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Mark Dery

Mark Dery (markdery@gmail.com) is a cultural critic, essayist, and the author of four books: Escape Velocity, a critique of the libertarian-bro ideology that dominated the Digital Revolution of the ‘90s (and is now the operating system of Trump’s autocracy); two studies of American mythologies (and pathologies) The Pyrotechnic Insanitarium: American Culture on the Brink and the essay collection I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts, and, most recently, the biography Born To Be Posthumous: The Eccentric Life and Mysterious Genius of Edward Gorey. He has taught journalism at NYU and been a Poynter Journalism Fellow at Yale. He popularized the concept of “culture jamming” and, in his 1993 essay, “Black to the Future,” coined the term “Afrofuturism.”

Articles

Religion Dispatches
A grainy, jittery video has gone viral on social media. Duct-taped to a chair and goggle-eyed with fear, the hostage, a Dark MAGA tech bro, is petrified—and for good reason: the balaclava-clad…
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Religion Dispatches
In this special series Dery uses his spiritual crisis, as a born-again teen torn between his conservative faith and his obsession with David Bowie, to explore the historical connections linking religious zealotry and rabid fandom.
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Religion Dispatches
In the eighth and final installation of Mark Dery’s “critical novella” about a ’70s Jesus Freak who switches saviors (from J.C. to Ziggy), the author connects the dots between his devout Bowiephilia and what theologians call kenosis—the emptying out of the self to make room for the indwelling spirit of god.
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