Writer. First Gen @CarnegieMellon PhD. Early modern lit, mind, and hermeneutics. Teaching @PittTweet and @duqedu. Very bad tweets. He/Him
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Articles by Nathan Pensky
Becoming Benjamin Lay
The word premier of “Becoming Benjamin Lay” will be on April 11 at 4PM with a screening at Carnegie One in Braddock, PA. He was small in stature, but impossible to ignore. A man who refused to wear clothes made from exploited labor. Who would interrupt church services, not politely but theatrically, and even sometimes violently, to expose the moral rot beneath polite society.
John Sayles on Labor, Politics, and Money
John Sayles is the Oscar-nominated writer/director of such films as Matewan, Eight Men Out, and Lone Star, and as well a National Book Award-nominated author of novels such as Union Dues, A Moment In the Sun, and most recently his sprawling epic about the Ford Company, Crucible. We spoke with Sayles about a number of topics from his new novel to unions, automation, and the inevitable comparisons between Henry Ford and Elon Musk.
Amy Jo Burns’ Appalachia
Young women, old women, working women. Women who take the power denied them, women who want nothing more than to disappear, and women who fight for their families. Women who try and fail and abide. These women anchor the stories Amy Jo Burns tells with exquisite tenderness.
When Writing Makes the World Bigger: An Interview with Ren Cedar Fuller
offering a craft class at The University of Pittsburgh’s Writing Center on Friday, March 27 from 3:30 until 5:30 p.m. (The Writing Center is located in The O’Hara Student Center, 3rd Floor). She will also be reading as part of the Short Reads Anniversary Reading sponsored by PRoB media partner Autumn House Press on Saturday, March 28 from 7-8 p.m. at White Whale Bookstore in Bloomfield. Both events are free and open to the public.
It’s a Snow Day, Welcome to Hell
Good Evening, Burkwood Hills Families— Due to expected inclement weather, the Burkwood Hills school district is moving to a Flexible Instruction Day (FID) tomorrow. All students should log in virtually for instruction and follow their typical daily schedule. And by “typical daily schedule,” we mean an absolute clusterfuck of pleading and consequence-threatening to get your kids to do literally any of their required work while you also somehow do your job from home.
We Need to Talk about Your Behavior at Our “Eyes Wide Shut” Parties
Hi Todd, thanks for coming in. We wanted to have a little chat with you about some complaints from our other members. Ordinarily in-house communications would occur through terse, typewritten messages delivered by a stone-faced butler. But given the nature of what we're dealing with here, we thought a direct approach might be better. No, it is nothing very serious. We have ways of… correcting those sorts of infractions. In fact, it is the non-seriousness of your behavior that is at issue.
'The Boy With a Bird in His Chest,' struggles to find his way in the world
Country United States of AmericaUS Virgin IslandsUnited States Minor Outlying IslandsCanadaMexico, United Mexican StatesBahamas, Commonwealth of theCuba, Republic ofDominican RepublicHaiti, Republic ofJamaicaAfghanistanAlbania, People's Socialist Republic ofAlgeria, People's Democratic Republic ofAmerican SamoaAndorra, Principality ofAngola, Republic ofAnguillaAntarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S)Antigua and BarbudaArgentina, Argentine RepublicArmeniaArubaAustralia, Commonwealth...
Emme Lund’s debut novel isn’t your typical coming-of-age fantasy
March 7, 2022 at 6:00 am By Star Tribune Book review Emme Lund’s debut novel “The Boy with a Bird in His Chest” is not your typical coming-of-age fantasy. The book features more than a few standard markers of that genre — for instance, the title is no passing metaphor. Our teenaged protagonist, Owen Tanner, actually does have a bird living in his rib cage, with part of his chest cavity open to the air so that the bird can poke its beak through his exposed ribs.
Review: A boy born with a bird in his chest struggles to understand his place in a hostile world
“The Boy With a Bird in His Chest” by Emme Lund; Atria (308 pages, $27) Emme Lund’s debut novel “The Boy With a Bird in His Chest” is not your typical coming-of-age fantasy. The book features more than a few standard markers of that genre — for instance, the title is no passing metaphor. Our teenaged protagonist, Owen Tanner, actually does have a bird living in his rib cage, with part of his chest cavity open to the air so that the bird can poke its beak through his exposed ribs.
