One final Nobel link roundup. The New Yorker on President Obama’s “Nobel surprise“. N+1 says: “The peace prize’s reputation makes it a powerful tool. It’s not always the right tool, and it’s not always effective, but it’s good to have around.” “Herta who?” Drama over the economics Nobel winner? Lit. Dave Eggers, Jay Leno, and Roger Ebert. What do they all have in common? They are all in a book talking about their favorite childhood books. Over at McSweeney’s, a […]
Bites: Chabon Interviewed, Granta Changes, Literary Doppelgangers, Grand Theft Auto & Inherent Similarities, Anderson to adapt Dahl, Real Chocolate, and more
Michael Chabon is interviewed at Jacket Copy on fatherhood and the writing process: “I think in a way, that’s sort of what you’re engaged in doing as a writer, too. You come into this inheritance of things that have been done and the ways in which they have been done, and people who influence you sort of pass along what they think is important, and what they think you need to know how to do. But over time you begin […]
Bites: Fiction v. Non-Fiction, Poe’s Funeral, Proust’s Questions, Lev Grossman on being a critic, Wild Things, Hornby’s Education, Nick Cave & PJ Harvey, and more
Jim Shepard for Electric Literature on the subject of fiction based on non-fiction: “We need to bear in mind, as we’ve been told many times, that we’re working from, but not necessarily about, our lives.” Lit. Edgar Allen Poe gets a real funeral. (Thanks, The Rumpus) On Vanity Fair’s website, take Proust’s Questionnaire and find out which celebrities you most resemble. Lev Grossman guest-posts for and on the National Book Critics Circle blog. Film, a Quick Weekend Roundup What will […]
Bites: Literary award kvetching, Bradbury paints, Obama is the big winner, Woods do Daytrotter, and more
Remember yesterday when I said more Jewish people will kvetch about Amos Oz or Philip Roth not getting the Nobel Prize for Literature? Tablet mentions the Tribe losing out, talks about Herta Mueller, and ties it all up with “Also intriguing: the Times notes that her father served in the SS during World War II.” Lit. Ray Bradbury was a regular Bob Ross. The Forward talks about Elie Wiesel’s “meandering, sometimes, narcissistic ruminations” on medieval French commentator of the Talmud […]
Bites: That guy from The Princess Bride, chapbook reviews, Grouper at ATP, intellectual bankruptcy, and more
Lit. Wallace Shawn (above), the guy who was in The Princess Bride is the son of former New Yorker editor William Shawn? Wallace Shawn, the guy in Clueless, has a book of essays out? What awesome weird universe have I woken up to this morning? Everybody thinks Joyce is a fricken genius. I still don’t get it. The Millions releases the group of nominated books that did not make it on their best fiction of the millennium list. James Wood, […]
Bites: Banned Books Week, Rumpus on Tao Lin, Moby-dick on TV, Mamet’s Anne Frank dismissed, Obama’s intelligence, Iran’s fears, and Sarah Palin’s book
It’s Banned Books Week. Whether the tradition is pointless, harmful or trivial, READ. You’ve got a lot to choose from. Lit. Gene Hackman has retired from acting to write historical novels. The Rumpus interviews lit-man Tao Lin Maps of sin created by plotting per-capita stats on “things like theft (envy) and STDs (lust).” (Thanks, The Rumpus, yet again) A $25.5 million telepic of……Moby-Dick! TV movies of romantic, winding literature are my pornography. (Not in that gross way, though. Ew.) George […]
Bites: Ted Kennedy, Victorian Hero?, V. Woolf liked sci-fi, losing Afhanistan, newspaper bailout, Vol.1 is connected
Lit. The Rumpus shares what Peanuts would look like if it had been written by Charles Bukowski. Was Ted Kennedy a Victorian hero? This new study, “Hierarchy in the Library: Egalitarian Dynamics in Victorian Novels,” suggests that “novels are a cultural technology for teaching cooperation and suppressing attempts to gain dominance.” Virginia Woolf liked science fiction! (Thanks, The Rumpus) The New York Times takes a look at “The Evolution of Publishing” Levi Asher gets back to “Reviewing the Review” at […]
Bites: Wild Cupcakes, Kennedy’s do Twitter, Obama is the new Opraha, Marcel Duchamp wasn’t done, and more
Would you rather eat library ice cream or Where the Wild Things Are cupcakes? (Thanks Boing Boing) How indie bookstores are getting customers. (Boston Globe) Yoni Wolf of the band WHY? does vegan food in NYC (Thanks The Young and Hungry) President Obama will sell your book. What do a song off the superb album Superwolf by Bonnie Prince Billy and Matt Sweeny, Iron and Wine, and Vashti Bunyan all have in common? Daniel Kraus, author of The Monster Variations […]