury Road\u003c/em> that the Green Place is no more. So \u003cem>Furiosa\u003c/em> then just becomes a catalogue of crazy stuff that happens to her until it morphs into her cold-blooded quest for revenge. There’s no real risk either because we know Furiosa lives to team up with Tom Hardy in 2015.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It feels like with this fifth Mad Max installment, Miller is trying to add operatic heft and seriousness to what started in 1979 as a fun, rip-roaring smear of nightmarish, post-apocalyptic motor oil. In that case, \u003cem>Fury Road\u003c/em> was fantastic, but \u003cem>Furiosa\u003c/em> is just fine.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Furiosa’ is released nationwide on May 24, 2024.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The adult Furiosa — a coiled, clenched Anya Taylor-Joy — only appears after the first hour-mark — we get way too much preteen Furiosa — and she’s meek for another quarter of the film. We, frankly, wanted more. Charlize Theron as Furiosa promised a \u003cem>Top\u003c/em> \u003cem>Gun\u003c/em> swagger yet Taylor-Joy mostly does furious side eye.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What goes into making adult Furiosa is very unpleasant: She endures childhood kidnapping and torture, goes mute, passes herself as a boy, gets traded for gas, works her way up a madman’s hierarchy and only in the final scenes does she have real agency. We do learn how her left hand was maimed and that she was sweet on a guy. But making her mute? In her own movie?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back are some familiar, scarred faces — Immortan Joe, The People Eater and a legion of half-naked War Boys. The new mega villain is Chris Hemsworth’s Dementus, who has a hunger for human blood sausage and a knack for spectacularly murdering people who Furiosa cares about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Miller has added pretentious chapter titles like he was making a black-and-white Czech New Wave exposition on existentialism — “The Pole of Inaccessibility” and “The Stowaway” are among the sections — despite also employing a narrator.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/FVswuip0-co'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/FVswuip0-co'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>By the time Miller is finished, he’s built an epic, gritty history in the Wasteland like \u003cem>Lord of the Rings\u003c/em> or \u003cem>Game of Thrones\u003c/em>. But was the point of this franchise a better understanding of the negotiating tactics of untrusty warlords in a hellscape? No: It was rocket-propelled grenades, motorcycles, chains, massive sandstorms and cracked skulls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The best action sequence happens at the halfway point — not a good omen — with a 15-minute sequence inside, over and under a barreling silver double-tanker War Rig while it is being attacked by motorbikes, buggies and parachuting adversaries. It’s a marvel, truly, but since 2015 we’ve had cooler moments in things like \u003cem>Mission: Impossible\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Fast and Furious\u003c/em> so, sorry, mind not blown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Viewers also spend time whipping through the Citadel, the Bullet Farm and Gas Town but there’s something missing, that unpredictable spark of madness, maybe. Perhaps once you’ve seen an insane guy chained to the outside of a zooming truck playing guitar solos in front of a wall of amps with fire coming out of the headstock, the shock wears off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Speaking of heavy metal, Hemsworth wears fingerless gloves, a codpiece, leather pants, a sleeveless leather vest and flowing hair, like he was a member of Mötley Crüe circa 1983. He has decided to perform his role in full psychotic camp — licking the tears of a victim, he describes them as “zesty” — and proves it by incorporating a teddy bear into his ensemble. Perhaps he should have his own stand-alone movie because he doesn’t really fit in here as the deranged comedy monster in a film with grim faces and famine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A large part of the problem here is that young Furiosa is on an epic hero’s quest to go home — like \u003cem>The Odyssey\u003c/em> or any \u003cem>John Wick\u003c/em> movie — but we know from \u003cem>Fury Road\u003c/em> that the Green Place is no more. So \u003cem>Furiosa\u003c/em> then just becomes a catalogue of crazy stuff that happens to her until it morphs into her cold-blooded quest for revenge. There’s no real risk either because we know Furiosa lives to team up with Tom Hardy in 2015.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It feels like with this fifth Mad Max installment, Miller is trying to add operatic heft and seriousness to what started in 1979 as a fun, rip-roaring smear of nightmarish, post-apocalyptic motor oil. In that case, \u003cem>Fury Road\u003c/em> was fantastic, but \u003cem>Furiosa\u003c/em> is just fine.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Furiosa’ is released nationwide on May 24, 2024.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "A Battle Between Science and Religion, With Galileo Caught in the Middle",
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"content": "\u003cp>During the Renaissance era, the conflicting bedfellows of religion and science had clear delineations, dictated by Earth’s highest stewards to Heaven’s gates. “Science asks questions, but the Bible gives the answers,” thundered Pope Urban VIII, verbalizing the view of many in Europe’s 16th and 17th centuries. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Galileo Galilei fancied himself a strong purveyor of both the scientific and theological, his moral core of truth at the center of his existence faced a brutal reckoning — one that ultimately ripped both his body and soul to shreds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13957684']In the spellbinding yet problematic world premiere musical \u003cem>Galileo\u003c/em>, which opened May 15 at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, discoveries made in both science and religion complicate matters. Its storyline is greatly informed by the modern-day war on truth, loaded with a ceaselessly high-octane rock music score exploited mightily by the wicked talents of director Michael Mayer. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13958078\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_147.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1278\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13958078\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_147.