No. 24 ~ The Jig Is Up!BUY ISSUE
Hey, it’s our play issue, in which David Graeber hopscotches over the robotic universe of contemporary science and winds up inventing a new law of reality. Barbara Ehrenreich calls for a science that can explain why fun is fun. John Summers reports from “The People’s Republic of Zuckerstan”—once known as the liberal community of Cambridge, Massachusetts, now a playground for startup science and tech professionals. Gene Seymour rescues science fiction from the warped real-world utopias of certain plutocratic cybervisionaries. Andrew Bacevich dances on the grave of Tom Clancy, the recently departed hack thriller writer. Ian Bogost analyzes the addiction economy lurking behind cutting-edge free-to-play videogames, while Rhonda Lieberman walks us through the trophy rooms of leisure-class art hoarders.
And that’s only the half of it. Look here for head-spinning salvos by Chris Lehmann, Susan Faludi, William T. Vollmann, George Scialabba, and Heather Havrilesky on history, politics, feminism, and literature. Anne Elizabeth Moore makes sport of Vice magazine. Alex Pareene practices journalism on the New York Times’ DealBook. Fiction by Paul Maliszewski and J. Wagner; short prose by Jaron Lanier, Gabriel Zaid, and Erik Simon; poetry by Thomas Sayers Ellis; and hilarious graphic art by Brad Holland, Mark Dancey, and David McLimans, who gave us the cover. Not to win or lose the game, but to be free of the system of winners and losers—that’s the spirit.
Table of Contents
Salvos
- The People’s Republic of Zuckerstan John Summers
- What’s the Point If We Can’t Have Fun? David Graeber
- A Thing or Two about a Thing or Two, a.k.a. Science Barbara Ehrenreich
- The Billionaires’ Fantasia Gene Seymour
- Hoard d’Oeuvres Rhonda Lieberman
- Play, Dammit! Heather Havrilesky
- Rage Against the Machines Ian Bogost
- Neoliberalism, the Revolution in Reverse Chris Lehmann
- Deal Me Out Alex Pareene
- The Vertically Integrated Rape Joke Anne Elizabeth Moore
- Feminism for Them? Susan Faludi
- Tom Clancy, Military Man Andrew J. Bacevich
- Decently Downward William T. Vollmann
- How Sweet Is It? George Scialabba
Stories
Poems
- Chemical Life Timothy Donnelly
- Learned Fanny Howe
- Narcissus Tweets Airea D. Matthews
- Concerned Possibly Overly Concerned with the Eagle Warehouse & Storage Company of Brooklyn 1893 Dara Wier
- It was the year we turned to dragons Metta Sáma
- What It Look Like Terrance Hayes
- A Poet’s Guide to the Assassination of JFK [The Assassination of Poetry] Thomas Sayers Ellis