Afternoon Bites: Warren Ellis, Tim Kinsella, Oneida, and more

“There was no decision to be made if it was set in a bar; it was a question of where adults interact. Most adults are living cloistered lives in seclusion. They cross paths at bars. ” At The AV Club, Nicki Yowell interviews Tim Kinsella on his new novel, The Karaoke Singer’s Guide to Self-Defense. Also mentioned: the novel he’s working on now. Warren Ellis delivers an essay on digital distribution of comics, longform serialization, and more. Mentioned: his own Freakangels; […]

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Indexing: Jet-lag literature, Nabokov, The Believer, Edith Wharton, and more

Tobias Carroll And lo: there was the literature of jet-lag. The second time around, the strengths of William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition remained intact: haunted characters and a pinpoint command of culture. Its flaws — notably, a conclusion that effectively sidelines the novel’s protagonist — remained present. And still, Pattern Recognition may well be my favorite of Gibson’s books: a morally resonant, deeply contemporary thriller that hits nearly all of my sweet spots. (Mysterious films, subcultural intrigue, globetrotting.) Were I fond of […]

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Tim Kinsella, Novelist.

Posted by Tobias Carroll It shouldn’t come as a shock that Tim Kinsella had a novel in him. Ever since the Cap’n Jazz days, the man’s had a fondness for verbally dense lyrics that manipulated language in ways equally cerebral and playful — qualities useful in both a prose stylist and an art-punk vocalist. Now comes the news that Chicago’s featherproof books will release Kinsella’s first novel, The Karaoke Singer’s Guide to Self-Defense, this fall. The description refers to it […]

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