I’ve loved just about every installment of “What Bolaño Read” over at MobyLives. Today, the late Chilean writers fondness for Jorge Luis Borges. Lit. Anais Nin on LSD’s value at Arthur. I only wished people had had time to study drugs as they studied religion or philosophy and to adapt to this chemical alteration of our bodies. Token magical realism “seems not just forced, but fashionable” says Alastair Harper of the Guardian. Go on over to My Old Kentucky […]
Bites: Obsessed Over a Chelsea Martin Drawing, Big Winners, UK Atheists, Nick Cave’s Bad Sex Writing, and More
The Rumpus has a chat with writer/artist, Chelsea Martin. Everything Was Fine Until Whatever is her book on Future Tense Publishing, and thanks to the interview, I’ve become obsessed with the above drawing. “Frankly we would have been offended if he wasn’t shortlisted.” Nick Cave’s publisher on his nomination for the best of bad sex writing. Colum McCann is the National Book Award winner. Yippie! Gore Vidal and Dave Eggers also won. Greil Marcus as editor of the The Paris […]
Making Stagger Lee even worse
By Jason Diamond Over at Lit Drift they discuss one of the greatest bad guys in American folklore, Stagger Lee. That nasty murderer whose crimes have been documented for well over a century is, undeniably, an American legend that serves as a perfect foil to the good guy tall-tales of Paul Bunyan and John Henry, who may have come into existence around the same time as Lee entered the public consciousness. Long before Mississippi John Hurt recorded what is possibly the […]
Making a Bad Man Even Worse
By Jason Diamond Over at Lit Drift, they discuss one of the greatest bad guys in American folklore: Stagger Lee. That nasty murderer who’s crimes have been documented for well over a century is, undeniably, an American legend that serves as a perfect foil to the good guy tall-tales of Paul Bunyan and John Henry, who (may have) come into existence around the same time as Lee entered the public consciousness. Long before Mississippi John Hurt recorded what is possibly […]
Jason’s Spooktube Music Video Picks
In honor of tomorrow. 1) Cold Cave “Love Comes Close” I’ve already gone on record stating what I think of Wes Eisold as a writer, frontman of great hardcore bands, and one of the minds behind Heartworm Press. It’s this single by his latest project Cold Cave that has me the most excited. New Order lifting poetry from a long-dead Romantic poet? Maybe. Whatever the case, this video blew me away. 2) Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and Serge Gainsbourg, “Constipation Blues” 3) Nick […]
The Verdict on Nick Cave’s The Death of Bunny Munro
Farrar, Strauss and Giroux (2009), 278 p. Reviewed by Willa A. Cmiel and Jason Diamond When deciding who at Vol. 1 should review musician Nick Cave’s new novel, The Death of Bunny Munro, the following questions came to mind: 1. Who really got excited about Nick Cave putting out his second book, The Death of Bunny Munro? 2. Does Nick Cave have that large of a following that Bunny Munro could be considered a literary event? Even after his last […]
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: Turdsworth, the man who makes Pekar tweet, The Twilight Sad, and more
Romantics get saucy! Lord Byron referred to William Wordsworth as “Turdsworth” in a letter. Now somebody can own that letter, and many others by the poet. Are we excited seeing trailers for the new Wes Anderson film, Fantastic Mr. Fox? Yes we are. Lit. Jeff Newelt: The man, the myth, the dude who tweets for Harvey Pekar. Nick Cave: “An aspirant solipsist” Starbucks saved a life, but how was the book? After all this zombie talk, it was finally time […]