The Age of Oil

A long out-of-print lost classic, from a pivotal figure of New York’s art and No Wave film scenes.

Originally published in 1987 and long impossible to find, The Age of Oil collects fifteen essays by Duncan Smith (1954–1991), a pivotal figure of the downtown New York art and No Wave film scenes. Drawing on Freud, Lacan, and Derrida, Smith developed a unique style that pushed the strategies of poststructuralism into the realm of experimental writing. Smith’s obsessive pursuit of “cryptograms” ...