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From Stephen Elliott
If you’ve ever felt like reading good literature gives you more comfort and insight than any self-help book ever could, you’re probably onto something.
Scientists at the University of Liverpool recently conducted a study indicating that the brain “lights up” bigger and brighter when grappling with Shakespeare and Wordsworth than when taking in ordinary prose.
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Timothy Leo Taranto illustrates some of literature’s greats, including David Foster Wallace and Gromit, Flan-nery O’Connor, and John Frankensteinbeck.
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Halimah Marcus and Benjamin Samuel, the co-editors of Recommended Reading, discuss the ins and outs of editing an ambitious literary project.
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“I’m exposing faultlines, dealing especially with rhetoric. Showing that heterosexuality is a disease, or at least its inheritance.” Novelist, theorist, historian and blog-girl, Kate Zambreno gives up a meaty, definitive interview.
...moreIn response to YouTube’s lack of a literature category, Reddit has created its own “underground” site for literary videos.
“Poetry videos, short story videos, live readings, spoken work performance, audiobook links, animated storytelling videos, documentaries about writers, book trailers, author interviews, and anything else you can think up that combines literature and other media.”
(Via GalleyCat)
...moreI’m pretty sure that madwomen+ road trips + Armageddon + self vs.nature = me. In its archetypes and generational themes, literature has taught us a lot about ourselves, but often this is evidenced by the reactions that it elicits rather than what it provides as fact.
...moreAfter a hiatus of a few years, the intellectually-engaging, always interesting, often confrontational and downright maverick literary/cultural magazine The Baffler has returned!
I just picked up my copy at the bookstore where I work. Most bookstores with a decent magazine rack should carry at least a couple copies.
...moreA few weeks ago, I went to a dermatologist to have something on my nose removed. He said less than two sentences to me, asked me one question he didn’t listen to the answer to, ignored my protests, had a nurse hold me down, stuck a large needle in my nose with no warning, and then dug the thing out with a scalpel even though the anesthesia was barely working.
...more“But the idea that genre is a tool, not a prophecy goes beyond combating genre snobbery, I think — it’s actually helpful for writers to think about when crafting their next novel.
Just because there’s this marvelous tool for helping readers to understand your story, doesn’t mean your story has to be crafted around the tool.”
At io9, they’re talking about the advantages of using genre as a tool, especially in regards to sci-fi.
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“These things, writing and reading, are never, I don’t think were ever, ever meant to be exclusive from anything else. I think they were always meant to be part of the grand fabric of life.”
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The Rumpus dispatched dozens of our top reporters to Chicago. None of them were heard from again.
...moreA Review of Writing in the Dark, by David Grossman
BY BRIAN SCHWARTZ
In the Hebrew language, I am sure, there are several different ways to say “enemy.” I have little grasp of what these words might be. I imagine that there are milder entries
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Rumpus Books asked dozens of writers what they’ll be reading on New Year’s Day, 2009. Here’s what they said: