Posts by author
Ian MacAllen
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Zuckerberg is No Oprah
The first meeting of the Facebook book club was a little like Fight Club: nobody talked about it. Perhaps it was Zuckerberg’s choice of book—The End of Power by Moisés Naím—or maybe he simply doesn’t have the cultural cachet of…
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Worthwhile Work
Dissatisfaction among the modern white-collar working class might stem from the fact that many jobs simply don’t feel necessary. Strike! Magazine has been advertising on the London Underground with quotes from David Graeber’s 2013 essay, “On the Phenomenon of Bullshit…
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Notable NYC: 1/17–1/23
Saturday 1/17: Tom Trudgeon and Wayne Koestenbaum join the Segue Series. Zinc Bar, 4:30 p.m., $5. Sunday 1/18: Michelle Bamberger and Robert Oswald will discuss The Real Cost of Fracking. BookCourt, 4 p.m., free. Tuesday 1/20: Robert Repino discusses his…
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500 Years of Drunk
How many different words are there for “intoxicated”? Quite a lot, as it turns out—writers have been inventing new words to describe inebriation for just about as long as they’ve been drinking. A new book exploring the history of synonyms…
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Are Writers Better with Age?
Not everyone is going to make a “5 under 35” list. Actually, most writers won’t. Though the zeitgeist seems obsessed with youthful writers, older is often better, as this infographic from the Guardian charting the age of authors at the…
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In Defense of “Elitism”
Rejection is an essential part of editing and publishing, but also a source of criticism of the industry. Over at Slate, Daniel Menaker comes to the defense of the publishing industry’s gatekeepers, explaining the importance of professionals in guiding the production…
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The Uncomfortable Shock of Recognition
Over at the Guardian, Scottish author Irvine Welsh makes a case for Bret Easton Ellis’s often reviled, always controversial American Psycho as a modern classic. Welsh—the author of his own modern classic, Trainspotting—defends the novel, insisting that the qualities that make…
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Notable NYC: 1/10–1/16
Saturday 1/10: Aaron Winslow and Samuel Delany join the Segue Series. Winslow’s post-apocalyptic novel Jobs of the Great Misery is forthcoming in 2015. Zinc Bar, 4:30 p.m., $5. Matt Nelson turns 28. Mellow Pages Library, 8 p.m., free. Monday 1/12:…
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The Library Nightclub
An online joke at Rutgers University became a reality when library officials converted the main library into a nightclub. During the semester, students studying at Alexander Library joked they were at Club Alex. Library officials decided to make those jokes…
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Borders Bookstore and Sharia Law
Borders bookstores might have withered away in bankruptcy stateside, but internationally the store continues to operate, and the chain is at the center of a censorship dispute. Melville House reports that a Borders in Kuala Lumpur was raided in 2012…
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When Poets Become Novelists
Ben Lerner talks with the Guardian about life in Brooklyn, octopuses, and poets: “Poets really haven’t gotten the news that the novel is also dead,” he says, of the opinion among some poets that writing in prose is a capitulation…