The sense that well-being remains elusive, transitory, and unevenly distributed is felt by the rich as well as the poor, and in all societies. To explore this condition of existential dissatisfaction, the anthropologist Michael Jackson traveled to Sierra Leone, described in a recent UN report as the “least livable” country in the world. There he revisited the village where he did his first ethnographic fieldwork in 1969–70 and lived in 1979. Jackson writes that Africans have always faced forces from without that imperil their lives and livelihoods. Though these forces have assumed different forms at different times—slave raiding, warfare, epidemic illness, colonial domination, state interference, economic exploitation, and corrupt government—they are subject to the same mix of magical and practical reactions that affluent Westerners deploy against terrorist threats, illegal immigration, market collapse, and economic recession. Both the problem of well-being and the question of what makes life worthwhile are grounded in the mystery of existential discontent—the question as to why human beings, regardless of their external circumstances, are haunted by a sense of insufficiency and loss. While philosophers have often asked the most searching questions regarding the human condition, Jackson suggests that ethnographic method offers one of the most edifying ways of actually exploring those questions.

In Bodies That Matter, renowned theorist and philosopher Judith Butler argues that theories of gender need to return to the most material dimension of sex and sexuality: the body. Butler offers a brilliant reworking of the body, examining how the power of heterosexual hegemony forms the "matter" of bodies, sex, and gender. Butler argues that power operates to constrain sex from the start, delimiting what counts as a viable sex. She clarifies the notion of "performativity" introduced in Gender Trouble and via bold readings of Plato, Irigaray, Lacan, and Freud explores the meaning of a citational politics. She also draws on documentary and literature with compelling interpretations of the film Paris is Burning, Nella Larsen's Passing, and short stories by Willa Cather.

Americans are fixated on the idea of choice. Our political theory is based on the consent of the governed. Our legal system is built upon the argument that people freely make choices and bear responsibility for them. And what slogan could better express the heart of our consumer culture than "Have it your way"?

David Schow's terrific overview of this classic television series is stuffed with illustrations many of them never published before. His critical assessment of the various episodes is always well informed (although there are a couple that I do disagree with very strongly). The most important thing is that this groundbreaking gothic science fiction/horror series is finally being appreciated.
The Outer Limits was always a poor cousin to The Twilight Zone; critics preferred Rod Serling's O'Henry like twists and turns in the plot. Twilight Zone was a terrific series but it couldn't touch the one hour (or two hour)format. Likewise, the bulk of the audience preferred Serling's morality plays. What's fascinating is to compare and contrast the two--it's like comparing Steve Spielberg to Terry Gilliam; both are technically adept and brilliant filmakers but Gilliam's films have a dark vision missing, for the most part, from Spielberg's films. Spielberg always feels the need to lighten up even his darkest toned films. Gilliam has no such compunction.