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_147-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_147-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_147-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_147-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_147-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jeremy Kushnier (Bishop Maffeo Barberini) and Raúl Esparza (Galileo Galilei) in the world premiere of ‘Galileo: A Rock Musical’ at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. \u003ccite>(Kevin Berne)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Galileo Galilei (Raúl Esparza) has taken root in his laboratory, a man of 45 who has trouble blindly accepting the religious view that Earth is the center of the universe. After all, that view had been challenged years prior by fellow polymath Nicolaus Copernicus in the famed heliocentric model, where Earth and other planets were shown to revolve around the sun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An affirmation of those teachings, thanks to Galileo’s enhancement of the telescope, has proved unsatisfactory to the dominant biblical divinity of Catholic doctrine, which citizens believe to be infallible. Yet Galileo still carries some support, despite the dominance of Cardinal Morosini (Javier Muñoz), who gives no space for what he perceives as anti-Bible sentiments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13957845']The support of Galileo’s close ally Bishop Barberini (Jeremy Kushnier) contributes greatly to his desire to continue locking horns with the Catholic establishment, and when Barberini is elevated as pontiff and becomes Pope Urban VIII, Galileo is poised to break through and declare truth the victor. Yet an effort by the pope to slow the public acceleration of Galileo’s scientific theories, introduced in Galileo’s book comparing the Copernican system with the accepted and less truthful Ptolemaic system, comes with an offensive slight, accelerating Galileo’s demise. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13958080\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_060.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1278\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13958080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_060.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_060-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_060-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_060-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_060-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_060-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Raúl Esparza (Galileo Galilei, center) and the cast of ‘Galileo: A Rock Musical’ at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. \u003ccite>(Kevin Berne)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>So many elements of spectacle allow the musical to brew and breathe within a white-hot fire, with music thrusting itself to the top of the ticket. Composers Michael Weiner and Zoe Sarnak unleash consecutive bangers, challenging their vocalists with vein-popping verve, melodies and divine harmonies as persistent as Galileo himself. Those compositions are nestled neatly inside Danny Strong’s book. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each challenge is accepted by the cast, led by Broadway stalwart Esparza, who digs mightily into every ounce of his scintillating, grizzled register. A delicious counterpoint to Esparza’s wide-ranging vocals is his commitment to Galileo’s painful and joyous discoveries. His eyes accentuate each arc in every moment, a broken and beaten man who is constantly reminded that power decides truth, not the other way around.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13958077\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_102.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1278\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13958077\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_102.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_102-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_102-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_102-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_102-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_102-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Christian Magby (Alessandro Tarantola) and Madalynn Mathews (Virginia Galilei) in the world premiere of ‘Galileo: A Rock Musical’ at Berkeley Repertory Theatre.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Kushnier’s mellifluity lives within its own constellation, a buttery-smooth falsetto that spotlights tenderness and admiration for Galileo, especially in his solo “By Thy Light I See.” Muñoz, Esparza’s fellow Broadway star, commands respect as the uncompromising Morosini, and Madelynn Mathews as Galileo’s embattled daughter Virginia, whose illegitimacy thrusts her away from love and into a cloistered life, gives a master class in vocals and empathy. These four craft a narrative that elevates the entire company in a show that gets louder and louder as time passes. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Where the piece needs harnessing begins late in the second act, when a certain theme carries on much too long, ultimately diluting the critical nature of its voice. It’s as if the concept of truth and its virtues need constant repeating, which drags the entire narrative down. A piece that moves towards three hours needs to slap incessantly; this is not the case here. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13958081\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_188.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1278\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13958081\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_188.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_188-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_188-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_188-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_188-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_188-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Raúl Esparza (Galileo Galilei) and the cast of ‘Galileo: A Rock Musical’ at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. \u003ccite>(Kevin Berne)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Still, the show feels as if it’s hurtling somewhere with no expense spared, especially through the technical design. Scenic work by Tony Award winner Rachel Hauck pairs beautifully with Anita Yavich’s nuanced and sparkly costume plot. Jason H. Thompson, along with Kaitlyn Pietras, go all in on Christian symbolism through their passionate projection design, combined sharply with the lighting of Kevin Adams. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are many morsels that challenge in Strong’s book, and a critical question is posed: “When does the truth cost too much?” Thankfully for Galileo, and in a lesson for the masses, a legacy and the truth are not for sale. \u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Galileo’ runs through June 23 at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in downtown Berkeley. \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyrep.org/shows/galileo/\">Details here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em> \u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>During the Renaissance era, the conflicting bedfellows of religion and science had clear delineations, dictated by Earth’s highest stewards to Heaven’s gates. “Science asks questions, but the Bible gives the answers,” thundered Pope Urban VIII, verbalizing the view of many in Europe’s 16th and 17th centuries. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Galileo Galilei fancied himself a strong purveyor of both the scientific and theological, his moral core of truth at the center of his existence faced a brutal reckoning — one that ultimately ripped both his body and soul to shreds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In the spellbinding yet problematic world premiere musical \u003cem>Galileo\u003c/em>, which opened May 15 at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, discoveries made in both science and religion complicate matters. Its storyline is greatly informed by the modern-day war on truth, loaded with a ceaselessly high-octane rock music score exploited mightily by the wicked talents of director Michael Mayer. