After the publication of Gomorrah, a journalistic and autobiographical work that focused on and infuriated Naples’ Camorra crime syndicate, author Roberto Saviano entered into 24 hour protective surveillance and a life of restricted freedom.

In his new politically charged television show, Vieni Via Con Me (Come Away With Me), Saviano has included anti-Berlusconi monologues by Italian comic Roberto Benigni and condemned the defamation of the personal lives of politicians. The television series holds an unprecedented audience of 2 million viewers for the RAI 3 state broadcast channel, demonstrating a new growing interest for youth in the political arena. In conversation with The Financial Times’ John Lloyd, Saviano elaborates on both his book and new television show over sea bass and risotto at an undisclosed location.

What do W. H. Auden, E. M. Forster, Philip Larkin,  and William Empson have in common?

Besides their Britainia, they’ve all had lunch with Steven L. Isenberg. If you missed it, Isenberg vividly recalls four mealtime encounters in this lovely essay from 2009 over at The American Scholar.

A snippet from his lunch with Auden: …more

For admirers of The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis, those interested in Davis’ translations, or if you just like a really good peek into the life of a respected American writer, check out “Lunch With the FT: Lydia Davis.”

The article touches on the origins of one of her sparsely written short stories (one sprung to life via a housekeeper’s card left on a hotel bed,) the relationship between her fiction writing and her translations, and her youthful feelings towards Flaubert.

With this year’s 50th anniversary of Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, writers have been spurred to question whether the book deserves its place in the hall of American classics. …more

Recalling those famed sandwiches of chocolate, marshmallow, and graham cracker goodness enjoyed around a crackling campfire, aptly named folkie lo-fi musicians Woods bring back your campfire days. …more

“Kurt Vonnegut at the Blackboard” (remember those?) over at Lapham’s Quarterly.

Vonnegut on Cinderella: …more

Modern day Paparazzi have both Federico Fellini and recently deceased photojournalist Felice Quinto to thank for their name. …more

In a Wired article, Scott Thill elaborates on artist Jonathan Keats’ Strange Skies installation, in which he screens films for potted plants in New York. The plants will be exposed to travel documentaries of various European skies. Keats states that that he feels it is only “fair that shrubs and trees know what’s happening, that they realize that the cataclysm they’re experiencing locally is truly global in scope.”

Running at the AC Institute in New York through March 13, Keats hopes his installation will give the plants an escape from New York.

Prior to this installation Keats created a story that takes 1,000 years to read in an attempt to rejuvenate attitudes toward literature. Keats has also copyrighted his mind and attempted to genetically engineer God in a petri dish. In his creation of the latter, he gathered bell jars, light meters, cyanobacteria and 160 caged fruit flies.

In a Los Angeles Times article published last month, Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed, comments on a study by University of Pennsylvania economists Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers in which they conclude that women have become steadily unhappier since 1972.

Stevenson and Wolfers parallel their findings directly with the 1970s women’s movements, suggesting that perhaps the feminist movement provoked depression in women. …more

In John McWhorter’s World Affairs article “The Cosmopolitan Tongue: The Universality of English,” he asks if it would be “inherently evil if there were not 6,000 languages spoken but one?” …more

I realized, a few days after moving into my apartment, that my neighbor is an enthusiastic accordion player who enjoys playing at odd hours of the evening. I have never had problems with insomnia or sleeping, but loud bursts emanating from compressed bellows at three in the morning do manage to wake me.

This new difficulty with sleeping prompted me to round up some articles connected to sleep and sleep deprivation:

Mary Sikes Wylie, senior editor at Psychotherapy Networker, comments on the bimodal sleep pattern, which may have been more common before the industrial revolution. Wylie argues that midnight or early-morning insomnia is far more natural than the eight hour sleep cycle societal convention says is so important.

An article from The New York Times delves into the question of why humans sleep… “It may be the biggest open question in biology.” …more

I think, like it or not,  that everything we do as citizens, as human beings, is a statement about how we want the world to be. …more

US district court judge Denny Chin will be ruling in a case on how we access printed books in the future. Who’s in the middle of a bid for our literary heritage? Google, of course. …more

We live in a time where fake DNA has a place in the market! Nucleix, a company specializing in forensic DNA analysis, has uncovered the possibility of falsified DNA evidence at crime scenes. Based on a given sample or generated anew, DNA can be inserted into blood and saliva samples to create biological identity theft. The full paper in which the discovery was revealed, published by Forensic Science International: Genetics, can be read here.

Dr. Frumkin, lead author of the paper, states that a crime scene could be so easily engineered that “any biology undergraduate” could perform the steps necessary. …more

One thing that fascinates me about writing is how people play with the medium: making up games and assignments to bring us together.

For example the Napkin Project at Esquire, where cocktail napkins are mailed to writers and then returned, each covered with a scribbled story. …more

In the last few months, Wikipedia has been in debate with psychologists who are upset that Rorschach inkblot plates can be easily found online.

Because the Rorschach tests are displayed with common responses to the open-ended questions doctors pose while using the plates, several psychologists have voiced concerns that the materials are being undermined. …more

We covered the news that Amazon removed books from subscribers’ Kindles last week.

There is, however, more to the story. …more