Posts by author
Lauren O’Neal
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Lydia Davis and Twitter: A Match Made in Heaven
For some writers, Twitter isn’t a newfangled distraction but rather an extension of the art they’ve been making all along. Lydia Davis, whose stories often span only a few sentences, plans to give the microblogging platform a try as a…
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Memorial Day Weekend Rumpus Roundup
We hope you had a good Memorial Day weekend. We certainly did—we chowed down on delicious Rumpus features.
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Literary Feuds in the Digital Age Get Ugly
While we were all shaking our heads about sexist changes to the “American Novelists” page, Wikipedia editor “Qworty” was taking action—by making a series of “revenge edits” to Amanda Filipacchi’s page. But, sadly and strangely, that was only the tip of…
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Sympathy for the Library-Fine Dodger
You can’t always get what you want…and if what Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones wants is forgiveness for decades-old library fines, then he’s out of luck.
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From Alcoholic to Diet Cokehead
In an interview with addiction website The Fix, reprinted at Salon, memoirist and poet Mary Karr discusses getting clean, flouting rules, and how sobriety shaped her relationship with David Foster Wallace. You’re present when you’re not drinking a fifth of Jack…
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Send A Letter Commemorating Irish Letters
What a cool way to celebrate Ireland’s storytelling tradition: a new Irish stamp features the text of an entire short-short by 17-year-old Dubliner Eoin Moore. Moore’s piece, about how “[t]he city embodies the people, and the people embody the city,”…
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Only the Lonely (Have Serious Health Problems)
Loneliness is more than just a feeling, according to an article in the New Republic. It’s a biological process that activates your physical pain responses and trashes your immune system. Here’s one of many fascinating (and, okay, probably depressing) examples of…
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Soyinka Clears the Record on Achebe
“Achebe A Celebrated Storyteller, But No Father Of African Literature, Says Soyinka.” The headline sound sensationalistic and snipey, but this interview with Wole Soyinka about the death of Chinua Achebe is nuanced and comprehensive, if more than a little prickly. Soyinka…
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The Ecosystem Inside You
There’s lots of cool/gross stuff in this Michael Pollan article about the microbes in human bodies: “for every human cell that is intrinsic to our body, there are about 10 resident microbes,” mother’s milk feeds newborns’ “gut bugs,” and there…
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Well, This Is Certainly One Way to Give Advice
On a blog for the Wall Street Journal (where else?), Emily Oster gives advice based on economic theory. For example: There is a model in economics called the “sS” model. It’s not often applied to relationships, but I think it should…
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“Each One Is A Bloodless War”
It’s always fun to compare your culture’s inexplicably expensive and complicated customs with another’s and realize that nothing makes sense anywhere in the world. For example, at the Billfold, Jia Tolentino relates a conversation with a Kyrgyz friend about weddings: In…
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Guys Conner Habib Wanted to Fuck in High School
Crackerjack writer, porn actor, and Rumpus contributor Conner Habib has posted the latest in his “Guys I Wanted to Fuck in High School” series. It’s erotic and expansive and poignant, and you should read it right now. A preview: Do…