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13958078\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_147.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1278\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13958078\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_147.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_147-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_147-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_147-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_147-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_147-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jeremy Kushnier (Bishop Maffeo Barberini) and Raúl Esparza (Galileo Galilei) in the world premiere of ‘Galileo: A Rock Musical’ at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. \u003ccite>(Kevin Berne)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Galileo Galilei (Raúl Esparza) has taken root in his laboratory, a man of 45 who has trouble blindly accepting the religious view that Earth is the center of the universe. After all, that view had been challenged years prior by fellow polymath Nicolaus Copernicus in the famed heliocentric model, where Earth and other planets were shown to revolve around the sun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An affirmation of those teachings, thanks to Galileo’s enhancement of the telescope, has proved unsatisfactory to the dominant biblical divinity of Catholic doctrine, which citizens believe to be infallible. Yet Galileo still carries some support, despite the dominance of Cardinal Morosini (Javier Muñoz), who gives no space for what he perceives as anti-Bible sentiments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The support of Galileo’s close ally Bishop Barberini (Jeremy Kushnier) contributes greatly to his desire to continue locking horns with the Catholic establishment, and when Barberini is elevated as pontiff and becomes Pope Urban VIII, Galileo is poised to break through and declare truth the victor. Yet an effort by the pope to slow the public acceleration of Galileo’s scientific theories, introduced in Galileo’s book comparing the Copernican system with the accepted and less truthful Ptolemaic system, comes with an offensive slight, accelerating Galileo’s demise. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13958080\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_060.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1278\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13958080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_060.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_060-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_060-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_060-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_060-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_060-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Raúl Esparza (Galileo Galilei, center) and the cast of ‘Galileo: A Rock Musical’ at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. \u003ccite>(Kevin Berne)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>So many elements of spectacle allow the musical to brew and breathe within a white-hot fire, with music thrusting itself to the top of the ticket. Composers Michael Weiner and Zoe Sarnak unleash consecutive bangers, challenging their vocalists with vein-popping verve, melodies and divine harmonies as persistent as Galileo himself. Those compositions are nestled neatly inside Danny Strong’s book. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each challenge is accepted by the cast, led by Broadway stalwart Esparza, who digs mightily into every ounce of his scintillating, grizzled register. A delicious counterpoint to Esparza’s wide-ranging vocals is his commitment to Galileo’s painful and joyous discoveries. His eyes accentuate each arc in every moment, a broken and beaten man who is constantly reminded that power decides truth, not the other way around.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13958077\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_102.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1278\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13958077\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_102.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_102-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_102-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_102-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_102-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_102-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Christian Magby (Alessandro Tarantola) and Madalynn Mathews (Virginia Galilei) in the world premiere of ‘Galileo: A Rock Musical’ at Berkeley Repertory Theatre.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Kushnier’s mellifluity lives within its own constellation, a buttery-smooth falsetto that spotlights tenderness and admiration for Galileo, especially in his solo “By Thy Light I See.” Muñoz, Esparza’s fellow Broadway star, commands respect as the uncompromising Morosini, and Madelynn Mathews as Galileo’s embattled daughter Virginia, whose illegitimacy thrusts her away from love and into a cloistered life, gives a master class in vocals and empathy. These four craft a narrative that elevates the entire company in a show that gets louder and louder as time passes. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Where the piece needs harnessing begins late in the second act, when a certain theme carries on much too long, ultimately diluting the critical nature of its voice. It’s as if the concept of truth and its virtues need constant repeating, which drags the entire narrative down. A piece that moves towards three hours needs to slap incessantly; this is not the case here. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13958081\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_188.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1278\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13958081\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_188.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_188-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_188-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_188-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_188-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/GLO_188-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Raúl Esparza (Galileo Galilei) and the cast of ‘Galileo: A Rock Musical’ at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. \u003ccite>(Kevin Berne)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Still, the show feels as if it’s hurtling somewhere with no expense spared, especially through the technical design. Scenic work by Tony Award winner Rachel Hauck pairs beautifully with Anita Yavich’s nuanced and sparkly costume plot. Jason H. Thompson, along with Kaitlyn Pietras, go all in on Christian symbolism through their passionate projection design, combined sharply with the lighting of Kevin Adams. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are many morsels that challenge in Strong’s book, and a critical question is posed: “When does the truth cost too much?” Thankfully for Galileo, and in a lesson for the masses, a legacy and the truth are not for sale. \u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Galileo’ runs through June 23 at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in downtown Berkeley. \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyrep.org/shows/galileo/\">Details here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em> \u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "new-novels-pages-of-mourning-morrison-cemetery-untold-stories-alvarez",
