"And I felt sorry for him. It became apparent that he did not really know who or what he was. He was a prisoner of our time frame. He often confused the past with the future. I gathered that he and all his fellow entities found themselves transported backwards and forwards in time involuntarily, playing out their little games because they were programmed to do so, living—or existing—only so long as they could feed off the energy and minds of…

How can Americans relate to Europe? When you grow up in the historyless, cultureless suburbs, how can you relate to a place as old as Venice in any sort of meaningful way? The 15:17 to Paris is hyper-aware of the banality of tourism; Anthony Sadler's love of the selfie stick is only a (slightly) exaggerated portrayal of what every American tourist in Europe does and feels, a profound sense of surreality (my friend upon arriving in Dubrovnik: "this is a…

The erasure of ethnic and racial identities by capitalist individualism. In a recent interview, the Safdies call Howard "heir to this rich history" of Jewish materialism, the desire to rise above the historical marginalization of his community. But in embracing capitalism Howard must necessarily reject community and family connections, by becoming lost in the flow of global capital Howard becoming atomized, a narcissist in the most fundamental way. This is not a Faustian rise-and-fall, because there is no devil and…