Laura Kipnis – författare

A unique collection of essays on popular culture, politics, aesthetics, feminism, and postmodernism, along with complete scripts from three of Kipnis' videotapes."Laura Kipnis has made the leap from artist to theorist (or was it the other way around?) making videos which are informed by theory and writing essays that have and edge of the practice of everyday art. The book contains the scripts for three of Kipnis' videotapes and several essays which range form a critique of theories of the avant garde to colonialism. The best of the group has to be '(Male) Desire and (Female) Disgust: Reading Hustler,' which is an amazing argument for the radical potential of Hustler magazine based on an analysis of the notion of disgust. It's a stretch, but a well-argued and intriguing stretch. Kipnis' position on avant-garde film and video is also an articulate call for the merits of popular culture as the basis from which to build a contestatory cinema/video practice." -Film Maker

In a book that completely changes the terms of the pornography debate, Laura Kipnis challenges the position that porn perpetuates misogyny and sex crimes. First published in 1996, Bound and Gagged opens with the chilling case of Daniel DePew, a man convicted-in the first computer bulletin board entrapment case-of conspiring to make a snuff film and sentenced to thirty-three years in prison for merely trading kinky fantasies with two undercover cops.Using this textbook example of social hysteria as a springboard, Kipnis argues that criminalizing fantasy-even perverse and unacceptable fantasy-has dire social consequences. Exploring the entire spectrum of pornography, she declares that porn isn’t just about gender and that fantasy doesn’t necessarily constitute intent. She reveals Larry Flynt’s Hustler to be one of the most politically outspoken and class-antagonistic magazine in the country and shows how fetishes such as fat admiration challenge our aesthetic prejudices and socially sanctioned disgust. Kipnis demonstrates that the porn industry-whose multibillion-dollar annual revenues rival those of the three major television networks combined-know precisely how to tap into our culture’s deepest anxieties and desires, and that this knowledge, more than all the naked bodies, is what guarantees its vast popularity.Bound and Gagged challenges our most basic assumptions about America’s relationship with pornography and questions what the calls to eliminate it are really attempting to protect.

Liberties - A Journal of Culture and Politics features new essays and poetry from some of today’s best writers and artists, along with introducing new talent, to inspire and impact the intellectual and creative lifeblood of culture and politics.This inaugural issue of Liberties includes: Michael Ignatieff on liberalism and the environmentLaura Kipnis cheers transgressionDavid Grossman on literature and peaceRamachandra Guha on the Indian tragedyThomas Chatterton Williams on the real James BaldwinMark Lilla on the power of indifferenceHelen Vendler on Yeats' The Second Coming; Sean Wilentz on abolition and American originsAdam Zagajeweski on Gustav MahlerJames Wolcott on America’s modern JacobinsAndrea Marcolongo on how language defines usEli Lake on the birth of American unexceptionalismSally Satel on the riddle of addictionMoshe Halbertal on creating a democratic Jewish stateDavid Thomson on the wonder of Terrence MalickJulius Margolin’s memoir confronting hatredClara Collier on plague literatureShawn McCreesh’s personal look at a youthful community of addictionNew poetry from the most recent winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Louise Glück, Joshua Bennett, and Hannah Sullivan; And Leon Wieseltier (editor) and Celeste Marcus (managing editor)

“A Meteor of Intelligent Substance”“Something was Missing in our Culture, and Here It Is”"Liberties is THE place to be."Liberties, a journal of Culture and Politics, is essential reading for those engaged in the cultural and political issues and causes of our time. Liberties features serious, independent, stylish, and controversial essays by significant writers and leaders throughout the world; new poetry; and, introduces the next generation of writers and voices to inspire and impact the intellectual and creative lifeblood of today’s culture and politics.In this issue of Liberties: Laura Kipnis on Genders Without FearDorian Abbot’s call to arms - Science to Politics: Drop DeadBernard Henri-Lévy on What is Reading?Bruce D. Jones on today’s reality of Taiwan, China, AmericaDavid Greenberg examines The War on ObjectivityHelen Vendler on Art vs. Stereotypes through the work of Marianne MooreIngrid Rowland captures Thucydides on our ConflictsDavid A. Bell exposes the Greatest Enemy of Democracy in FranceRobert Cooper reports on Myanmar, Atrocity in the Garden of EdenSteven M. Nadler on Bans and Excommunications, Then and NowMorten Høi Jensen on the State of Literary BiographyClara Collier on Women with Whips — Joan Crawford, Marlene Dietrich, Barbara Stanwyck; Celeste Marcus on Unknown Heroes of Modern ArtLeon Wieseltier reveals Christianism in Modern PoliticsAnd new poetry from Durs Grünbein, Nathaniel Mackey, and Haris Vlavianos