What If The Texas Chain Saw Massacre Was Really About the Horrors of Modern American Society?

Putting the Austin-made seminal slasher back into context

"...real – ahem – meat here is the bloody brilliant granular contextualization of the global zeitgeist that informed the..."

March 22, 2019 Screens Feature by Marc Savlov

Washington Square

"...roll capitalism. Washington Square is one of the most “modern” works in the Jamesian oeuvre, owing to its dark..."

Nov. 7, 1997 Movie Review by Russell Smith

Enter the Hugos

We Take On the Best of SF

"...Plus, this book is a fine example of what modern fantasy can be. There are no dwarves, no quests,..."

July 31, 1998 Books Feature by Adrienne Martini

The Whole Universe Rocks

The Harry Ransom Center's exhibition "Make It New" explores how modernism changed everything.

"...spent every evening at symphonies and galleries. But before modernism, art never seemed downright hostile...."

Dec. 12, 2003 Arts Feature by Katherine Catmull

Texas Tales

For those of you who are still pondering the eternal question that seems to arise wherever beer and English majors appear together in the Lone Star State, the answer is: Texas does indeed have a separate and distinctive literature, Tom Doyal writes. If you have been arguing the other side of this proposition, the writers and publishers of Texas have issued you a sharp rebuke in their new spring releases.

"...Nothing has shaped modern Texas, in reality and in myth, as much as..."

May 25, 2001 Books Feature by Tom Doyal

Book Reviews

For the Relief of Unbearable Urges: Stories

"...of a historical function. That is to say, Englander's prose reaches beyond a personal scope and attempts to seduce..."

June 11, 1999 Books Review

I Wanna Take You Higher

"...Cagan's authorial guidance here -- Slick' s artwork looks brilliant next to the "inspirational poetry" that Cagan let Diana..."

Dec. 4, 1998 Books Feature by Simon Reynolds

Postmarks

Crisis Controversy

"...is making money from the sale of books, not proselytizing for free speech. Though the two may certainly intersect,..."

Dec. 27, 1996 Column

Postmarks

Balcones Responds

"...Chronicle -- articles where, for whatever reason, both his prose and his polemics were more disciplined. It must be..."

Dec. 6, 1996 Column

Rock, They Wrote

Writing From Both Sides of the Musical Fence

"...Richard. Seven years later, little has changed: In the post-modern Nineties literature swims the stream of popular consciousness more..."

June 21, 1996 Books Feature

1999 SXSW Music Festival

"...enough in an indie rock kinda way, that their brilliant key changes coupled with playful, intelligent lyrics make us..."

March 19, 1999 Music Feature

Book Reviews

"...Europe with occasional trips to Houston. The author's elegant prose portrays life as it is, not as we want..."

April 2, 1999 Books Review

In Real Life: Cory Doctorow

Wearing goggles or not, he's in town for the Texas Teen Book Festival

"...doing that instead?” So I ended up writing a prose novel based on my big treatment – it’s called..."

Oct. 15, 2014 Books Post by Wayne Alan Brenner

Sex, Lies, and Katie Folger

The Austin artist on her new show, Getting in Bed With the Pizza Man

"...my attention — ha! Anyways, I’ve also been writing prose for years behind the scenes: I’m a long time..."

May 11, 2023 Arts Post by Richard Whittaker

Was It Good for You?

The year in books

"...that not only stands on its own as a brilliant short story about musical obsession but also sets the..."

Jan. 1, 2010 Books Feature by Jay Trachtenberg

Austin Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing

Shakespeare’s rom-com gets a light staging with fine performances and lots of genuine laughs

"...those keeping track at home, it's also mostly in prose rather than verse...."

Nov. 24, 2017 Arts Review by Elizabeth Cobbe

The Last Policeman: Countdown City

In which, among other things, an author hits Earth with a huge asteroid.

"...characters & which provides interest only to those PhD-track Modern Lit students whose prime raison d'être is the attempt..."

Aug. 7, 2013 Books Post by Wayne Alan Brenner

Four Space Nerds Sitting Around Talking…

Space Tech After NASA: Boom Time for Innovation, or those were the days?

"...phone embedded under the dermis? I smiled wondering how modern technology would create an environment to draw moisture from..."

March 13, 2013 SXSW Post by Kate X Messer

Maddowpalooza

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow brings political (un)convention to SXSW

"...laughter as the crowd kinda hung on her every brilliant word. La Madd pretty much dispensed with pleasantries (aside..."

March 11, 2013 SXSW Post by Kate X Messer

Summer Reading

Anyone familiar with the musical output of John Wesley Harding (né Wesley Stace) knows that the artist possesses a sly wit and literary ear that sets him apart from his fellow folk singers

"...with bodice-ripping, often hilarious results. While some of the prose clunks with the effort, Stace concocts a strange, unsettling..."

May 27, 2005 Books Feature by Melanie Haupt

'Bad Boy Brawly Brown' Reviewed

Has Walter Mosley's seventh novel in the Easy Rawlins series lived up to its predecessors? Jesse Sublett lets you know in his review of Bad Boy Brawly Brown.

"...life with his two adopted children and his beautiful, brilliant girlfriend, Bonnie...."

Oct. 18, 2002 Books Feature by Jesse Sublett

Book Reviews

Essential Saltes: An Experiment

"...in the vault, not disgust at the greed of modern publishers, but simply an overwhelming sadness. This is a..."

July 16, 1999 Books Review

Book Reviews

Essential Saltes: An Experiment

"...in the vault, not disgust at the greed of modern publishers, but simply an overwhelming sadness. This is a..."

July 16, 1999 Books Feature

Aliens, Martian Colonies, and Dwarves

1997 Hugo Nominees Reviewed

"...satirical enough to be viewed as a comment on modern life. Nor are there enough explosions to make it..."

Aug. 8, 1997 Books Feature

Behind the Tall Tales of Lester Bangs in Texas

Lester's Last Stand

"...in rock's excesses and matched its passion in his prose, celebrating honesty, emotion, and energy over bullshit like technical..."

March 7, 1997 Books Feature