Posts by author
Lauren O’Neal
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Goodbye to Goodreads
If you’re feeling a little queasy about Amazon’s buyout of Goodreads, Book Riot has compiled a list of alternative book-based social networks. A few of them seem defunct, and one is actually also owned by Amazon, but some, especially the…
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Nobody Tell Gollum About This
“Among those who bear the name of Senicianus to none grant health until he bring back the ring to the temple of Nodens.” It sounds like it comes from a fantasy novel, but it’s a real inscription regarding a real…
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Weekend Rumpus Roundup
Here’s what you may have missed on the Rumpus this weekend: A Yumi Sakugawa comic about an elephant god. An essay on parenting by Ben Tanzer. And yes, please note I have just lied to my older son. Parents do…
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The Dark Heart of College Sports
Here is an actual thing said by an actual sports marketing executive to a group of commissioners trying to reform college sports: “You sold your souls, and you’re going to continue selling them. You can be very moral and righteous…
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The Paperback Makeover
“Why are they still bothering with paperbacks?” This came from a coffee-shop acquaintance when he heard my book was soon to come out in paperback, nine months after its hardcover release. “Anyone who wants it half price already bought it on…
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Ultrarunning, Ultrawriting
The relationship between writing and running has a long history, so perhaps it’s not surprising to see a cluster of longreads having to do with ultrarunning. One is this New York Times Magazine profile of Kilian Jornet Burgada, “the most dominating endurance…
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Drake’s East African Girl
Previously, we linked to a Feminist Wire post about being a black fan of a white musician who has said racist things. They have another great post up about race and music fandom, this one by Safy-Hallan Farah: For a…
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The Rumpus Interview with Karen Russell
From immortal citrus-suckers to a portentous flock of seagulls, the surreal phenomena in Karen Russell’s stories break your heart but leave your suspension of disbelief completely intact.
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Keep Happy Baby Happy with Food Donations
Are you a fan of the Rumpus living in New York? Do you work in, or have ties to, the food industry, or maybe just some extra cash you’d like to give to some starving artists? We’re looking to feed…
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From Superworms to Pythons
Mary Roach, author of Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers and other explorations of the weird, has a new book called Gulp, this one about eating and digesting food. You can read a delightful but somewhat gruesome excerpt at Boing Boing.…
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“A New World of Silence and Control”
What does it sound like when someone who grew up without music becomes a musician? For British songstress Phildel, who was raised in an abusive home where she was forbidden to listen to music, that hypothetical question is a reality—and…
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About That Whole “Men Are Sex Fiends” Thing…
Well, this is interesting: “…for most of Western history, from ancient Greece to beginning of the nineteenth century, women were assumed to be the sex-crazed porn fiends of their day.” Alyssa Goldstein chronicles the process by which that stereotype flipped…