ISSUE 24 | JAN 2013

COMPULSION

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Sam Feldman

What Does It Mean to Be Illegal?: The Jurisprudence of Obamacare

a very expensive parking spot - without a prohibition, a punishment is just a consequence - the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act - a government of enumerated powers - on the wrong side of the law - monarchistic legal theory - the PPACA’s use of « shall » - the so-called duck test

Nicole Contaxis

Collecting Comfort

embezzlement and fraud - tended to hog the Super Nintendo - shipped to an island in Canada - I still cannot understand my neighbor and his cars - breakfast-in-bed trays that feature dinosaurs - « Uses and Abuses of History for Life » - the criminal collector - Barry Landau - about archives: it is frighteningly easy to steal from them

Michael Kinnucan

Tiny Trojan Horses: On Lovers’ Gifts

the suitor - susceptible, willing, reckless - start touching the woman immediately - « the secret of my reputation » - his furniture, the rug he walks on - who would agree to be loved? - « made of truth » - he's not young, and she'll never be true

Matthew J.X. Doyle

Sometimes a Cigarette Is Just a Cigarette, or, the Phenomenology of Natural American Spirit

people who don’t smoke - invulnerable like photographs - already-disposed-to-[X] - habit is the « primordial law » - instinctive (but, crucially, not involuntary) - « ὥσπερ φύσις ἤδη τὸ ἔθος » - « some affect or some pure pleasure » - the fascination of time’s absence - Brightleaf, White Burley, Criollo, Dokha, Perique - the auto-affective potential of Facebook - the master of my own death

Avi Garelick

Love Potions

amplified amorous power - already existing architecture of passion - the coast is clear for the two to escape - a ridiculous, contrived obstacle - the domain of an evil god - death, and thus spiritual union - immense longing for beautiful women - « Says R. Hanina, one who is seduced » - what is a Godly way to get drunk

Casey Lange

Taste and Swallow

punctual folks in the audience are starting to get nervous here - the satisfyingly satisfiable short-term goal of acquiring and consuming some soft sugary pastry of sufficient mass and fluff and density - the reflex that makes me speak - distracted from the sensual world by colorless thoughts