#tobyreads: Myths Abound

I’ve been reading a lot of mythologically-oriented work lately. Sometimes that’s been explicit; at other times, it’s more implicit, found in a metaphor or a passing reference. A little while ago, I read Anders Nilsen’s graphic novel Rage of Poseidon, which brings together irreverent takes on Greek mythology, eventually blending them with irreverent takes on Christianity; for a piece that should show up elsewhere in a couple of weeks, I read Jo Walton’s The Just City, which blends Greek gods, Plato’s The Republic, […]

Continue Reading

A Year of Favorites: Nick Curley

A Year of Favorites

Reading about science, economics, and history in order to get out of our bubble. It became important for me in 2013 to read things that weren’t about Brooklyn, American literature, booze, grub, hair, or the fifty-five TV shows you just have to be watching.  I get through non-fiction quicker than novels, because I’m not tearing it apart while I read it.  So I took to the stars and the soil whenever possible.  Livescience, Orion, The New Yorker, Cosmos, Discover, Outside, […]

Continue Reading

#tobyreads: Created Creators: Sarah Hall, Ali Smith, and A.G. Porta on Artists’ Lives and Works

And so once again, we return to one of my preferred subjects for fiction: the making of art. Three of the four central characters in Sarah Hall’s How to Paint a Dead Man are artists; the two focal characters of A.G. Porta’s The No World Concerto are writers; and Ali Smith’s Artful is constructed around a series of lectures given on the subjects of art and aesthetics. None of these are traditionally structured, and that’s one of the pleasures of reading them: how […]

Continue Reading

Afternoon Bites: Ian Svenonius Excerpted, Michael Robbins Interviewed, Ali Smith Reviewed, and More

“…these paranormal tales, drawn mostly written or rewritten by Kirby and completely drawn by Kirby, are like art projects launched thirty-something years into the future.” A look at Jack Kirby’s Spirit World. Artforum has an excerpt from Ian Svenonius’s Supernatural Strategies for Making a Rock’n’Roll Group. Abraham Riesman’s “What We Laugh About When We Laugh About Pyongyang” is well worth your time. Ali Smith’s Artful: reviewed. Teddy Wayne talks Justin Bieber at The Morning News. Michael Robbins was interviewed at The Believer. Follow Vol. 1 […]

Continue Reading