The COVID-19 pandemic has opened up conversations about labor conditions across the American economic spectrum, from hourly employees opting out of low-paying, physically punishing restaurant jobs to salaried staff members realizing that they’re not working from home they’re living at work. What an opportune time, then, for labor reporter Sarah Jaffe’s
Work Won’t Love You Back, which was released by Bold Type back in January. Jaffe’s mission is to break down the late-capitalist ethos of “doing what you love,” a concept that she argues sets people up for overwork and exploitation rather than true pleasure in one’s daily activities. This critique applies to the insidious 18/6 schedule of “hustle culture,” as well as giant corporations pressuring employees to accept indignity after indignity under the guise of “family.” But Jaffe’s analysis goes further, dividing 10 types of work, from housekeeping to professional sports, into two broad categories. First are
Why even the studios behind bestselling games shut down
Ruin and recovery in the video game industry
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BioShock Infinite, the third game in the bestselling
BioShock shooter series. It should have been a triumphant moment early reviews were strong, the game shipped millions of copies, and the developers started work on an expansion called
Burial At Sea. But less than a year later, studio head Ken Levine called employees into the kitchen for an all-hands meeting. He told them that Irrational the team behind one of the last decade’s most acclaimed and successful series, just weeks from releasing its final chapter was shutting down.
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Every month, a deluge of new books comes flooding out from big publishers, indie houses, and self-publishing platforms. So every month, The A.V. Club narrows down the endless options to five of the books we’re most excited about.
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We’re big fans of essays that combine cultural criticism with memoir, and Larissa Pham’s
Pop Song especially sings when the writer turns her eye to art and pop culture. In her debut book of nonfiction memoir by way of interconnected essays Pham interweaves a recounting of her life thus far with her thoughts on James Turrell, Anne Carson, Frank Ocean, and Agnes Martin (extra points for not mentioning Maggie Nelson in “Blue,” Pham’s essay on Martin). Through her sensitive, curious telling, Pham lobbies for the way in which art can help people learn more about themselves.