Posts by author
Hannah Kingsley-Ma
-
“I WILL NOT MAKE ANY BORING ART”
If you ever wanted to hear the three things John Baldessari thinks every young artist should know, you ought to watch this six-minute film of his life story. And if that’s not enough of a selling point you should watch it…
-
‘WRITE OR DIE’ AND OTHER SAGE WORDS OF ADVICE
The Guardian profiles a series of computer applications meant to motivate authors through the doldrums of writer’s block. ‘Write or Die’ (whose slightly menacing slogan is “putting the ‘Prod’ back in Productivity”) deletes your writing if you pause for more…
-
Pynchon Promotional Treasure Hunt
Have you seen this sticker? If you are a fan of author Thomas Pynchon, you’ll recognize the image as one of the key symbols from his 1966 book The Crying of Lot 49. You can find them scattered about in major cities…
-
“There are two things you don’t throw out in France – bread and books”
The New York Times reported yesterday on the notable difference between independent bookstores in France, and their struggling American counterparts. The article describes the way in which government intervention and price fixing for French-language books has buoyed printed literature in…
-
“I’m a highway and landscapes. You’re a city and painted bricks and lots of people.”
New Yorker columnist Ben Greenman has transcribed bits of an interview that took place at this year’s BookExpo America between Patti Smith and Neil Young, on the subject of Young’s forthcoming memoir Waging Heavy Peace. Smith, whose own 2010 memoir…
-
Library Lamentations
“A library is a different kind of social reality (of the three dimensional kind), which by its very existence teaches a system of values beyond the fiscal.” How do we value libraries? Novelist Zadie Smith writes an essay about the…
-
Hannah Kingsley-Ma: The Last Book I Loved, The Great Gatsby
Lately, I’ve found myself in that kind of frenetic stage of higher education where I feel compelled to read all the books I’ve been told deeply matter. I figure reading the chosen few masterpieces is one of those requisite steps…