From Today’s Daily Rumpus email (to read entire Daily Rumpuses you need to subscribe):

“A literary novelist writing a genre novel is like an intellectual dating a porn star.” So begins Glen Duncan’s review of Colson Whitehead’s new novel, Zone One. What does he mean? Can the porn star be an intellectual? What if an intellectual is dating another intellectual who is also a porn star? Let’s change the language and see how it sounds, “A literary novelist writing a genre novel is like an intellectual dating a poor black woman.” “A literary novelist writing a genre novel is like an intellectual dating someone sexy who can’t read.”

Whoever is opposite the intellectual is not an intellectual as the genre novel is not a literary novel. …more

A literary novelist writing a genre novel is like an intellectual dating a porn star, right?  Well that’s what New York Times book reviewer Glen Duncan thinks.

In his Sunday Book Review of Colson Whitehead’s complex new zombie novel, Zone One, Duncan sets the parallel between dating porn stars and what he initially perceives as slumming in genre fiction, and lets the rest of the review ride on the back of this comparison.  While he’s busy offending sex workers, he also speculates that readers attracted to the story for its post-apocalyptic zombie tale will encounter so many big words as to be morally affronted.  Duncan praises the book and comes around to the idea of intellectually stimulating genre fiction, but never quite comes around to the idea of sex workers as intellectually stimulating people, concluding of his imaginary couple only that, “they look pretty good together.”

The piece came to our attention via a witty retort by Savvy stripper and staff writer over at Tits and Sass, Bubbles (whose thoughts on this issue you can read here):

In 1995, a small group of writers and editors met to plan Salon. Laura Miller, who became employee number 5, was involved in creating the prototype. …more

“It started with a dream. I had houseguests and I heard them in the living room making breakfast one morning. I went back to sleep and dreamt that I wanted to go into the living room, but I wondered if they’d cleaned out all the zombies yet. Nice, right? I woke up and thought, yeah, that’s probably a logistical nightmare in cleaning up after the apocalypse: Who’s going to clean out all the plague-infected wretches?”

That is novelist Colson Whitehead explaining how his sixth book, Zone One, came about. The interview also reveals his movie inspirations, love of twitter, and his plan for when the zombies attack.

More and more “serious” “literary” writers are turning to zombies, werewolves, and vampires for inspiration. This could be symptomatic of something dire or something hopeful in the world of writing. We could dither endlessly about the ramifications.

But perhaps we need to stop abstractly generalizing and focus on specifics instead.

Case in point: Colson Whitehead’s upcoming novel about zombies. Which partly resembles a Joy Division song apparently.

Since I have a young adult novel in progress, Confessions Of Tween-Wolf — a harrowing account of a barely pubescent girl’s struggle to control her excessive body hair and abnormal eating habits — I’m encouraged that established writers are not afraid to tackle the monsters that we carry inside ourselves. I’m also aware that books about werewolves, vampires and the paranormal tend to make money. (And now I’m generalizing.)

This week in New York, BookExpo America (BEA) kicks off, and this year with a new feature: New York Book Week–events that are open to the public. Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) discusses and serves up cocktails, Timothy Donnelly and Matthew Rohrer read, Melissa Auf der Maur performs, Al Maysles and DA Pennebaker talk documentaries, Edward Koren talks about the art of humor with Jules Feiffer, and Matthey Barney’s Cremaster Cycle gets a full run at the IFC Center.

MONDAY 5/24: The Art of the Novella. Lore Segal reads from Lucinella, her savvy take on the New York literary scene. Greenlight Books. 686 Fulton St. 7:30pm. …more

Four hundred writers and readers turned out Friday night to celebrate one of the country’s best loved literary journals. Where were you? …more

A NIGHT TOGETHER: Presented by The Rumpus, Tin House and Flavorpill

On April 6, The Rumpus, Tin House and Flavorpill joined forces and presented a night of fiction, music, comedy and general mayhem at the Highline Ballroom. Despite the large size of the Highline, it was a remarkably cozy evening. …more

New York writers, win a chance to read your work alongside Sam Lipsyte at our NYC event on April 6. Lipsyte is one of our featured guests at A Night Together, an event The Rumpus is co-hosting with Tin House and Flavorpill, which will also feature, among others, Michael Showalter, Lorelei Lee, Dave Hill, Colson Whitehead, Alina Simone and Jeffrey Lewis.

