Twin Peaks and Ping-Pong: The Week in Pop-Culture Writing

Highlights from seven days of reading about entertainment

Consider the Log Lady: Questions (and Answers) About the Return of "Twin Peaks"
Andy Greenwald | Grantland
"Twin Peaks isn’t just an important fossil from TV’s history. It’s an essential, often ignored blueprint for TV greatness."

The Immigrant Sport: What Ping-Pong Means in America
Eric Nusbaum | Deadspin
"For years, I had been looking for a way back to table tennis. What better way than to write about it?"

Sisters of the Moon: Steve Nicks and Haim
Sheila Heti | T Magazine
"'When we most love this house is when it’s full of music, girls. Then it’s dancing.'"

"Move On, Next Question": An Attempt to Communicate With Tommy Wiseau
Rich Juzwiak | Gawker
"'I'm sorry, I'm losing my mind,' Tommy Wiseau said to me seconds after I shook his hand in the lobby of the Four Points Sheraton in SoHo two Sundays ago. That was more believable than most things he would go on to tell me that afternoon."

The Ball Is the End: Assessing Lionel Messi's Career on the 10th Anniversary of His Debut for Barcelona
Brian Phillips | Grantland
"It would take a few years, and one earth-shattering wondergoal, for the murmur around Messi to gather into a roar."

Gone Girl Is the Most Feminist Mainstream Movie in Years
Todd VanDerWerff | Vox
"The thing you need to understand about Gone Girl is that it's a mirror."

David Fincher's Backseat Feminism
Teo Bugbee | The Daily Beast
"David Fincher films show us an alternate universe where men and women’s equality is self-evident."

Sun Kil Moon Yells At Cloud: "War On Drugs: Suck My Cock" and the Language of Male Violence
Meredith Graves | Pitchfork
"It's important to call it what it is: emotional abuse."

Do You Have to Win a Nobel to Be Translated?
Vauhini Vara | The New Yorker
"There’s often a relationship between the promotion budget and the awareness of that book’s author."

Alexander and That Very Bad Day? One of the Worst Children’s Books Ever.
Troy Patterson | Slate
"Alexander is SUCH A PILL."

The Culture Wars Are Back, and This Time, Everyone Can Win
Alyssa Rosenberg | The Washington Post
"It is being waged over whether or not culture is political."

The Best Monster
Vanessa Veselka | Matter
"You would never think that she was talking about Dungeons & Dragons."