'The Boy With a Bird in His Chest,' by Emme Lund
A boy born with a bird in his chest struggles to understand his place in a hostile world. "The Boy With a Bird in His Chest" by Emme Lund; Atria (308 pages, $27) Emme Lund's debut novel "The Boy With a Bird in His Chest" is not your typical coming-of-age fantasy. The book features more than a few standard markers of that genre - for instance, the title is no passing metaphor.
'The Boy With a Bird in His Chest,' by Emme Lund
A boy born with a bird in his chest struggles to understand his place in a hostile world. "The Boy With a Bird in His Chest" by Emme Lund; Atria (308 pages, $27) Emme Lund's debut novel "The Boy With a Bird in His Chest" is not your typical coming-of-age fantasy. The book features more than a few standard markers of that genre - for instance, the title is no passing metaphor.
'The Boy With a Bird in His Chest,' by Emme Lund
A boy born with a bird in his chest struggles to understand his place in a hostile world. "The Boy With a Bird in His Chest" by Emme Lund; Atria (308 pages, $27) Emme Lund's debut novel "The Boy With a Bird in His Chest" is not your typical coming-of-age fantasy. The book features more than a few standard markers of that genre - for instance, the title is no passing metaphor.
'The Boy With a Bird in His Chest,' by Emme Lund
A boy born with a bird in his chest struggles to understand his place in a hostile world. "The Boy With a Bird in His Chest" by Emme Lund; Atria (308 pages, $27) Emme Lund's debut novel "The Boy With a Bird in His Chest" is not your typical coming-of-age fantasy. The book features more than a few standard markers of that genre - for instance, the title is no passing metaphor.
Review: 'The Boy With a Bird in His Chest,' by Emme Lund
Emme Lund's debut novel "The Boy With a Bird in His Chest" is not your typical coming-of-age fantasy. The book features more than a few standard markers of that genre — for instance, the title is no passing metaphor. Our teenaged protagonist, Owen Tanner, actually does have a bird living in his rib cage, with part of his chest cavity open to the air so that the bird can poke its beak through his exposed ribs.
Administrative Alligators in the Florida Swamp!
Last week I had a drink with an Indian academic who teaches at an out-of-the-way American college. I asked her why she’d gone there from India, and she told me about the years of sometimes deadly crackdowns by government officials on student protests under Narendra Modi’s government. Though I’d been following those incidents in the news, I hadn’t understood their chilling effect on faculty members.
Steven Pinker’s Disciplinary Drift
Last month, Steven Pinker published Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters. The book represents yet another milestone in the author’s slide from world-renowned linguist and cognitive scientist to apologist for Enlightenment values.
Power, Loss and Madness in Kurosawa's Ran and Shakespeare's King Lear
If one can say anything about William Shakespeare’s plays in general, it is that his characters’ personalities often figure at the forefront. Shakespearean characters are, for the most part, imbued with power enough to act rather than be acted upon. Their follies and blind spots are largely self-determined. Conflicts between the one and the many actually conflict between the one and their own perceptions, complicated by an inability to view anything outside a singularity of vision.
Akira Kurosawa Films 101: 1963 - 1970
High and Low (1963) What would you give to save the life of your child? That should be an easy one: you give whatever it takes, down to your last nickel and then some. A more interesting question: what would you give to save the life of someone else’s child? Wealthy industrialist Kingo Gondo (Toshirô Mifune) finds himself confronted with both questions in rapid succession in Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low.
Akira Kurosawa Films 101: 1949 - 1950
The Quiet Duel (1949) The Quiet Duel is a morality tale about a good man coming to terms with fleshly passions. The titular “duel” is that between a young doctor’s moral equilibrium and the desires of his heart, even those most identifiable and seemingly noble. In only his second collaboration with Akira Kurosawa, Toshiro Mifune plays a wartime surgeon, Dr. Kyoji Fujisaki, whose clinical understanding of humanity is given a crash course.