"title": "Two New Novels Investigate What Makes Magic, What Is Real and Imagined",
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"headTitle": "Two New Novels Investigate What Makes Magic, What Is Real and Imagined | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>In an enchanted world, where does mystery begin? Two authors pose this question in new novels out this spring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13957814']In \u003cem>Pages of Mourning\u003c/em> by the Mexican magical realism interrogator-author Diego Gerard Morrison, the protagonist is a Mexican writer named Aureliano Más II who is at war with his memory of familial sorrow and — you guessed it — magical realism. And the protagonist Alma Cruz in Julia Alvarez’s latest novel, \u003cem>The Cemetery of Untold Stories, \u003c/em>is also a writer. Alma seeks to bury her unpublished stories in a graveyard of her own making, in order to find peace in their repose — and meaning from the vulnerability that comes from unheard stories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both of these novels, one from an emerging writer and one from a long celebrated author, walk an open road of remembering love, grief, and fate. Both find a destiny not in death, but in the reality of abandonment and in dreams that come from a hope for reunion. At this intersection of memory and meaning, their storytelling diverges.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘Pages of Mourning’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Pages of Mourning,\u003c/em> out this month, is set in 2017, three years after 43 students disappear from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College after being abducted in \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iguala\">Iguala\u003c/a>, Guerrero, Mexico. The main character, Aureliano, is attempting to write the Great Mexican Novel that reflects this crisis and his mother’s own unexplained disappearance when he was a boy. He’s also struggling with the idea of magical realism as literary genre — he holds resentment over being named after the protagonist in \u003cem>100 Years of Solitude,\u003c/em> which fits squarely within it. He sets out on a journey with his maternal aunt to find his father, ask questions about his mother, and deal with his drinking problem and various earthquakes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13956128']Morrison’s voice reflects his \u003ca href=\"https://www.disonare.com/acerca\">work as a writer, editor and translator \u003c/a>based in Mexico City, who seeks to interrogate “the concept of dissonance” through blended art forms such as poetry and fiction, translation and criticism. His story could be seen as an archetype, criticism, or a reflection through linguistic cadence on Pan American literature. His novel name drops and alludes to American, Mexican and Latin American writers including Walt Whitman, Juan Rulfo, Gabriel Garcia Márquez — and even himself. There’s an earnest use of adjectives to accompany the lived dissonance of his characters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s nothing magical, in the genre sense, in Morrison’s story. There are no magical rivers, enchanted messages, babies born with tails. Morrison’s dissonance is real — people get disappeared, they suffer addictions, writer’s block, crazy parents, crazier shamans, blank pages, corruption, the loss of loved ones. In this depiction of real Pan-American life — because all of this we are also explicitly suffering up North — Morrison finds his magic. His Aureliano is our Aureliano. He’s someone we know. Probably someone we loved — someone trying so hard to live.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>The Cemetery of Untold Stories\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>From the author of \u003cem>In the Time of the Butterflies\u003c/em> and \u003cem>How the García Girls Lost Their Accents\u003c/em>, \u003cem>The Cemetery of Untold Stories\u003c/em> is Julia Alvarez’s seventh novel. It’s a story that’s both languorous and urgent in conjuring a world from magical happenings. The source of these happenings, in a graveyard in the Dominican Republic, is the confrontation between memories and lived agendas. Alvarez is an acclaimed storyteller and teacher, a writer of poetry, non-fiction and children’s books, \u003ca href=\"https://www.arts.gov/honors/medals/julia-alvarez\">honored in 2013 with the National Medal of Arts\u003c/a>. She continues her luminous virtuosity with the story of Alma Cruz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13957998']Alma, the writer at the heart of \u003cem>The Cemetery of Untold Stories\u003c/em>, has a goal — not to go crazy from the delayed promise of cartons of unpublished stories she has stored away. When she inherits land in her origin country — the Dominican Republic — she decides to retire there, and design a graveyard to bury her manuscript drafts, along with the characters whose fictional lives demand their own unrequited recompense. Her sisters think she’s nuts, and wasting their inheritance. Filomena, a local woman Alma hires to watch over the cemetery, finds solace in a steady paycheck and her unusual workplace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alma wants peace for herself and her characters. But they have their own agendas and, once buried, begin to make them known: They speak to each other and Filomena, rewriting and revising Alma’s creativity in order to reclaim themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In this new story, Alvarez creates a world where everyone is on a quest to achieve a dream — retirement, literary fame, a steady job, peace of mind, authenticity. Things get complicated during the rewrites, when ambitions and memories bump into the reality of no money, getting arrested, no imagination, jealousy, and the grace of humble competence. Alma’s sisters, Filomena, the townspeople — all make a claim over Alma’s aspiration to find a final resting place for her memories. Alvarez sprinkles their journey with dialogue and phrases in Spanish and one — “\u003cem>no hay mal que por bien no venga\u003c/em>” (there is goodness in every woe) — emerges as the oral talisman of her story. There is always something magical to discover in a story, and that is especially true in Alvarez’s landing place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.tcginsights.com/\">\u003cem>Marcela Davison Avilés\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> is a writer and independent producer living in Northern California.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In \u003cem>Pages of Mourning\u003c/em> by the Mexican magical realism interrogator-author Diego Gerard Morrison, the protagonist is a Mexican writer named Aureliano Más II who is at war with his memory of familial sorrow and — you guessed it — magical realism. And the protagonist Alma Cruz in Julia Alvarez’s latest novel, \u003cem>The Cemetery of Untold Stories, \u003c/em>is also a writer. Alma seeks to bury her unpublished stories in a graveyard of her own making, in order to find peace in their repose — and meaning from the vulnerability that comes from unheard stories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both of these novels, one from an emerging writer and one from a long celebrated author, walk an open road of remembering love, grief, and fate. Both find a destiny not in death, but in the reality of abandonment and in dreams that come from a hope for reunion. At this intersection of memory and meaning, their storytelling diverges.