Column

A Phrase That’s Been Stuck in My Head for Four Years, Recalled: On Ted Chiang’s Exhalation

by | March 16, 2023

In his column, Jonathan Russell Clark re-examines the work of Ted Chiang, using it as a lens through which to understand today’s AI discourse.

girl sitting on carpet near TV set and talking with a robot while resting at home

Community

by | March 1, 2023

In his column, Alejandro Heredia meditates on the concept and practice of community: is it a group of people who beyond identity might have no personal and interpersonal bonds, or a commodity for corporations, non-profits, egotistical activists, and social media spiritual gurus looking to make profit off of an increasingly conscious society, or is it shared visions of the future as building blocks of collective living?

African American girl and her father planting a seedling.

Homes and Haunts: Colson Whitehead’s The Colossus of New York

by | December 15, 2022

In Jonathan Russell Clark’s latest column, he writes about Colson Whitehead's The Colossus of New York and tries to summon some love for Colombus, Ohio.

Colossus of New York book cover

Tenderness

by | September 29, 2022

Tenderness teaches us that if we consider softness with enough rigor, if we consider ourselves with enough softness, a wound is a portal, not an end. 

illustration of a man touching his heart

Lady Mondegreen’s Jungle

by | September 22, 2022

In 1954 Sylvia Wright, an editor at Harper’s Magazine, wrote a piece for the magazine in which she recalls her childhood. Her mother would read the Scottish ballad “The Bonnie Earl o’ Moray” to her. Here is how young Wright heard the opening lyric: Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands, Oh, where hae ye been? They […]

A Shark-Infested Rice Pudding book cover

Melodrama-Rama: Absorbing Delight

by | September 20, 2022

The Telugu film RRR is an incredible mixture of genres, influences, and ideas: a historical epic with obvious ahistorical qualities, a combat-heavy actioner with exuberant song-and-dance numbers, a homosocial friendship drama with recognizably romantic montages. Strong notes of melodrama accent its potent blend. These notes appear not just literally—in musical form—but also within the film’s […]

RRR Poster

Company

by | July 14, 2022

I faked all of my book reports as a kid – I hated reading. I got good grades in my ESL classes only because of some natural ability with words. At least that’s what teachers said. Gifted. My ease with diction and syntax had less to do with natural ability and more to do with my growing ability to adapt. I was surviving.

vintage drawing of frogs going for a walk

Jonathan Come Lately—An Introduction

by | June 14, 2022

Jonathan Russell Clark debuts a monthly column for Tasteful Rude detailing the choicest selections from his book-obsessed life. His current apartment resembles a used bookstore almost more than it does an ordinary living space, and he plans to write about whatever he finds on those shelves that tickles his fancy.

books in a used book store