The Problematic Past and Enduring Appeal of Dr. Seuss
For many people, Dr. Seuss is the first real media figure they bond with. Of course, there’s always the odd kid who identifies hard with Peter Falk in old reruns of Columbo (ahem, it me). But all things being equal, probably no media personality looms as large in the lives of small children as Theodor Seuss Geisel. This is certainly the case with my two kids, both under the age of 5.
Why 'Attack of the Clones' Is the Most Important 'Star Wars' Film
Now, in the Year of Our Lord 2019, with the oceans warming and the air becoming increasingly toxic, I will write an opinion about Star Wars. I am fully aware that to do so is to shout into the void, to descend slowly into my own navel like a droid sinking into the Mustafarian lava. But here we are, fans with opinions. What else can I do? You clicked the link, and I’ve got words about Star Wars for you. Let’s whisper Huttese love poetry to each other.
Sylvester Stallone's 1987 Arm-Wrestling Film 'Over the Top' Is Still Hollywood's Most Awesome Movie About Divorced Dads
Like a lot of kids with divorced parents, I built up no small amount of mythology around my family. So naturally a movie that trades in these myths was a big hit with me when it came out in 1987. It didn’t hurt that it also featured big trucks, competitive arm-wrestling… and Sylvester Stallone. The film Over the Top is really something. It isn’t quite bad enough for a midnight hate-watch but resides somewhere in the uncanny valley between awful and so-bad-it’s-good.
Sunday Stories: “Desire Lines”
Most men in Brandsville look uncomfortable coming into a hair salon. You can tell by how they sit or how they won’t meet your eyes. There are two salons in town and only one barbershop. The old barber is about 80 years old and really starting to lose his stuff. No one blames him. He’s been at it for about sixty years. Some men in town it doesn’t matter what they look like. They need a haircut for church or pictures. They work down at the Channellock plant or they cart poultry for one of the farms.
The Death of the Author: Reflecting on Denis Johnson’s “The Largesse of the Sea Maiden”
IN THE LAST LINES of “Triumph Over the Grave,” the fourth story in this excellent short story collection, Denis Johnson writes, “It’s plain to you that at the time I write this, I’m not dead. But maybe by the time you read it.” This is the sort of passage that defies the line between fiction and autobiography, between narrator and author.
Where the Streets Have No Name
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Joshua Ferris masters the short story
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John Darnielle's second novel underperforms
John Darnielle exploded onto the literary scene in 2014, with his debut novel “Wolf in White Van.” Known for years as the frontman and lyricist for long-standing folk-rock group The Mountain Goats, Mr. Darnielle’s literary talents didn't exactly come out of nowhere. But the stark brilliance of the novel still felt like a new voice had broken onto the scene, staking new territory for the literary novel.
Everything you know about Facebook's mood experiment is just the beginning
Last week, news broke about a psychological study conducted by Facebook researchers that once again set the Internet talking about the ways the company controls users’ data, invades their privacy, and, in this case, actively tries to alter their moods without knowledge or consent beyond standard “terms and conditions.” The study was published in Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), using the Facebook data of over half a million users to show “experimental evidence that...
Posthumous debut novel The Last Magazine hints at Hastings’ unrealized promise
The Last Magazine is a well-meaning, sometimes well-written book about the culture and industry of magazine feature news writing as it existed in the early ’00s. Its author, Michael Hastings, had a brilliant career in journalism that was cut short by a tragic car accident last year, and his novel follows two reporters through a year on staff at a print-news mag called (what else?) The Magazine. One reporter is on on his way up, and the other is on his way down.
Waiting at the Gate
My mom and her cancer sit in a wheelchair in the Las Vegas airport. She wears a black terrycloth sweater and a t-shirt and sweatpants. She looks small and frail. She doesn’t talk much, but the familiar timbre of her voice comforts me. I try and listen for it through the coughing. There are things about her that have not changed, and I cling to them in my mind. The crook of her nose. Her jawline.
