Honestly, stop everything and watch Sarah Silverman walk you through the current regulations on “voter fraud.” In short, make sure Grandma’s registered to own a firearm and we’re all good…
Did everyone else see this disclaimer Philp Roth wrote for Wikipedia, disputing the rumors that he based his Human Stain protagonist on the critic Anatole Broyard? According to Anatole’s daughter, Bliss, Roth knew Broyard better than he claims. I’m willing to posit that a busy guy like Philip Roth may have forgotten certain conversations or meetings, even with another luminary…the haggling over facts isn’t what’s interesting to me here. What’s fascinating is why Roth felt compelled to write an open letter to Wikipedia disputing something that was only ever a rumor anyway, about a work of fiction. I keep puzzling over his motives. Was this important to the artistic integrity of The Human Stain? I’m a Roth fan, whereas I confess I’d never even heard of Broyard prior to publishing Bliss in an anthology. Still. Has the internet made it such that literary gossip and mysteries are no longer permitted? Must the author’s motivations and inspirations always be on public record, and is that meant to be relevant to the reading of the book? I can’t quite stop thinking about this.
Speaking of open letters, check out Caroline Leavitt’s to Mitt Romney, “We Represent the 47 Percent.”
This investigation into whether sexual arousal lowers women’s “disgust” response is the weirdest scientific study I’ve ever seen in my life. I mean, seriously? Next thing they were going to simulate making the female subjects cannibalize someone with a skin disease.
Read an excerpt of Jennifer Spiegel’s Love Slave over at The Nervous Breakdown.
Salman Rushdie’s making the circuit for Joseph Anton: A Memoir. In light of recent violence at US Embassies in the Middle East, it’s eerie and sad how the more things change, the more they stay the same. Here Rushide is, rocking it on Salon.
Why we devour memoirs by musicians.
I get to see the Rumpus gang in person soon, at Litquake’s Litcrawl. Besides the Rumpus’ On Hands and Knees reading, I’m on this cool Art of the Novel panel with the fabulous Josh Mohr.
Over at HuffPo, Jillian Lauren finds her true reflection in narrative, not mirrors.
Dzanc Books participates in The Great Write-Off. Write. Pledge someone. Get involved.
You’re not reading this, because you’re at the Brooklyn Book Festival. I’m jealous. But I’m leaving for Mexico tomorrow to scope things out for Other Voices Queretaro, the writing program I’m launching this summer (July 5-14) with Stacy Bierlein, Rob Roberge, Pam Houston and Josip Novakovich. So clearly my ass should be kicked if I complain.
