Zach Czaia

Nov 24, 2024 | commonwealmagazine.org | Dominic Preziosi |Rand Richards Cooper |Regina Munch |Zach Czaia

Article Not Going Back The 2024 election has shown definitively that what ails us as a country is a chronic condition, not a passing distemper. Article 2024 Election: Street View “You can’t move!” John protested. “We have work to do.” Article The Normies Take Flight The Democratic Party has to find a way not to be the party of bicoastal elites.

Sep 19, 2024 | commonwealmagazine.org | Zach Czaia |John Fea |Brandon Ambrosino |Ian Corbin

In his 2001 lecture, “The Public Role of Writers and Intellectuals,” Edward Said expressed what he saw as a central dilemma for any artist or intellectual trying to talk back to empire: you are constrained by having to use the same words and phrases that the empire manipulates to oppress you. And yet you have to find a way to use those words to speak truth to the oppressive power. How to deal with this conundrum?

Aug 26, 2024 | commonwealmagazine.org | Dominic Preziosi |Zach Czaia |Joseph Sorrentino |John Fea

Emmanuel gets up most mornings at four o’clock to make the two-hour trip by bus and subway to the Central de Abastos, Mexico City’s huge produce market. “When I arrive at the central, I ask at different places if there is work,” he told me. “I look and I look.” If he’s hired, he’ll spend the day unloading trucks or preparing produce. If he isn’t hired, then he heads home. I asked if it was possible for someone just to tell him on the phone if there was work. “No,” he said.

Jan 2, 2024 | commonwealmagazine.org | Zach Czaia |Peter Quinn |Rand Richards Cooper |John Fea

There’s a fascinating scene late in Sideways, Alexander Payne’s 2005 hit comedy about two old college pals on a disastrous road trip through California wine country. Payne’s antihero is Miles (Paul Giamatti), a failed novelist whose real passion is wine; a nebbishy introvert, he suddenly brims with confident expertise when conversation turns to Merlot and Pinot Noir.