In Honour of Tubby
byTacoma, Washington, 2010 On November 7, 1940, a dog named Tubby died when the Tacoma Narrows bridge collapsed into the Puget Sound. An attempt…
Intersections
by the daily asteriskBridges surround us all, connecting us to friends and strangers alike. People say that the world is getting flatter, that Gmail and Snapchat are…
Questions of generational difference: or Gen X in my 40s
by Larry KamphausenEditor’s note: Each Thursday, we feature a throwback piece from Topology’s predecessor, catapult magazine. In this essay from 2011, Larry Edward Kamphausen explores, from…
Them and Us
by the daily asteriskDisenthralling ourselves from the elaborate mythologies of other people’s power struggles is a tall order, but it’s a crucial work if we’re to avoid…
Dresses of them
by Emily UlmerLast October a weekend away unraveled into seven days of limbo. I was thankful that the vintage black dress with gold buttons, which I…
Chaotic waters
by the daily asteriskWe exclude also because we are uncomfortable with anything that blurs accepted boundaries, disturbs our identities, and disarranges our symbolic cultural maps. Others strike…
Relocation: The Building of the Dyke Levee
by Marjorie MaddoxAgain, I ask the young, bright in muscles and orange hats as they stack concrete and lean away from the river to plant their…
Projection
by the daily asteriskWhy do we hate others or turn our eyes from them? Why do we assault them with the rhetoric of inhumanity? Why do we…
Bridge over the Illinois
by David StewartI’m driving on highway 29 in rural Illinois. This is the Midwest. When you travel here, you drive through corn and soybean fields. You…
Manufacture hatreds
by the daily asteriskThe “practice of exclusion” and the “language of exclusion” go hand in hand with a whole array of emotional responses to the other, ranging…