The Daily Rumpus
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From Stephen Elliott
What defines a person’s existence? A photo ID or their Internet activity?
It’s a question that has been losing its irony lately. There’s the news of a traveling couple that allegedly went missing in Perú but in actuality was just taking a break from Facebook updates.
...moreAmanda Shubert’s essay “Love in Excess: Joe Wright’s Anna Karenina” takes two of Wright’s film adaptations, Pride and Prejudice (2005) and Atonement (2007), and perceptively compares and contrasts them to Anna Karenina (2012).
According to Shubert, Anna Karenina is a “mess” compared to Wright’s two previous film adaptations. Shubert claims:
...moreAt Full Stop, Ben Jahn reviews Ted Sanders’ new story collection, No Animals We Could Name.
The collection, as the title suggests, often skirts the foggy line between the imaginary and the observed, and, for Jahn, challenges the possibility of recounting sensations as truly observed:
“A kind of celebratory regret runs through these stories for the simultaneous adequacy and inadequacy of descriptive language… Sanders invites his readers to believe they could have imagined these sounds.
...moreAt Full Stop, Stephanie Bernhard writes about why we shouldn’t “do” cities.
“To suggest that a city or site can be “done,” like dishes, the laundry, or homework, reduces said city to the limits of the do-er’s consciousness or experience.”
...moreAt Full Stop, Stephanie Bernhard weighs in on the literary gender imbalance, arguing that today’s literary marketplace is “identity-driven,” which makes it more difficult for women writers to succeed.
“Our culture still offers men a broader spectrum of acceptable personality types than it does women.
...moreAt Full Stop, Amanda Shubert reviews Brian Kellow’s Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark, while interrogating the particularly vitriolic (and often gendered) criticism that continues to be leveled against the influential film critic.
“Kael spoke to people in a voice they recognized, but she demanded something more from them than they were accustomed to.
...more“So here it is: the trade secrets, the panels and moments we kept bringing back up over meals — really, everything that inspired us to discuss hotel arrangements for the 2013 AWP in Boston on our El ride home.”
Full Stop went to AWP and created an illustrated run-down of their favorite parts.
...more“If we can find birds on the pages of books, and gods within concrete, it does not seem fantastic to encounter our parents inside of their pots and patios.”
At Full Stop, Peter Nowogrodzki takes a close look at Tan Lin’s The Patio and The Index while reflecting on resurrections and circularity.
...moreAimee Bender responds to Full Stop’s Situation in American Writing survey. Bender discusses literary criticism’s transition to the Internet, the political tendencies of American writing, and whether she imagines a specific audience for her work:
“No, not a definite audience.
...more“The Situation in American writing,” Full Stop’s questionnaire for prominent authors—with questions ranging from literary criticism to war—elicits some excellent responses from Roxane Gay.
“My writing is lots of things but more often than not, the stories and essays I write reflect an allegiance to women and the concerns of women.
...more