Porn from the Inside: In conversation with Stoya
For some, the word “pornstar” now reeks of ‘70s tack, evoking fake tan, muzak and pizza delivery boys turning up at Californian poolsides. Everything, from the colours to the body parts, is enhanced to the point of hyperreality. Stoya is a pornstar. But she is a pornstar unlike any other. Even
Haunted by Kindness: Dinner with an Armenian Ultranationalist
My friend and I met our host on a street corner in Gyumri, a dour and dusty city in western Armenia. He was beefy and broad-shouldered, with watery eyes and sharp features rounded slightly by fat. He strode over to introduce himself, and though he did not speak English, succeeded in inviting us back
The rune singer: an ancient art revived
On the rim of the Arctic Circle, in a timber house half-buried by snow, Jussi Huovinen sits before a small fire, an arthritic finger poised to pluck a wooden kantele. Dust dances off its steel strings as snowflakes fall against the windowpane. The smell of boiling lamb warms the room. Three hundred
Love is Enough: Jeremy Deller in Oxford
An interview with Jeremy Deller and a review of his Modern Art Oxford show ‘Love is Enough’ Since Jeremy Deller generates his own work through what can and has been called a curatorial process, I approached the Modern Art Oxford show with the impression that it was, in its entirety, one
How to Read a ‘Freak’: A Psychobiography of Diane Arbus
“What I do in the Arbus book is what a lot of biographers do, a lot less explicitly: I try making sense of the reasons why Arbus took the kinds of pictures she did. So, I examine the subjective—emotional, psychological—origins of her art,” William Todd Schultz, author of a new book on th
Julia Kristeva: An Intellectual Rebirth
In a recent talk on the subject of French Intellectuals, Noam Chomsky asserted that “France is an extremely insular culture… everything is in France; nothing is anywhere else”. He noted the particular status accorded to the French intelligentsia: “French intellectuals tend to be media st
On Furlough: Taking the Greyhound to Dallas
It was an oppressively sunny afternoon in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and I was scheduled to make a 15 hour Greyhound journey from Chucky’s Convenience Store on the outskirts of town to the bus terminal in Dallas, Texas. I had been warned half-jokingly by my American friends about taking the Greyhound
Phoolan Devi: The story of India’s Bandit Queen
On 12 May 1996, a young woman from the Mallah caste wins a seat in the Indian parliament. She has no formal education, and from the age of 11 has been repeatedly raped and abused by her older husband. But she is also a dacoit, leader of a band of armed robbers, the “Beautiful Bandit” […]
Hard to Stomach: Diary of an Extreme Vegan
“l consume all my urine,” Brian Nexus tells me. “It’s the third most powerful thing in my lifestyle [after] sungazing and meditation.” However this is far from the most unusual aspect of his diet—an extreme form of raw veganism known as ‘sproutarianism’. Raw vegans eschew all animal