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 […]
Nobel morning: A chronological breakdown of the days first few minutes
7:00 AMish Lev Grossman (via his Twitter) starts it off like this: 7:31 AM The news comes that Herta Mueller wins! Yippee! 7:35 AM I think back to this HTMLGiant post about a group of oddsmakers, and their picks for the prize. I scan for Mueller’s name, and find nothing. I think to myself “somewhere, somebody just hit the jackpot if they bet on her.” 7:37 AM My friend comes on Gchat to complain how the Nobel people are “antisemitic” […]
Bites: Osama hearts John Mearsheimer, People care about Dan Brown, the reading habits of cheerleaders, Pavement is back, and more
Lit. Who would have guessed that Osama Bin Laden was a fan of books by Jimmy Carter (above, looking troubled) and a University of Chicago professor? I wonder if he has a Goodreads account? People are really excited about Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol. Lev Grossman asks “How Good is it?” Vulture looks at the “daring interior monologue” in The Lost Symbol. Jacket Copy tells us “How to Party Like Dan Brown“, and suddenly we think we should just give […]
Bites: Attempt at bad poetry leaves me unfulfilled, Raymond Chandlers LA, up yours Barnes and Noble, Will Sheff helps Norah Jones, and more
By Jason Diamond Come on city of my birth (that being Chicago), this is the worst poetry you can do? No sonnets about Mike Ditka? Not a single haiku on Hot Dougs? Seriously people, come on! If I ever needed one quote from The Awl to sum up the love I feel for that website, then I have found it with “If our Congress can be measured on a scale of feces (and it should), Senator Byron Leslie Dorgan is […]