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Photo by Bry Ulrick on Unsplash.

At the end of this month, Nevada’s Black Rock Desert will undergo its yearly transformation into Black Rock City for just over one week of art, expression, and collaboration called Burning Man. Although Burning Man is technically a festival event, it’s become so much more than that since its inception in San Francisco in 1986. Art, expression, anti-commercialism and bartering are the key features of the fest for most, but for others it has become little more than a week of hedonism, the pursuit of pure pleasure in a desert city where anything goes as long as each of the tens of thousands of attendees are coming together to create joy, radical self-expression and share their talents as gifts for all.

This massive party has become world-famous and has also garnered its fair share of criticism. Some see it as a wild gathering of socialist art punks, creating something entirely new in the harsh desert. Others see it as an excuse for hippies to do drugs (and each other) consequence free, while more bemoan the "commodification" of the festival and its transformation into what they consider to be a party haven for the rich and the ravers. Whatever it is, it certainly sparks a reaction, and we’re wondering what that reaction would be if some of our favorite authors of classic American literature were to attend Burning Man 2017 when they were in their prime. 

The dog is man’s best friend. The fact that there are 43.3 million American households that own a dog would testify to the accuracy of that statement. In fact, the relationship between dogs and humans is as old as human civilization itself. And keeping dogs as pets goes back to the late Middle Ages.

[Image from book cover of Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges, Penguin Random House]

Jorge Luis Borges, the Argentinian short story writer who paved the way for magical realism, would be 118 years old if he were alive today. Since he passed into the great labyrinthine library in the sky in 1986, though, we wanted to honor him by writing about all the ways this literary visionary lives on.

Borges, who grew up in capital cities all over the globe, pioneered a dreamy, surreal kind of fiction that made him one of the most famous writers of the 60s, 70s, and 80s. He helped sci-fi and fantasy grow into the booming genres they are today, and he influenced writers as diverse as Grant Morrison, Italo Calvino, Neil Gaiman, Joyce Carol Oates, and Harlan Ellison.

Here are a few examples of all the books, movies, and comics Borges made possible. Cheers, sir!

Photo by Alfons Morales on Unsplash.

Whether you live in a studio apartment the size of a postage stamp or a four-bedroom house with room to spare, every home deserves to have its own feminist library. What better way to celebrate Women’s Equality Day than to curate a library of your own! So, dust off those bookshelves, pull up that wish list, and blast Lesley Gore until the neighbors complain. Because today’s all about surrounding yourself with the books and smashing the patriarchy.

Not too long ago, geekdom was seen only as the realm of the uber-nerd; a place for overweight, under-socialized weirdos to indulge their love of comic books and video games away from the rest of the world. The essence of that is still true — fandoms are all about a shared love of fictional worlds. But we’ve come a long way from the image of the ‘Comic Book Guy’ in recent years as geek culture has become a mainstream global phenomenon.

Move over Nathan Drake, there’s a new treasure hunter in town! Chloe’s got her heart set on uncovering ancient secrets, and we’re pretty sure she would also love to get her hands on some of these literary treasures.