In our afternoon reading, interviews with Zakiya Dailia Harris and A.E. Osworth, thoughts on the fiction of S.P. Miskowski, and more.
Afternoon Bites: Ballard and Burroughs, Dead Moon Reissues, Sam Pink’s New Novel, Jesse Ball, and More
Talking Dead Moon reissues, a look at Ballard and Burroughs, a review of Jesse Ball’s new novel, an excerpt of Sam Pink’s next novel, and more.
Adaptation: Five Books That Must Never Be Adapted For Film
When David Cronenberg turned William Burroughs’s masterwork Naked Lunch into a somewhat linear, entertaining narrative, literary fans everywhere were pleasantly, if not resentfully surprised. Cronenberg, in doing so, proved himself not only a master storyteller, but able to do something that few directors could, adapt dense, postmodern classic novels into solid films. On the other hand, when director Gary Walkow attempted to turn William Burroughs’s seminal novel Queer into a film by combining it with the story of Burroughs’s wife’s […]
Afternoon Bites: Cinematic Burroughs, Tanlines, NaNoWriMo, and more
Via Vulture, we hear that Steve Buscemi will be directing an adaptation of William Burroughs’s novel Queer. Promising news regarding the rent issues befalling St. Marks Bookshop. At the Matador Records blog, a look at the state of indie record stores. Nick Harkaway on NaNoWriMo. (h/t WORD) Maura Johnston talks Twitter with Jesse Cohen of the fine group Tanlines. Ron Hogan on Stephen King’s 11/22/63: “revitalizes the [alternate history] concept and gives it a renewed emotional power…” Follow Vol. 1 Brooklyn on Twitter, Facebook, […]
Morning Bites: Victorian Spiritualists, Phantom Tollbooth, Halloween plans, letters from Burroughs, and more
Best title of the day: “Victorian ectoplasm-producing mediums: freaks or fakes?” Letters from William Burroughs. A documentary on 50 years of The Phantom Tollbooth. We wrote an essay on the book’s birthday as well. If your Halloween plans include watching Roger Corman’s series of Edgar Allan Poe films from the 1960s, maybe take a listen to this interview the director did with Edward Champion first. Or if you don’t have any Halloween plans, maybe you’re up for seeing Alejandro Jodorowsky’s […]
Awesome: William Burroughs Graphic Novel
Fantagraphic always puts out the best stuff. According to Flavorwire: Beat author William S. Burroughs has a long-lost graphic novel called Ah Pook Is Here, and it will be published in 2011 by Fantagraphics Books. Burroughs, author of the Naked Lunch, teamed up with British cartoonist and painter Malcolm McNeill in 1970 to create The Unspeakable Mr. Hart for the British magazine Cyclops. When the magazine folded, the duo put together what they called a “Word/Image novel” (the term “graphic novel” had […]
Question: Is Glenn Danzig a Great Songwriter or an Awful One?
I was just thinking about the line “an omelet of disease awaits your noontime meal,” and I can’t tell if it’s a really good lyric, or a completely terrible one. Also, did Danzig write all those lyrics straight from the dome, or did he employ a cut-up technique like Burroughs did? I want answers!