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘Pages of Mourning’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Pages of Mourning,\u003c/em> out this month, is set in 2017, three years after 43 students disappear from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College after being abducted in \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iguala\">Iguala\u003c/a>, Guerrero, Mexico. The main character, Aureliano, is attempting to write the Great Mexican Novel that reflects this crisis and his mother’s own unexplained disappearance when he was a boy. He’s also struggling with the idea of magical realism as literary genre — he holds resentment over being named after the protagonist in \u003cem>100 Years of Solitude,\u003c/em> which fits squarely within it. He sets out on a journey with his maternal aunt to find his father, ask questions about his mother, and deal with his drinking problem and various earthquakes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Morrison’s voice reflects his \u003ca href=\"https://www.disonare.com/acerca\">work as a writer, editor and translator \u003c/a>based in Mexico City, who seeks to interrogate “the concept of dissonance” through blended art forms such as poetry and fiction, translation and criticism. His story could be seen as an archetype, criticism, or a reflection through linguistic cadence on Pan American literature. His novel name drops and alludes to American, Mexican and Latin American writers including Walt Whitman, Juan Rulfo, Gabriel Garcia Márquez — and even himself. There’s an earnest use of adjectives to accompany the lived dissonance of his characters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s nothing magical, in the genre sense, in Morrison’s story. There are no magical rivers, enchanted messages, babies born with tails. Morrison’s dissonance is real — people get disappeared, they suffer addictions, writer’s block, crazy parents, crazier shamans, blank pages, corruption, the loss of loved ones. In this depiction of real Pan-American life — because all of this we are also explicitly suffering up North — Morrison finds his magic. His Aureliano is our Aureliano. He’s someone we know. Probably someone we loved — someone trying so hard to live.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cem>The Cemetery of Untold Stories\u003c/em>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>From the author of \u003cem>In the Time of the Butterflies\u003c/em> and \u003cem>How the García Girls Lost Their Accents\u003c/em>, \u003cem>The Cemetery of Untold Stories\u003c/em> is Julia Alvarez’s seventh novel. It’s a story that’s both languorous and urgent in conjuring a world from magical happenings. The source of these happenings, in a graveyard in the Dominican Republic, is the confrontation between memories and lived agendas. Alvarez is an acclaimed storyteller and teacher, a writer of poetry, non-fiction and children’s books, \u003ca href=\"https://www.arts.gov/honors/medals/julia-alvarez\">honored in 2013 with the National Medal of Arts\u003c/a>. She continues her luminous virtuosity with the story of Alma Cruz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Alma, the writer at the heart of \u003cem>The Cemetery of Untold Stories\u003c/em>, has a goal — not to go crazy from the delayed promise of cartons of unpublished stories she has stored away. When she inherits land in her origin country — the Dominican Republic — she decides to retire there, and design a graveyard to bury her manuscript drafts, along with the characters whose fictional lives demand their own unrequited recompense. Her sisters think she’s nuts, and wasting their inheritance. Filomena, a local woman Alma hires to watch over the cemetery, finds solace in a steady paycheck and her unusual workplace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alma wants peace for herself and her characters. But they have their own agendas and, once buried, begin to make them known: They speak to each other and Filomena, rewriting and revising Alma’s creativity in order to reclaim themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In this new story, Alvarez creates a world where everyone is on a quest to achieve a dream — retirement, literary fame, a steady job, peace of mind, authenticity. Things get complicated during the rewrites, when ambitions and memories bump into the reality of no money, getting arrested, no imagination, jealousy, and the grace of humble competence. Alma’s sisters, Filomena, the townspeople — all make a claim over Alma’s aspiration to find a final resting place for her memories. Alvarez sprinkles their journey with dialogue and phrases in Spanish and one — “\u003cem>no hay mal que por bien no venga\u003c/em>” (there is goodness in every woe) — emerges as the oral talisman of her story. There is always something magical to discover in a story, and that is especially true in Alvarez’s landing place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.tcginsights.com/\">\u003cem>Marcela Davison Avilés\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> is a writer and independent producer living in Northern California.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13957964\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13957964\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Screen-Shot-2024-05-15-at-5.38.43-PM-e1715820056416.png\" alt=\"A pregnant Black woman talks to a shorter white woman outside a restaurant.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1139\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Michelle Buteau and Ilana Glazer in ‘Babes.’ \u003ccite>(Gwen Capistran/ Neon via AP)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>You know what? It’s true. They never do tell you about the placenta.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Let us explain. But first, let’s also point out that if you’re already queasy at the mention of “placenta,” well, \u003cem>Babes\u003c/em> — director Pamela Adlon’s brash, chaotic, hilarious and occasionally overly gooey (in so many ways) childbirth comedy — may not be your thing. Just saying.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anyway! Somewhere late into \u003cem>Babes\u003c/em>, Eden (Ilana Glazer) is giving birth. We’ve seen most of this before in countless comedies: the outlandish obstacles, the tense trip to the hospital, the traffic — oh, the traffic — all melting away in that glorious moment when baby arrives and everyone starts happy-crying.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='pop_96171']We get all that in \u003cem>Babes\u003c/em>, too, but then the doctor says “Start pushing” — again — and Eden asks, “What, is there another baby?” And she’s told no, it’s the placenta, aka the afterbirth. Ugh! “They don’t tell you about this part,” notes her friend, Dawn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Which is funny, but also basically true. And there are lots of other pregnancy-related things people don’t mention, let alone depict in movies. Like: secretions. \u003cem>Babes\u003c/em>, written by Glazer with Josh Rabinowitz, loves bodily secretions of any kind. Not showing them, thank heavens, but talking about them. No wonder some are calling \u003cem>Babes\u003c/em> the \u003cem>Bridesmaids\u003c/em> of childbearing. Or \u003cem>Knocked Up\u003c/em> without the Seth Rogen part.