In honor of Sam Lipsyte, and in an effort to bring some new writers into the mix, we’re offering four writers an opportunity to read your work on stage along with Sam Lipsyte, Colson Whitehead and Lorelei Lee. We ask only that you spin your short fictional prose piece from one line of Lipsyte’s new novel The Ask. …more

This week in New York 2010: Whitney Biennial opens, Gigantic holds a launch party for Issue 2: Gigantic America, Anderbo Reading at KGB, Mary Karr talks with Philip Gourevitch, MOMA premieres documentary about Mikhail Khodorkovsky–Russia’s wealthiest man and one if its most controversial figures, Ted Conover reads, André Aciman talks to Paul Leclerc, and Sam Mendes directs The Tempest at BAM.

MONDAY 2/22: Author Mary Karr talks with Paris Review editor Philip Gourevitch about her process as part of the magazine’s Art of Memoir interview series. Mary Karr is the author of several books, including The Liars’ Club, Cherry and, most recently, Lit, which made The New York Times best books of 2009. Joe’s Pub. 425 Lafayette St. $20. 7:00pm. …more

This week in New York, Harper’s presents “Love: A Rebuke” with Colson Whitehead, Heidi Julavits and Sam Lipsyte, Simon Critchley in bed with Cabinet’s Brian Dillon chatting about hypochondria, Vol. 1 Brooklyn and Gignatic present the Greatest 3-Minute Rock ‘n Roll Story Ever, Adam Haslett reads from his debut novel, The Magnetic Fields perform, Zachary German and Tao Lin celebrate the release of German’s new book, and BOMB Magazine hosts its Winter Issue Launch Party.

MONDAY 2/8: Susan Sontag. PROMISED LANDS (1974). Susan Sontag’s third directorial effort and her only documentary, PROMISED LANDS scrutinizes the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict and the growing divisions within Jewish thought over the question of Palestinian sovereignty. Shot in Israel during the final days and immediate aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, it is undoubtedly one of Sontag’s most incisive examinations of contemporary Jewish consciousness, and she considered it her most personal film.With and introduction by artist Paul Chan. Anthology Film Archives. 32 Second Ave. …more

MONDAY, October 12, 2009 – SUNDAY, October 18, 2009

This week in New York, The New Yorker Festival hits town. And yes, while the “Humor Revue,” “About Towns,” and “Kaffeeklatches” seem to have been sold out before they were on sale, there’re still some good readings and “Screen Gems”  available, and a slim, if precariously so, window for getting tickets to sold-out events (see below) – and see a full schedule here; A Festival of Frightening Movies begins at Lincoln Center, and Spike Jonze week continues a the MOMA, in celebration of the Friday release of Where the Wild Things Are.

MONDAY 10/12: Spike Jonze: Award-Winning Music Videos, Short Films and Commercials, Part 2 (100 min.) Museum of Modern Art. 8:00pm.

Brian Evenson and Mary Caponegro read at McNally Jackson. 7pm. …more

Apparently there was some “controversy” over Colson Whitehead responding to a question about Young Adult books following a reading. Asked for a comment Whitehead explained how he feels about categorizing books. …more

Colson Whitehead is the author of the novels The Intuitionist, John Henry Days and Apex Hides the Hurt, as well as a collection of essays, The Colossus of New York. His new novel, Sag Harbor, has just been published by Doubleday. What follows is a review of Sag Harbor, followed by an interview with Colson Whitehead—or, as we like to call this literary twofer: The Rumpus Original Combo. Enjoy! …more

“By finding the right words, I master my world; by finding the exactly right words, others can see that their world is identical to mine. We’re all made of the same stuff… I was raised on Richard Pryor and George Carlin, so came to believe in the profundity of the profane.”

From the Colson Whitehead review/interview combo, coming tomorrow.