Actress Michelle Trachtenberg was found dead by her mother today at the age of 39, at her apartment in Manhattan. Autopsies have yet to determine the cause of her death, though she had recently undergone a liver transplant. Trachtenberg was known for her roles in Harriet the Spy, Gossip Girl, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Ice... Read More

Ron Unz recently noted “the sharp decline in quality of the New York Times.” He might have added that we can still learn things from the Times by reading between the lines, the way Soviet-era Russians read Tass and Pravda. That’s a good way to read today’s David Lynch obituary. The Times, like the rest... Read More

I was honored to be featured in yesterday’s Tehran Times. The front page announces Iran’s “clean victory” with its successful retaliation for Israel’s attack on its Damascus consulate. Ali Hamedin recently interviewed me for his two-part Tehran Times article on science fiction and colonialism. (Here’s Part 2 ). Much of the interview turned on James... Read More

I discovered the great Latin American fabulist Augusto Monterroso through a bilingual Arabic-Spanish edition of La Oveja Negra y Demas Fabulas (The Black Sheep and Other Fables). I have read through it slowly several times, checking the Spanish words I don’t know against the Arabic, and the fewer Arabic ones against the Spanish. Monterroso is... Read More

In the age of Marvel, turbo charged self-aware irony, and shoehorned diversity in film, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find something interesting to watch. By and large, movie lists are seldom worth publishing, but I’ve been told that I have a novel taste in cinema. Several of these are foreign, some deal with very dark... Read More

Above is my new interview with John Friend of The AFP Report. The topic: Soros and Anti-Semitism. Below is a brief tribute to Cormac McCarthy, including my recent conversation with Linh Dinh on McCarthy’s The Road . -KB Whoever America’s greatest living novelist is, it isn’t Cormac McCarthy any more. The author of The Road,... Read More

Dissociated Press The Anti-Defecation League (ADL) has issued a press release slamming Sam Cooke’s classic “Wonderful World” and demanding the song be canceled. According to ADL president Jonathan Greenbutt, the line “don’t know much about history” is unacceptable. “Every American needs to know everything we tell them about the most important thing that ever happened... Read More