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Speaking of the men in \u003cem>Babes\u003c/em>, well, the title should give you a sense of how important they are to the narrative. This is a film about two women, Eden and Dawn, lifelong buddies, and how pregnancy and childbirth change them. Side note: When we speak of goo, we’re referring both to actual goo — as referenced earlier — but also narrative goo. As in, schmaltz. No obstacle ever arises for long. Everybody basically hugs and cries it out whenever things get complicated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But hey, most of this can be forgiven when a film is this well acted — especially by Glazer, a gifted comedian. Both she and Michelle Buteau as Dawn, are nothing but authentic and moving, but Glazer in particular will have you howling one minute and wiping those misty eyes the next.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAfS15DIyEY\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We begin early on Thanksgiving morning, at the multiplex, because Thanksgiving morning movies are a tradition for Eden and Dawn. The wrinkle here is that Dawn is pregnant with her second kid. Very pregnant. Very, very pregnant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='pop_11483']In fact, she goes into active labor as the movie starts. But instead of going to the hospital as directed by her doctor, Dawn requests a big meal at a restaurant, because you’re not allowed to eat in the hospital — leading to a high-slapstick scene at a posh eatery that includes Eden examining, amid bites, whether Dawn is dilated (we told you these are very good friends).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eventually we’re at the hospital, where Dawn crawls down the corridors in pain, and we learn about more gross things that happen during childbirth (the movie does not crawl toward grossness — it runs headlong into it). We also meet Dawn’s husband, Marty (Hasan Minhaj). Marty is supportive and patient — to the point of utter implausibility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eden heads out to buy everyone sushi. In one of many Manhattan vs. Queens jokes, she buys it at a fancy place in Manhattan (she herself has remained in Queens, while Dawn has moved to the Upper West Side) and the bill comes to nearly $500. Unfortunately this IS plausible. It leads to a wonderful sequence where, on three or four subway trains back to Queens (we’re on a holiday schedule), Eden shares this sushi spread with a cute actor (Stephan James) she meets, dressed in a burgundy tux, who’s just left a film shoot where he played “Sexy Black Waiter.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A one-night stand ensues. And then, Eden discovers she’s pregnant. This will radically shift the balance of her relationship with Dawn — and we don’t need to update you on any other relationships, because THIS is the one that matters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s much here that rings true. Adlon, Glazer and Rabinowitz know how to get across the intensity of female buddyship, with the added complexity — not often explored in comedies — that these relationships can hurt, at bad times, perhaps even more than romantic ones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13872209']Though there are occasional lapses in narrative logic, on a deeper level the filmmakers clearly know of what they speak. At a recent screening, Adlon and her stars related a few personal childbirth anecdotes in a pre-show talk, and sure enough, at least three of these anecdotes could be found in the movie. (The funniest, though not in the film, came from moderator Julia Louis-Dreyfus — involving a starstruck nurse exclaiming “Elaine!” at a very embarrassing moment.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Breast pumps. Raging pregnancy hormones that make even produce look sexy. A male obstetrician (John Carroll Lynch, funny) who overshares. A birth plan with, why not, a “prom” theme. All these elements, wacky or not, come together in a charming mishmash that adds something ultimately very important to the childbirth comedy genre: the message that childbirth is profound, yes, and full of wonder. But also, like life, it can be funny — and a bit of a mess.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Babes’ is released nationwide on May 17, 2024.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>We get all that in \u003cem>Babes\u003c/em>, too, but then the doctor says “Start pushing” — again — and Eden asks, “What, is there another baby?” And she’s told no, it’s the placenta, aka the afterbirth. Ugh! “They don’t tell you about this part,” notes her friend, Dawn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Which is funny, but also basically true. And there are lots of other pregnancy-related things people don’t mention, let alone depict in movies. Like: secretions. \u003cem>Babes\u003c/em>, written by Glazer with Josh Rabinowitz, loves bodily secretions of any kind. Not showing them, thank heavens, but talking about them. No wonder some are calling \u003cem>Babes\u003c/em> the \u003cem>Bridesmaids\u003c/em> of childbearing. Or \u003cem>Knocked Up\u003c/em> without the Seth Rogen part.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Speaking of the men in \u003cem>Babes\u003c/em>, well, the title should give you a sense of how important they are to the narrative. This is a film about two women, Eden and Dawn, lifelong buddies, and how pregnancy and childbirth change them. Side note: When we speak of goo, we’re referring both to actual goo — as referenced earlier — but also narrative goo. As in, schmaltz. No obstacle ever arises for long. Everybody basically hugs and cries it out whenever things get complicated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But hey, most of this can be forgiven when a film is this well acted — especially by Glazer, a gifted comedian. Both she and Michelle Buteau as Dawn, are nothing but authentic and moving, but Glazer in particular will have you howling one minute and wiping those misty eyes the next.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/rAfS15DIyEY'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/rAfS15DIyEY'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>We begin early on Thanksgiving morning, at the multiplex, because Thanksgiving morning movies are a tradition for Eden and Dawn. The wrinkle here is that Dawn is pregnant with her second kid. Very pregnant. Very, very pregnant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In fact, she goes into active labor as the movie starts. But instead of going to the hospital as directed by her doctor, Dawn requests a big meal at a restaurant, because you’re not allowed to eat in the hospital — leading to a high-slapstick scene at a posh eatery that includes Eden examining, amid bites, whether Dawn is dilated (we told you these are very good friends).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eventually we’re at the hospital, where Dawn crawls down the corridors in pain, and we learn about more gross things that happen during childbirth (the movie does not crawl toward grossness — it runs headlong into it). We also meet Dawn’s husband, Marty (Hasan Minhaj). Marty is supportive and patient — to the point of utter implausibility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eden heads out to buy everyone sushi. In one of many Manhattan vs. Queens jokes, she buys it at a fancy place in Manhattan (she herself has remained in Queens, while Dawn has moved to the Upper West Side) and the bill comes to nearly $500. Unfortunately this IS plausible. It leads to a wonderful sequence where, on three or four subway trains back to Queens (we’re on a holiday schedule), Eden shares this sushi spread with a cute actor (Stephan James) she meets, dressed in a burgundy tux, who’s just left a film shoot where he played “Sexy Black Waiter.