In 1925, while he was teaching at a boy's school in Wales, the young Evelyn Waugh attempted suicide by swimming out to sea. After getting fairly far from shore, he was forced to turn back: a shoal of stinging jellyfish had beset him. Macabre, comic, and ironic, this incident epitomizes Waugh's entire

Agitated, Angry, Clever, Realist fiction, Religious, Sardonic

Ravenhill's "Shopping and Fucking' -- about a rent boy, an ecstasy dealer, and a recovering addict -- soon became "Shopping and...': English productions were forced to euphemize the title. And even in San Francisco, the United States' most tolerant city, the Magic Theater publicized the production as

Anal, Angry, Bright, Contemporary plays, Dystopic, Gay/lesbian theater, Intense, Journalism, Sexy

Stokley Carmichael once said, "Everything is political." Apparently, poet Linton Kwesi Johnson agrees. The sound of his voice stays low and docile, as the humming of dub beats in the background lends a trance-like mood. But his are not calm words. The wrath of a gentle tiger broils in his laments aga

Agitated, Angry, Gritty, In-your-face, Lyrical, Overflowing, Political, Reggae, Social revolution, Spiritual

Is the man in Fang Lijun's "Series II: No 2" (1992) screaming or yawning? Is this extreme anguish or utter boredom? And what is his relation to the group of almost identical men standing in the distance behind him? Is he just one guy in a crowd of undifferentiated guys, or is he asserting his individ

Absurd, Angry, Cartoonish, Cynical realism, Funny, Visceral