Square Wave

Literature & Fiction

De Silva, Mark

Literary

Splice

Unemployed, lonesome, abandoned by his lover, an obscure artist on the verge of despair begins to question the worth of his craft-until, without warning, he lands the opportunity of a lifetime. Courted by a wealthy patron with enigmatic motives, he yields his talents to corporate interests. In theory, his brief is to sell his soul-to mastermind a publicity campaign for a line of products designed to enhance human perception. In practice, though, he exerts sway over the souls of others. Given freedom to treat the campaign as an artistic endeavour in its own right, he comes to use the public sphere as a forum for shaping aesthetic sensibilities on a scale that others could only dream of. But how far can he extend his ambitions before they break him? In his bold, uncompromising follow-up to the acclaimed Square Wave, Mark de Silva probes the extremes of human vision. Troubling the relationships between spectatorship and intimacy, beauty and decadence, creativity and exploitation, The Logos challenges the habits with which we look at the world around us-and the ways our selective sight distorts the meaning of our days.

The Logos

"Brilliant." ―3:AM Magazine
"Intelligent... thrilling." ―Michael Silverblatt, 'Bookworm' on KCRW
Carl Stagg, a writer researching imperial power struggles in 17th century Sri Lanka, ekes out a living as a watchman in a factionalized America where confidence in democracy has eroded. Along his nightly patrol, Stagg finds a beaten prostitute, one in a series of monstrous attacks. Suspicious of his supervisor's intentions, Stagg partners with a fellow part-time watchman, Ravan, to seek the truth. Ravan hails from a family developing storm-dispersal technologies, whose research is jointly funded by the Indian and American governments.
The watchmen's discoveries put a troubling complexion on Stagg's research, giving it new shape and impetus, just as the weather modification project begins to appear less about dispersing storms than weaponizing them.
By gracefully weaving a study of the psychological effects of a militarized state upon its citizenry with topics as diverse as microtonal music and cloud physics, Square Wave signals the triumphant arrival of a young writer certain to be considered one of the most ambitious and intelligent of his generation.
"The novel of ideas is alive and well in de Silva's high-minded debut, in which the pursuit of art, the exercise of power, and climate control are strangely entwined. Set against the backdrop of a crumbling America, this novel functions as a thriller where the confusions and obsessions of students are freighted with the dark reality they begin to uncover. De Silva isn’t shy about his intelligence, and he shouldn’t be; Square Wave is an intellectual tussle many readers will be happy to grapple with." ―Publishers Weekly

Two Dollar Radio

In this collage of critical reflections, written in the tradition of the short essay running through Francis Bacon and Roland Barthes, the novelist, philosopher, and former New York Times Opinion staffer Mark de Silva looks into matters of both common curiosity and special concern in America today: technological evolution, virtuality, terrorism, the future of the self, the individual's place in a globalized society, the species' place in the natural world, the state of the arts, and the animadversions of the sciences. Above all, Points of Attack is a handbook of the ways of the good life in bad times, and an inoculation against presumption in an era when the axioms of liberal democratic life have come undone and the end of history once again appears a long way off. "These rich, epigrammatic essays cover the waterfront of contemporary life, culture, and the self, flashing with insight and making us think in ways that bring home how little we ordinarily do so. By turns inducing perplexity and strengthening conviction, they aim not to tear us down but to build us up. De Silva admirably models the wakeful, agile intelligence we need if we are to make it through the dark alleys of the future morally intact and sound of mind and body." Jacob Howland, author of Glaucon's Fate: History, Myth, and Character in Plato's Republic "A sexy philosopher's almanac, a comet tail of ideas and personal truths, Points of Attack is that rare tonic that will dazzle you with its intellectual spectrum, and all the attention it pays to our burning world." Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi, author of Loss Mark de Silva is the author of the novel Square Wave and the fiction editor of 3: AM Magazine. He holds degrees in philosophy from Brown (AB) and Cambridge (PhD).

Points of Attack

Politics & Social Sciences

Philosophy

CLASH Books

About the Author\nMark de Silva is the author of the novel Square Wave and the essay collection Points of Attack. He holds degrees in philosophy from Brown (AB) and Cambridge (PhD). He is the fiction editor of 3:AM Magazine and a research editor at the New York Times Magazine.\nJaded and adrift, a young painter in New York joins his fate to a mercurial titan of industry in the hopes of finding a new artistic form—and quite possibly a new life. 
Cutting-edge intoxicants, the vagaries of desire, and an obscure art magazine with unlimited ambitions collide on the ultimate stage, where only delusion can ease the chase of mystique. In an epic new novel ranging across acting, advertising, professional sports, and the city, Mark de Silva offers up a grand meditation on the bitter glories of 21st century being, the human impulse to search for something original in the cacophony of a continuously replicating world, and the self-revelations living in our perception of others. The Logos is a sweeping and intimate inquiry into all things New York, and now.

Arts & Photography

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Books by De Silva, Mark

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by De Silva, Mark. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Square Wave

The Logos

Square Wave

Points of Attack

The Logos