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A one-night stand ensues. And then, Eden discovers she’s pregnant. This will radically shift the balance of her relationship with Dawn — and we don’t need to update you on any other relationships, because THIS is the one that matters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s much here that rings true. Adlon, Glazer and Rabinowitz know how to get across the intensity of female buddyship, with the added complexity — not often explored in comedies — that these relationships can hurt, at bad times, perhaps even more than romantic ones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Though there are occasional lapses in narrative logic, on a deeper level the filmmakers clearly know of what they speak. At a recent screening, Adlon and her stars related a few personal childbirth anecdotes in a pre-show talk, and sure enough, at least three of these anecdotes could be found in the movie. (The funniest, though not in the film, came from moderator Julia Louis-Dreyfus — involving a starstruck nurse exclaiming “Elaine!” at a very embarrassing moment.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Breast pumps. Raging pregnancy hormones that make even produce look sexy. A male obstetrician (John Carroll Lynch, funny) who overshares. A birth plan with, why not, a “prom” theme. All these elements, wacky or not, come together in a charming mishmash that adds something ultimately very important to the childbirth comedy genre: the message that childbirth is profound, yes, and full of wonder. But also, like life, it can be funny — and a bit of a mess.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Babes’ is released nationwide on May 17, 2024.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13957815\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 664px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13957815\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/untitled-design-65-_custom-909b15798ce00e75e98663799b30b07ff3b82b6c.jpg\" alt=\"A blue book cover with pixelated lettering like an old-fashioned computer.\" width=\"664\" height=\"948\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/untitled-design-65-_custom-909b15798ce00e75e98663799b30b07ff3b82b6c.jpg 664w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/untitled-design-65-_custom-909b15798ce00e75e98663799b30b07ff3b82b6c-160x228.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 664px) 100vw, 664px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘My First Book’ by Honor Levy. \u003ccite>(Penguin Press)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>What are the kids thinking these days? That seems be to the question behind the publication of \u003cem>My First Book\u003c/em>, the buzzy debut story collection by Honor Levy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 26-year-old writer was the subject of \u003ca href=\"https://www.thecut.com/article/honor-levy-my-first-book-dimes-square-interview.html\">a viral profile in \u003cem>The Cut\u003c/em>\u003c/a> earlier this month, in which she described the praise she received for \u003ca href=\"https://www.newyorker.com/books/flash-fiction/good-boys\">her story “Good Boys”\u003c/a> on \u003cem>The New Yorker\u003c/em> website as “not undeserved” and demurred when asked whether she’s the voice of her generation. Social media discourse and the inevitable backlash aside, Levy’s first book is an amusing, if uneven, take on growing up white, privileged and Gen Z, the first generation to completely be born after the existence of the internet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13957749']Readers won’t find meticulously plotted story arcs, fleshed-out characters, emotional epiphanies, or any other earmarks of conventional literary fiction. Most of Levy’s stories run fewer than 12 pages and feel like very long flash fiction, written in a voice dense with the chaotic patois of the internet. In her strongest stories, Levy channels the blitzkrieg of contradictory micro-observations we absorb from social media, video games, and doomscrolling to create the absurd, incomprehensible cacophony that anyone born after 1997 had to grow up enduring. These stories seem to ask: How can anyone expect a well-adjusted adult to rise from all this noise?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In “Internet Girl,” the main character is 11 and very online, and Levy’s portrayal of her narrator’s interiority is both compellingly satirical and frighteningly plausible. She writes:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>It’s 2008, and my dad gets laid off and everything is happening all at once. All at once, there are two girls and one cup and planes hitting towers and a webcam looking at me and me smiling into it and a man and a boy and a love and a stranger on the other end. All at once, there are a million videos to watch and a million more to make. All at once it’s all at once. It’s beginning and ending all at once all the time. I’m twenty-one. I’m eleven. I’m on the internet. I’m twenty-one.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Another strong piece is “Love Story,” the collection’s opener, which is about a boy and a girl having an online relationship that seems to consist entirely of texting and sending pics of their bodies to each other. Levy poignantly captures the girl’s vulnerability. “Little girl lost can’t even find herself,” Levy writes. “Pictures of her naked body are out there everywhere, in the cloud floating, and under the sea, coursing through cables in the dark. It’s so dark.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Levy smartly skewers late capitalism in “Halloween Forever,” about a young woman trying to survive a surreal and drug-filled Halloween night in Brooklyn. She meets a “boy from Stanford dressed as a cowboy,” who, when sufficiently coked-up, muses about the romance of the Wild West and how “The West was freedom … just like the internet originally was!” The narrator is skeptical:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Freedom is the stuff of dreams and nightmares only and our free market doesn’t make us free people, but the cowboy doesn’t care. Silicon Valley must have burrowed itself deep into his brain underneath that hat. He is probably afraid of blood, or social media, or something stupid. My drink is seventeen dollars.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>As the collection progresses, the unique blend of the satirical and the poignant gives way to a more essayistic approach to storytelling. In “Cancel Me,” which is about cancel culture, the characters — a young woman and two “Ivy League boys with kitten-sharp teeth and Accutane-skin,” all of whom have experienced cancellation for murky reasons — gradually fade into a series of observations about wokeness that aren’t much different or more insightful than what one might find on X or Reddit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13957276']“Z Was For Zoomer,” which runs more than 50 pages, seems to be a continuation of “Cancel Me,” except the two male “edgelords” — someone on an internet forum who deliberately posts about controversial or taboo topics to appear edgy — are named Gideon and Ivan instead of Jack and Roger. Just as in “Cancel Me,” the narrator’s relationship with the men is never defined and doesn’t progress. Character-driven narrative takes a back seat to dashed-off, inch-deep lines like “Identity is a Swedish prison, comfortable but you still can’t leave.