"Now Japan is a very small, flat, unified world. Everything is very small and very much the same. There are no Others. It tends to be relaxing but it can also be dull. You can't meet with the New or the Strange." Ryu Murakami's words might seem bleak to a Western audience. But to better understan

Anxiety, Dark, Dreamy, Eclectic, Lyrical, Postmodern fiction, Sexy

Kipling was never one to pity the vanquished or cry for the victim. He preferred to praise the victors, fortify the reign of imperialism, legitimize and rationalize colonial order. Having lived in both Bombay and England, Kipling came to see English civilization as the only hope for a dirty, barbaric

Dark, Dense, Eclectic, Masculine, Modernist literature, Modernist poetry, Tense

In one image, a drunken, disheveled man dips a jug into a bucket of home-brewed beer that sits next to his chair in a squalid living room. In another -- a close-up -- a woman eats a slice of pizza. She's obese, covered in tattoos, and wearing a weird assortment of shabby clothes; the pizza oozes from

Anxiety, Dark, Dystopic, Gritty, In-your-face, Young british artists

A kind of charming darkness oozes between Morrissey and Johnny Marr of the Smiths. The combination of Morrissey's syrupy, melancholy voice and Marr's jangling, meticulously layered guitar breeds an infectious moodiness. Breaking away from the bawdy new-wave synth pop that characterized the early 1980

Brit-pop, Dark, Ethereal, Melancholy, Post-punk, Quirky, Sincere