Edgar Allan Poe was born on this day in 1809. What did the Wikipedia blackout accomplish? Teddy Wayne on “The agony of the male novelist” at Salon. Elizabeth Bishop’s paintings. Rich Cohen, Joshua Cohen, and (as far as we can tell) no other people named Cohen are involved in a book called Jewish Jocks. Ben Marcus talks about The Flame Alphabet on All Things Considered. Follow Vol. 1 Brooklyn on Twitter, Facebook, Google + and our Tumblr. Got tips for Bites? Info@Vol1brooklyn.com
Ben Marcus and the dystopia avalanche of 2012
Posted by Jason Diamond The bad news: the world is a total mess right now, and since it’s 2012, you will be reminded every day until late December that the world is suppoed to end this year. The good news that comes from that sense of impending doom: there’s no lack of dystopian literature. As of the 3rd day of the new year, Miles Klee’s Ivyland and The Flame Alphabet by Ben Marucs look like they’re going to be at the top of […]
Afternoon Bites: Helen DeWitt, “The Chairs Are Where The People Go,” Ben Marcus, and more
Ben Marcus’s “Advice from Pooh Corner” can now be read on his site. Big Other features another batch of smart folks, including Penina Roth and Dawn Raffel, talking about their favorite things from 2011. If you’re curious about Misha Glouberman and Sheila Heti’s The Chairs Are Where The People Go, the LA Review of Books has a review of and a podcast about the book in question. The Outlet reports from the Portland, Oregon release party for Martha Grover’s One […]
Indexing: Michael Kimball, Ben Marcus, Caryn Rose, Rimbaud, and more
Tobias Carroll A year and a half ago, I was reading Lev Grossman’s The Magicians in trade paperback. Looking at the very back page, I saw an ad teasing the sequel, The Magician King. Initially, I wasn’t sure what to think: The Magicians was as much a meditation on certain fantasy tropes as a satisfying work on its own. Could Grossman sustain that for a second book? As it turns out, that’s not at all what’s going on with the […]