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It should also be mentioned that these stories won’t pass the most permissive of racial Bechdel tests. The number of non-white references in this 200-page book won’t go past one hand, unless you count the few references to anime and the rapper formerly known as Kanye West. The milieu of Honor Levy’s fiction is undeniably white and privileged, but her best stories exaggerate that milieu to great satirical effect. Perhaps her second book will contain more of them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Leland Cheuk is an award-winning author of three books of fiction, including the latest “No Good Very Bad Asian.’ His writing has appeared in ‘The Washington Post,’ ‘The Boston Globe,’ ‘San Francisco Chronicle,’ and ‘Salon,’ among other outlets.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘My First Book’ by Honor Levy (Penguin Press) is out on May 14, 2014.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Levy smartly skewers late capitalism in “Halloween Forever,” about a young woman trying to survive a surreal and drug-filled Halloween night in Brooklyn. She meets a “boy from Stanford dressed as a cowboy,” who, when sufficiently coked-up, muses about the romance of the Wild West and how “The West was freedom … just like the internet originally was!” The narrator is skeptical:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Freedom is the stuff of dreams and nightmares only and our free market doesn’t make us free people, but the cowboy doesn’t care. Silicon Valley must have burrowed itself deep into his brain underneath that hat. He is probably afraid of blood, or social media, or something stupid. My drink is seventeen dollars.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>As the collection progresses, the unique blend of the satirical and the poignant gives way to a more essayistic approach to storytelling. In “Cancel Me,” which is about cancel culture, the characters — a young woman and two “Ivy League boys with kitten-sharp teeth and Accutane-skin,” all of whom have experienced cancellation for murky reasons — gradually fade into a series of observations about wokeness that aren’t much different or more insightful than what one might find on X or Reddit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Z Was For Zoomer,” which runs more than 50 pages, seems to be a continuation of “Cancel Me,” except the two male “edgelords” — someone on an internet forum who deliberately posts about controversial or taboo topics to appear edgy — are named Gideon and Ivan instead of Jack and Roger. Just as in “Cancel Me,” the narrator’s relationship with the men is never defined and doesn’t progress. Character-driven narrative takes a back seat to dashed-off, inch-deep lines like “Identity is a Swedish prison, comfortable but you still can’t leave.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It should also be mentioned that these stories won’t pass the most permissive of racial Bechdel tests. The number of non-white references in this 200-page book won’t go past one hand, unless you count the few references to anime and the rapper formerly known as Kanye West. The milieu of Honor Levy’s fiction is undeniably white and privileged, but her best stories exaggerate that milieu to great satirical effect. Perhaps her second book will contain more of them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Leland Cheuk is an award-winning author of three books of fiction, including the latest “No Good Very Bad Asian.’ His writing has appeared in ‘The Washington Post,’ ‘The Boston Globe,’ ‘San Francisco Chronicle,’ and ‘Salon,’ among other outlets.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘My First Book’ by Honor Levy (Penguin Press) is out on May 14, 2014.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"info": "Gentrification is changing cities across America, forcing people from neighborhoods they have long called home. Call them the displaced. Now those priced out of the Bay Area are looking for a better life in an unlikely place. American Suburb follows this migration to one California town along the Delta, 45 miles from San Francisco. But is this once sleepy suburb ready for them?",
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},
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"id": "baycurious",
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"tagline": "Exploring the Bay Area, one question at a time",
"info": "KQED’s new podcast, Bay Curious, gets to the bottom of the mysteries — both profound and peculiar — that give the Bay Area its unique identity. And we’ll do it with your help! You ask the questions. You decide what Bay Curious investigates. And you join us on the journey to find the answers.",
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},
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},
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"info": "KQED’s statewide radio news program providing daily coverage of issues, trends and public policy decisions.",
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"order": 8
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"tagline": "Your state, your stories",
"info": "Every week, The California Report Magazine takes you on a road trip for the ears: to visit the places and meet the people who make California unique. The in-depth storytelling podcast from the California Report.",
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"airtime": "SUN 1pm-2pm, TUE 10pm, WED 1am",
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"source": "City Arts & Lectures"
},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
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"order": 1
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"title": "Code Switch / Life Kit",
"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
"airtime": "THU 10pm, FRI 1am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
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"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"order": 9
},
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"meta": {
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"source": "WNYC"
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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"hidden-brain": {
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"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
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"source": "NPR"
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"how-i-built-this": {
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"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
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"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
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"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
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"order": 18
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},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
}
},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
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"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
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