By Clara Godwin-Suttie The concept of camp has long been regarded as famously undefinable, famously decadent, and famously gay, with a noticeable presence throughout history and contemporary times. Susan Sontag, a brilliant queer woman who understood sexuality and gender identity through a progressive perspective of celebration and creativity, wrote the seminal essay that is credited with defining camp and bringing it...
Continue reading...The Writer’s Corner
A life of literary excess: Georges Simenon
I’m introducing the guest post of Clara Godwin-Suttie about Georges Simenon. I’m familiar with his work; I read the first book about Maigret when I was 12-13. Currently, I’m reading his biography, The Mystery of Georges Simenon, written by Fenton Bresler (a second-hand book – the last one – I got via bokborsen), and I’d advise you to grab a...
Continue reading...Tristan Tzara, the “cool dad” of Dadaism
Tristan Tzara, born in Romania in 1896, did not live a happy life. He survived two World Wars and life as a Jew in Europe during the Holocaust. He was also an incredible man, a founder of Dadaism, who wrote plays, poetry, essays, manifestos, directed films, painted and composed music. While it might not be surprising to struggle to come...
Continue reading...The Ultimate Guide to Absurdist Comedy
Absurdism is, in a philosophical sense, the idea that there are no gods, higher purpose, or order to things. At least, that’s what Wikipedia told me. With that in mind, it’s pretty easy to find humor in the mundane. For example, consider a rubber duck. Humans tend to be highly sociable but frequently feel self-conscious; hence the substitution of human...
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