Readings

The Myths That Keep on Giving

Passed down through generations, fables provide rich material for everything from novels such as Patrick deWitt's Undermajordomo Minor, to Rocky and Bullwinkle and the Twilight Zone. 

First Responders at the End of the World

A nuclear device explodes in a Midwestern city. A hurricane ravages a susceptible coast. What happens next? Inside Vibrant Response, the U.S. Department of Defense's worst-case scenario drill.

'If the Camera Moves it’s Got To Be for a Reason': An Interview with Roger Deakins

One of our greatest living cinematographers on his latest project, Sicario.  

Meaningful Games in September

The Toronto Blue Jays making the playoffs for the first time in 22 years provokes the familiar pull of nostalgia, but much has changed for city and team alike.

Behind the Draped Mirror

Covering mirrors while in mourning has a curious ambivalence: both ritual and superstition, a way of honoring the dead and warding them off, a vow that hides within the fear of something going wrong.

'A Little Outside the Gates of Hollywood': An Interview with Bruce McDonald

Talking with the Hard Core Logo and Highway 61 director about his new film, Hellions, the joys of a hard-ass editor, the miseries of Can-con, and the inherent strangeness of childbirth.

The Girl King of Boylesque

Lou Henry Hoover is a force in boylesque, the traditionally male offshoot of the traditionally female world of burlesque. He's also an outsider: Hoover is the drag persona of the dancer Ricki Mason.

Playing the Book, Reading the Game

As video games increasingly adopt the language and pacing of literature—intricate plots, morally ambiguous characters, endlessly expansive worlds—what effect are they in turn having on books?

'This Goes All the Way to the Queen': The Puzzle Book that Drove England to Madness

An amulet, a treasure hunt, and a legion of readers mobilized by the false patterns our brains create to make sense of the world around us.