The House Always Wins
My mom lives in Laughlin, Nevada with cancer. She had lung cancer that went into remission years ago. Then a few months ago, she was told the cancer was back. I asked her to come live with me in Pennsylvania, but she liked her apartment, her doctors, her cats. I sent money every month and called every two or three days. It got worse. Last week she went to the hospital saying she didn’t feel good. She had pneumonia. Doctors admitted her and started treating her, but the next day she had a seizure.
Poverty and the “Just World hypothesis”
There’s an idea that gets thrown around in tech circles — notably in the high-profile rants of Peter Shih and Greg Gopnik – that “poor people” or “homeless people” are “lazy” or they “deserve to be poor.” Sometimes this isn’t stated outright but rather strongly suggested or implied. I’ve heard it most recently in connection to the San Francisco housing debate, but it’s by no means unique to any one issue.
Magical Blodgeting
I recently wrote an article for my day job at Pando about “Magical thinking in Silicon Valley.” Something that got left on the editing room floor for that article and one of the most revealing examples of magical thinking is Henry Blodget’s infamous article, “Why Do People Hate the Jews?” Upon release, the article was called ridiculous by some, racist by others, and tone-deaf by all.
Ray Kurzweil is wrong: The Singularity is not near
Technology culture celebrates “the crazy ones,” those who expand our understanding of life, who can forge new realities out of their own imagination. Then again, sometimes “the crazy ones” come up with things that are just plain crazy. I am thinking of Ray Kurzweil. No doubt he’s brilliant. He’s the inventor of the flatbed scanner and an innovator of many other technologies, including those involving character recognition, text-to-speech, speech recognition, and the music synthesizer.
What is a hater?
Conventional Internet wisdom tells us that the Web is a never-ceasing hotbed of negativity, a swirling cesspool of haterism. Don’t ever read the comments. Don’t feed the trolls. Block and unfollow with impunity. Haters, please show yourselves to the left. Thus it is, and thus it always shall be. The only problem with this way of thinking is that it doesn’t actually allow for what the Web is best at, communicating in real time.
Magical thinking in Silicon Valley
In 1962, science-fiction author Arthur C. Clarke wrote his Three Laws of Prediction, on how to think about future technologies. The third law is by far the most popularly quoted: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Sometimes I wonder if we’re entering a period of history where technology advances at such a fast clip that the thinking of ordinary people about tech starts to approach this sort of superstitious reverence.
Highlights from The Real Housewives of Yoknapatawpha County.
Addie Bundren encounters Miss Emily by accident in the forest outside Jefferson. Addie is hunting possum with Darl. Miss Emily is burning a crib, wearing her wedding dress and drinking arsenic from a tarnished silver flask. Miss Emily yells “God don’t like ugly” at Darl and calls him “trash.” Addie calls Miss Emily “a worried soul” under her breath, as she and Darl disappear into the woods. Lennie Snopes looks out the kitchen window, while her husband Abner cleans Major de Spain’s rug with lye.
Days after criticizing marijuana, beer-mogul governor hosted celebration of alcohol industry at his mansion
Yesterday, we reviewed why it is so hypocritical for Colorado’s beer-peddling governor to now deride marijuana as unsafe. But in case you needed a real-time example of just how utterly absurd the hypocrisy can be in the day-to-day, see this invitation for a party at Gov. John Hickenlooper’s (D-Co.) mansion last night.
The late, great 8-hour workday
Startup founders have been known to talk about “entrepreneurship as a lifestyle.” Long hours, bad food, poor job security – these are bragging rights among many tech founders. They’re building something after all. Worrying about physical well-being and mental health and wearing clothes that aren’t sweatpants can wait until after the big exit, and sometimes not even then. Tech people will tell you that they’re not concerned much with their own personal needs to rest or to spend time away from work.
We Read “On Smarm”
Darryl, I think you liked “On Smarm” a bit more than I did, though you might agree with me that it was imprecisely written? Like everyone else, I read Tom Scocca’s “On Smarm” giggling through my teeth. (The response I emailed Kevin, a screenshot of which he so nicely tweeted, was kind of a dumb thing to say, and I liked the essay a lot better the second time I read it through. But it’s good to know my friends will be there to tweet screenshots of my dumbest moments on the internet.
