By Jason Diamond People get obsessed with things and sometimes it causes them to create art. Matt Kish is a good example of that, he’s obsessed with Moby-Dick, and he decided to draw a picture for every page of the book. He set up a blog specifically so you can see his progress. What’s the process for drawing these? Does a quote just pop out at you and you think “I should draw that”? That is not far off the […]
Recipes for Literature: Clam Chowder for Whaling with Spicy Pork Sausage
By Cara Nicoletti In the opening chapters of Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, Ishmael spends his final nights before setting sail aboard the Pequod at the Spouter Inn preparing for his years-long journey at sea. Part of such preparation includes readying oneself for the inevitable periods of dullness and isolation from the rest of the world’s news, finances, friends, and families. This feeling of isolation in which “you stand, lost in the infinite series of the sea, with nothing ruffled but the […]
Bites: Winston Churchill’s Valuable Complaints, Searls Edits Walden, Brownstein Questions Thurston Moore, and more
Sometimes halting eloquence doesn’t fare well when you’re trying to make a complaint. Winston Churchill faced such a problem at this Scottish hotel, where his letter of misgivings is proudly mounted for guests to see. I’m hoping that, in addition to showcasing Churchill’s disappointments, they not only addressed their bug problem but started serving lunch food as well. After all, what distinguished person eats pancakes at mid-day? For crying out loud, Scotland. Lit. & The Internet Bolaño explains life, naturally […]
Bites: Mobycons, Gaiman’s Twitter, The Road, Bo Diddley’s beat, and more
Some guy at NYU “intends to turn all 6,438 sentences of the great Herman Melville (Moby-Dick)opus into Japanese Emoji, rather picturesque emoticons that are on most handsets in Japan.” Lit. Lit Drift talks about Neil Gaiman’s Twitter fiction contest. Melville House named best small press of the year! Maud Newton talks R. Crumb and Chick tract’s. Featherproof Books has an iPhone app. (thanks The Scowl) The Millions gives us a comedic translation of The Road. L Magazine talks to writer […]
Bites: Russian chess, Franzen is #1, Murakami interviews, craziest town hall EVER, and more
Yeh, how did Russians get so good at chess? HTML Giant: Mazel tov on turning one year old. Lit. Jonathan Franzen is #1!!! (The Millions) An interview with Haruki Murakami Boston Globe takes a look at “gangster chic“ The Moby Dick emoticon. Stephanie Kuehnert, Author of Ballad of Suburbia, picks “Bastards of Young” as one of her songs on Largehearted Boy’s Book Notes. A.V. Club says “here are the rest of the books we think you should read for 2009”. […]
Never enough Dick
Moby Dick, or my “summer book” of ’09 was closed this evening, and I’m gonna miss it. I might suffer a bit of separation anxiety like I did when I finished up 2666 some months ago, because in it’s own brilliant way, Melville’s classic is a glorious mindfuck of a novel. One that which I am almost tempted to tackle (in small doses) again. In the meantime, the white whale, has been popping up as of recently in a few […]
Bites: Narwhals, Daniel Handler, heavy books, Stieg Larsson sends you to Sweden, Justin Taylor gets lucky in a thrift store, and more
Is the narwhal one woman’s Moby Dick? Probably not, but NPR investigates anyways. Jacket Copy interviews Lemony Snicket author Daniel Handler about curating the CD for the Believer’s annual music issue. (Thanks Largehearted Boy) Indie Bound checks out another “indie city” (in this case a tiny state), Rhode Island. Bless the misspelled signs of New York. The Guardian suggests that you schlep a heavy book around. You can win a trip to Stockholm thanks to Stieg Larsson if you give […]
Bites: Dave Eggers preorder, Tao Lin tackles Herzog, New England lit. Bowerbirds, reading rappers, James Franco, classic albums
That ol’ rascal Dave Eggers has got (as broken down by a user comment on this site) a book coming out that’s a novelization of a movie that is based off a book. Or something along those lines. Either way, you can preorder the book starting now. On his blog, Tao Lin reviews Werner Herzog’s Land of Silence and Darkness. Moby-Dick is #1, The Bell Jar #4, Walden #12 (me: “wtf, #12? That’s it?”), and The Crucible is #43 in […]