MetaFilter posts tagged with essay

Hi. Whatcha reading?

kimdog — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 08:06:11 -0800

Schrödinger’s Rapist: or a guy’s guide to approaching strange women without being maced.

Fear of Cycling

parudox — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 20:25:24 -0800

Fear of Cycling, an essay in five parts: introduction, constructing fear of cycling, helmet promotion campaigns, new cycling spaces, making cycling strange.

[Note to all my MeFi friends: your post is one of the latter.]

a robot made out of meat — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 10:32:23 -0800

Tim Kreider, known to MeFi for his cartoons and essays is now regularly contributing to the Happy Days blog at NYT. His latest essay The Referendum has what you'd expect of a cartoonist, mastery of the one and two liner and getting to a relevant point quickly.

You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all squalid

mhum — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 12:47:14 -0800

An essay on the horrors of the Port Authority Bus Terminal, in the form of a Choose Your Own Adventure® story. Here are links to some of the things you might see or hear about on your adventure through the squalid and incomprehensible hallways of the Port Authority Bus Terminal (Spoilers Ahead!): A World Trade Center memorial created by a Master Corporal of the Canadian Armed Forces A Wyland Whaling Wall A statue of Jackie Gleason as Ralph Kramden George Segal's sculpture The Commuters, Next Departure Norman B. Colp's, The Commuter's Lament Leisure Time Bowling Center A statue of Fiorello LaGuardia in Greenwich Village

Confessions of an Introverted Traveler

kimdog — Sat, 16 May 2009 09:54:16 -0800

Travel writer Sophia Dembling's essay Confessions of an Introverted Traveler on Worldhum received so much feedback that she's followed up with Six Tips for Introverted Travelers. I am now absolved for reading Jasper Fforde on the Champs-Élysées.

I Like to Fish

netbros — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 11:29:22 -0800

The Last Days of W. Another great photo essay from the folks at Magnum In Motion.

Thomas Pynchon is 71 years old.

Joe Beese — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 11:43:42 -0800

"To make off with hubby's fortune, yea, I think I heard of that happenin' once or twice around L.A. And… you want me to do what exactly?" He found the paper bag he'd brought his supper home in and got busy pretending to scribble notes on it, because straight-chick uniform, makeup supposed to look like no makeup or whatever, here came that old well-known hard-on Shasta was always good for sooner or later. Does it ever end, he wondered. Of course it does. It did. Thomas Pynchon's next novel, the 416-page Inherent Vice, is described by Penguin Press as "part noir, part psychedelic romp, all Thomas Pynchon — private eye Doc Sportello comes, occasionally, out of a marijuana haze to watch the end of an era as free love slips away and paranoia creeps in with the L.A. fog." While we wait for its August 4 publication, we can read an essay on the dystopian musical he co-wrote at Cornell or watch a clip of that movie they made of Gravity's Rainbow. related posts here and here

Spontaneous rebellion alone is not sufficient.

divabat — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 12:52:44 -0800

The Revolutionary Pleasure of Thinking for Yourself

Yes it is!

blue_beetle — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 12:27:38 -0800

Is this your paper on single serving sites?

"Just don’t call this blog entry a deconstruction."

defenestration — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 12:27:22 -0800

It was a dark and stormy campaign... A film theorist's thoughts on the narratives of Barack Obama and John McCain. This was published before the election, but I only just found it. Although the votes have been cast, and new narratives are forming, this is still certainly worth a look.

Foreclosures by Bruce Gilden.

chunking express — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 04:49:48 -0800

Foreclosures. A photo essay by Magnum photographer Bruce Gilden. The essay has audio, as does the you tube video of Gilden street shooting in New York. You need to watch the video of him working on the street, just to be impressed at how he doesn't get punched.

When Books Could change Your Life

Jon_Evil — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 13:34:10 -0800

When Books Could Change Your Life: an excellent essay on Children's literature by Tim Kreider, (previously), on the importance of reading as cultural socialization.

Sokal and beyond

Gyan — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 01:22:03 -0800

Truth's Caper : essay by Simon Blackburn on Sokal's Hoax.