White Flamingos | Thought Catalog
White Flamingos follows a young couple during their last week before moving away from a small college town in Arizona. Trent McEntyre and his fiancée, Claudia Minter, must say their goodbyes to family and friends but find that tying up loose ends is more complicated than they had imagined. Trent’s friend, Casey, has become involved with a small-time drug dealer, with whom Trent must negotiate for Casey’s safety.
If You Liked The Grey, Then You’d Better Check Out The Edge
If you enjoyed watching Liam Neeson battle territorial wolves in Joe Carnahan’s The Grey — and plenty of moviegoers have — then you'd be well-advised to look into Lee Tamahori's 1997 thriller The Edge. Starring Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin and perhaps best characterized by screenwriter David Mamet's trademark clipped dialogue, the film is an unusually strong entry in the survival-story tradition — and one to which The Grey owes at least a spiritual debt (if not more).
Welcome to Nature’s Corner Bakery
Welcome to Nature’s Corner Fresh Baked Goods, where organically conceived pastries and artisanally baked bread are the order of the day. I’ll be your baked goods representative, Aura. Here you see our fine assortment of breads and pastries. Perhaps you’d like a Pumpernickel Batard, with a hand-fired crust? It’s on special right now for $126.99. That probably sounds a bit pricy. But our grains are individually hand-picked by blind monks, and our dough is kneaded by trained hairless kittens.
Bruce Willis Reflects on His IMDb Page
I’m Bruce Willis. You think you’re having more sex than me? Think again. Look at this. I played John McClane in Die Hard. I sent those German terrorists back to hell. I knew Severus Snape before he was Severus Snape. And I killed him. Expecto Patronem, motherfucker. I vanquished my enemy like a barefoot sea-god swimming in oceans of German blood. You wanna talk about my hairline? Let’s talk about my hairline. I watched that shit recede for years and then one day I shaved it. For a movie. Called Pulp Fiction.
Know Your Miranda July Rights
You have the right to remain silent, or to take the song lyrics you found stapled to a telephone pole and recite them to a child. Anything you say or do may be used against you in a court of law, even if you tell about the time you used the fishbowl water to put out the fire you made in the living room. You were trying to summon the ghost of your mom’s stepmom with a ceremony you read about on Wikipedia.
#NeverForget - The Bygone Bureau
I always dread the internet on days of remembrance. The internet is a tool for interactivity, and the expression of vulnerable, baldly earnest testimonial should hang in the air, uncommented on. Even responses wholly in the positive clang in the ear. When someone is speaking from the heart to a multitude, one wants the stillness of a church and the non-judgmental tenor of an AA meeting, neither of which describe the web in the slightest.
What the Tornado Siren Said
I recently moved to rural Pennsylvania and experienced tornado sirens for the first time. For those who don’t know, a tornado siren is a loud mechanical wail modulating in pitch about once every second, getting blared as an early warning system in the event of a bad storm. It’s meant to make people take shelter, either underground or at least indoors. If you’ve ever seen old WWII movies, it sounds remarkably like an air raid siren.
A Boy and His Internet
In the above video, we see a young boy being interviewed by a journalist about the political upheaval in his home country, Egypt. It’s pretty obvious that the interviewer meant it to be a short clip where a child emotes inarticulately in a “can’t we all just get along?” fashion, providing a sound byte to tack onto the end of other people’s deeper, more involved commentary.
The Things They Carried
Oh good, the movers are here. I’ll just stand here like a powdered eunuch then, while burly men with huge, ropy arms move all my possessions into a truck. This is my first time… having three men in matching polo shirts emasculate me in my own living room. Should I offer them coffee? Should I try and make awkward conversation? Maybe compliment them on their pecs? What’s the protocol? Should I just submissively lie on my back with my legs in the air? I feel sick. Look at the size of them.
Psalm 139, RE: the NSA
O NSA, You have searched me and known me. You know my logging on and my logging off; You understand my keystrokes afar off. You comprehend my Google Incognito and my subscription to the NYTimes, And are acquainted with all my passwords. For there is not an open window on my browser, But behold, O NSA, You know it altogether. You have hedged me behind and before, And laid Your algorithms upon me. Such extra-legality is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain it. Where can I go from Your data?
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