review | Antenna

Confronting the surrounding, unbearable silence: A review of Lauren Levin’s The Braid

In “Can the Subaltern Speak?”, Gayatri Spivak critiques Deleuze and Guattari’s Anti-Oedipus; she writes: “theories of ideology cannot afford to overlook the category of representation in two senses…[t]hey must note how the staging of the world in representation…dissimulates the choice of and need for “heroes,” paternal proxies, agents of power.” Spivak’s distinction between these simultaneously … Confronting the surrounding, unbearable silence: A review of Lauren Levin’s The Braid

A walk down Cultural Fascination Street with Richard Campanella

By Jeri Hilt Richard Campanella’s newest book, Bourbon Street: A History, provides an impressive historiography of the street, from genesis to its present-day manifestation, and attempts to unpack the role that the “adaptive commodification of culture” has had on its longevity and success. Bourbon Street is described in the book as both a phenomenon and … A walk down Cultural Fascination Street with Richard Campanella

A bird, a cage, a song, a warble: THE OBLIVION ATLAS

The Oblivion Atlas By Michael Allen Zell, with images by Louviere + Vanessa (Lavender Ink) Reviewed by Derick Dupre The only time a movie moves is when a shutter keeps you from seeing the picture change. What you perceive as continuous motion is actually an illusion. Persistence of vision is a tricky theory, which is … A bird, a cage, a song, a warble: THE OBLIVION ATLAS

The Boy is Gone: Brad Richard’s BUTCHER’S SUGAR

Butcher’s Sugar By Brad Richard (Sibling Rivalry Press) Reviewed by Taylor Murrow The title poem in Butcher’s Sugar is one that wrecked me. If you read the book from front to back, it appears about a third of the way through. By the time you reach that poem—the one that begins “Beyond the candied peristyle … The Boy is Gone: Brad Richard’s BUTCHER’S SUGAR

Notes from the New Orleans Underground: Michael Zell’s ERRATA

Errata By Michael Zell Lavender Ink Press Reviewed by Erik Vande Stouwe The notion of a New Orleans underground might seem redundant—perhaps even tongue-in-cheek—bringing forth the fact that the narrator of Dostoevsky’s Notes from the Underground was, after all, really still well above sea level. In his debut novel, Errata, Michael Zell does not take … Notes from the New Orleans Underground: Michael Zell’s ERRATA

THERE WILL BE BANANAS: If Samuel Zemurray is Daniel Plainview, why doesn’t Rich Cohen treat him like it?

The Fish that Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America’s Banana King By Rich Cohen Farrar, Straus, and Giroux Reviewed by Nathan C. Martin Samuel Zemurray, former president of the United Fruit company and history’s most ambitious banana magnate, has a lot in common with Daniel Plainview, the antihero of P.T. Anderson’s 2007 … THERE WILL BE BANANAS: If Samuel Zemurray is Daniel Plainview, why doesn’t Rich Cohen treat him like it?

Another love letter: A review of Constance Adler’s “My Bayou”

My Bayou: New Orleans Through the Eyes of a Lover By Constance Adler Michigan State University Press Reviewed by Taylor Murrow Everyone has his or her New Orleans story. There is the college freshman, eager to experience Bourbon Street in all of its neon-lit, to-go-drink glory. There is the vacationer who became transfixed by second … Another love letter: A review of Constance Adler’s “My Bayou”

The political philosophy of a man-made disaster: A review of THE NEOLIBERAL DELUGE

The Neoliberal Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, Late Capitalism, and the Remaking of New Orleans Cedric Johnson (ed.) University of Minnesota Press Reviewed by Andy Cook New Orleanians understand what is meant by the assertion that Hurricane Katrina was a man-made disaster. Sure, a hurricane is a force of nature, but the extent of its damage wouldn’t … The political philosophy of a man-made disaster: A review of THE NEOLIBERAL DELUGE

From the Editor’s Bookshelf: A Room 220 Holiday Gift Guide

By Nathan C. Martin My bookshelf is full of books I’ve never read. Books are the only things I buy on impulse, and I rarely enter a bookstore I like without buying something. Not only that, but if I like a book I’ve read, I’ll often give it away to a friend. I also move … From the Editor’s Bookshelf: A Room 220 Holiday Gift Guide

The Artistry of Loujon Press: Part 2

Pelican Bomb, an online comrade, has posted Part 2 of the two-part series I wrote about the publications of Loujon Press, a fine-press publisher based in the French Quarter in the 1960s. Loujon published two of Bukowski’s first books, four issues of its literary magazine, The Outsider, and two of Henry Miller’s books, which are … The Artistry of Loujon Press: Part 2