Too much love in the home?

kimdog — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 12:56:56 -0800

The Kindergarchy: An essay on modern parenting.

And I Feel Fine

amyms — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 23:32:04 -0800

The End Of The World As We Know It. If you want to imagine the catastrophe - how you would cope, what would you do to save yourself and your family - where do you turn for advice?... The idea of dying together, all of us, in some ways seems less appalling than the thought of going alone. Via.

Those who appear to be a little too happy will be asked to leave.

amyms — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 19:12:25 -0800

How I Want To Be Remembered by Jack Handey. He was fabulously wealthy, but he would pretend to be broke, and often tried to borrow cigarettes and money from people. Little did they know that those who gave him stuff would later be rewarded in his will, with jewels and antigravity helmets. You may know Jack Handey from his Deep Thoughts which first gained fame on as filler between sketches on Saturday Night Live. He is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker (scroll down this page for his other essays).

Essays on writing by various tv and movie writers

Tehanu — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 14:23:15 -0800

An essay by Bill Lawrence, creator of "Scrubs," on why he writes. It's part of a series: "Why We Write." Other highlights include: Damon Lindelof ("Lost"), Mark Gaberman ("Jeopardy!"), Jane Espenson ("Buffy" "Battlestar Gallactica"), Jack Kenny ("Titus" "Book of Daniel"), Howard Gordon ("24"), Hart Hanson ("Bones"), and Gary Lennon ("The Shield").

"Just go to Gooniizu. I love Gooniizu."

amyms — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 17:32:20 -0800

English As A Second Language: "In which our heroine helps a Japanese friend find where the Goonies lived. Sort of." A recent essay from Emily's World, a biweekly column written by Emily Maloney, at The Smart Set.

"The Worst Addiction of Them All"

stbalbach — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 20:12:44 -0800

"The Worst Addiction of Them All", by Kurt Vonnegut, 1983. A classic and prescient essay on addiction to war.

racist postcards and white privilege

exlotuseater — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 10:54:58 -0800

"Reflections on White Privilege" by Tad Lawrence, dean of faculty, Cambridge School of Weston "That white Americans would send cards such as the ones I will show you for the most ordinary of purposes indicates the frightening extent to which they had internalized, accepted and condoned the presentation of African Americans that were the public face of the cards they sent." Also: Peggy McIntosh: The invisible backpack.

The Unqualified Reservations of Mencius Moldbug

blasdelf — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 14:59:40 -0800

Unqualified Reservations is a fascinating ongoing commentary on society and governance in postmodernity. He's currently on about the pwning of Richard Dawkins, after writing about Mediocracy and Official Journalism. It might be best to first read his earlier posts in which he defines the self-invented terminology he's fond of using, like: Formalism, The Iron Polygon, Universalism, Neocameralism, and The Rotary System. I stumbled upon this blog after another blog linked to Mencius' posts about the role of Graduate Schools in Computer Science Research, and I got drawn in! His posts are long, and the comment threads on them are exceptionally longwinded and well-reasoned as well. Be warned, you could easily lose a whole day reading through his archives, as I did. Part of what's so fascinating about it is that he often writes from the perspective of hundreds of years in the future, discussing present society as if it's major features had been distilled and anthologized for many generations already.

Errol Morris, talking pictures.

From Bklyn — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 02:23:35 -0800

Errol Morris, documentary filmmaker, talking pictures in the N.Y.Times. The comments are not bad either. (previously)

Titillating treasure trove of tit torture tidbits.

goodnewsfortheinsane — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 19:54:37 -0800

Matt Nicholson's Breast Punishment Primer discusses the history of tit torture, the anatomy of breasts and the motivation for torturing one (or two), and various manners in which one might torture a tit. That and tit torture trivia. All links NSFW.

Student's essay is "disorderly conduct"

Many bubbles — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 21:01:41 -0800

"Some legal experts said the charge against Allen Lee is troubling because it was over an essay that even police admit contained no direct threats against anyone at the school." Newsfilter: A high school senior is arrested for a "disturbing" essay in the wake of the Virginia Tech shooting.

Operation Kaprekar

fatllama — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 22:19:42 -0800

Mysterious number 6174. An excellent recreational math article.