New Liberal Arts

New Liberal Arts

New Liberal Arts, a Snarkmarket/Revelator Press collaboration, is the beginning of an attempt to describe topics, disciplines, and methods of inquiry essential to any 21st century education. Ranging from "attention economics" to "video literacy," New Liberal Arts is a glimpse into the course catalog of an idiosyncratic new school—a liberal arts college 2.0

New Liberal Arts went on sale on July 7 in a limited edition of 200 copies at Snarkmarket. The initial print run sold out in less than 8 hours.

Nonfiction, 80pp. Click here to download PDF.

It's almost here

A project that began earlier this year now bears fruit: slim, rectangular fruit.

New Liberal Arts, a Snarkmarket/Revelator Press collaboration, is 80 pages long, with 21 pitches for new liberal arts from some of the smartest minds we could find. The pitches range from attention economics to video literacy. You are gonna love what you find in this book.

New Liberal Arts goes on sale tomorrow at 9 a.m. PST at Snarkmarket.com, so be sure to check in early—there are only 200 copies. Each one is $8.99. After those 200 copies are sold, Revelator will post the PDF, so when you buy a book, you’re also buying a little slice of free for everybody.

But bear in mind: New Liberal Arts has a secret—one that can only be unlocked out there in the world of atoms and new-book-smell, not here in the world of pixels and PDFs.

For now, click here for a preview: "Micropolitics" by Matt Thompson.

The New Liberal Arts: Call for Contributors

Snarkmarket.com and Revelator are proud to announce a new collaboration: The New Liberal Arts, to be published as both an electronic and printed (that's right, printed!) chapbook, and we're looking for contributors.



The time is ripe to expand and invigorate our notion of the liberal arts. Is design a liberal art now? How about photography? Food? Personal branding?

We don’t want to generate a canonical list, but rather a laundry list. We want pitches for new liberal arts that are smart, provocative, insightful, surprising, and/or funny.

Together, they’ll read a little like the course catalog for some amazing new school. (The College of Snarks and Letters? Our endowment is untouched by the financial crisis!)

So now we’d like to ask for your help.

Visit The New Liberal Arts at Snarkmarket.com to get involved, and don't delay. We're looking to have a rough list of contributors by Monday, February 9.

Shanghai: Halloween

There was no excuse for my laziness and utter apathy. It was 6:00 Halloween evening and I was collapsed on my couch, unwilling to move after an arduous week at work. Some friends stopped by, put a beer in my hand, and began discussing what my costume should be. All of the usual getups for the unprepared were mentioned: homeless person, punk-rocker, or California Raisin (i.e., tights and a garbage bag stuffed with newspapers). None of these were acceptable. There was a witch's hat available, so I consented to some heavy eyeliner, pulled on a black dress, and jumped into a cab.

The evening's destination was a club hosting a Clash cover band. There are many magazines and websites catering to the expats in Shanghai, and their reporters were out in full force. Before I could order a drink I was accosted by three magazine photographers, all in rapture over my costume. Not long after that came all of the glittery, cute Chinese girls wanting their picture taken with me.

My friends, all in far more imaginative costumes than myself, were bewildered by my popularity. I wondered myself why I was getting all of the attention. Is it that witches are iconic, a Halloween staple? Was I, at that moment, the embodiment of western Halloween tradition? Or was it the irresistible way I tilted my pointy hat and smiled wide for the camera? I hope that the next issue of City Weekend will have the answer.

Download Shanghai dispatch #2 as a PDF