Weekend Bites, The Frightening Edition: Keats Misdiagnosed?, the Penis as Literary Device, ScarJo to Rape Arthur Miller’s Work, Truths in Ghostbusters, and Why M&M’s Might As Well Be Crack

Happy Halloween!  In honor of the spooky holiday, Vol.1 has collected some particularly frightening Bites, ranging from the traditionally fun-filled, the absolutely outraging, and the sadly serious. Lit. Did medical malpractice lead to the death of John Keats, leaving the poet starving and anguished?  Wait, isn’t that what poets are definitively? After losing his own book deal, South Carolina governor Mark Sanford praises Ayn Rand. In a review of Alistair Morgan’s Sleeper’s Wake, The Rumpus expostulates on the penis as […]

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Bites: Woody Allen Drawn, A New Case for American Lit, NYRB on Herta Müller, SXSW, and more

An abstract from Dread and Superficiality: Woody Allen as Comic Strip, a new book to be published next month, is available at the Guardian. Arcade Fire’s a lucky band.  Spike Jonze was “thinking of them almost every step of the way” in making his famous film. Rather than insular, is American Literature “borderless”? From the NYRB, a podcast on Herta Müller, the 2009 Nobel laureate in literature.  Vol. 1 touched on Müller and her recent win last week. “Is there […]

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Dusting Off: The Whore of Mensa

Ah, Woody in 1974.  Dare I label that time in his career “Prime Wood”?  No? Alright.  Whatever the case, fresh into his forties, and in the best days of being a middle-aged-Jewish-Manhattanite, Mr. Allen wrote a piece for his beloved city’s hometown bible, the New Yorker, about one of his favorite subjects: intellectuals. In this case he would rather focus on a ring of brainy call girls with whom he could discuss Melville instead of the windbags who stand in […]

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Bites: NYU vs. Muppets for the best Woody imitation, Michael Greenberg, African books, teachers, and more

“Would You Rather See Woody Allen’s Manhattan Adapted by NYU Students or Muppets?” (thanks Flavorwire) The Rumpus talks with Beg, Borrow, Steal author, Michael Greenberg. Conversational Reading posted “99 Essential African Books“ Here is an article that combines Steampunk and Lolcats Jacket Copy on the “masterful 33 1/3 series“.  (Okay, we think it’s good too) Gene Simmons, Stephen King, 2 presidents and eleven more famous people were teachers (Mental Floss) Black Moth Super Rainbow played the ICA in Boston.  (Thanks […]

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The Coen Brothers and the Return of the Middle-Aged Jewish Man

By Jason Diamond Using names like Woody Allen, Philip Roth, Saul Bellow, and Leonard Michaels, a case could be made that there is an entire genre focusing solely on the neurosis of middle-aged Jewish men. John Updike must have thought so, take his character Henry Bech for proof. But while Bellow, Michaels, and the WASP king Updike are all dead, Roth is still good (a bit depressing maybe, but in a good way) and Allen is more content on using […]

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Jews For Jesus Tackle Existentialisim; fail.

Is it supposed to be some sort of sign that upon reaching the top of the steps of the Union Square station that I find a pamphlet titled “Existential Crisis”? (Do you like the Mac Photobooth mirror photo above? It somehow represents my inner-existential debate.) I’m going with no, but I must say, the picture of the little bug saying “oy vey that is supposed to be Kafka’s Metamorphosis main character, Gregor Samsa, made me somewhat uncomfortable. I feel like […]

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Jews For Jesus Tackle Existentialisim, and Fail at It

Is it supposed to be some sort of sign that upon reaching the top of the steps of the Union Square station that I find a pamphlet titled “Existential Crisis”? (Do you like the Mac Photobooth mirror photo above? It somehow represents my inner-existential debate.) I’m going with no, but I must say, the picture of the little bug saying “oy vey that is supposed to be Kafka’s Metamorphosis main character, Gregor Samsa, made me somewhat uncomfortable. I feel like […]

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Bites: Another Hemingway and another edit, literary threesomes, Fleet Foxes, we are all Woody Allen

How many more of Hemingway’s relations are going to edit A Moveable Feast? Fashion illustrator Ruben Toledo, whose work with his wife Isabel is currently on display at The Museum at FIT, has redesigned the front flaps of three Penguin Classics: The Scarlett Letter, Wuthering Heights, and Pride and Prejudice. More interesting than the old paintings Penguin usually uses, but still a little jarring. Top Ten literary threesomes Aren’t all Fleet Foxes songs sort of in a “haunting, Neil Young- […]

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