Posts by author
Steven Tagle
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ABA Challenges Big-Box “Predatory Pricing”
Two weeks ago, the American Booksellers Association, an organization of independent booksellers, asked the Justice Department to investigate what it describes as “illegal predatory pricing” by big-box retailers Amazon.com, Wal-Mart, and Target. The price war began on October 15 when…
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You Caught Me
Tao Lin’s characters are constantly connected, yet physically detached. The technology they live and breathe often seems less mechanical than its users.
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Rooms of Their Own
Three generations of women cope with isolation, grief, and sex, in the first novel by the celebrated story writer, Rachel Sherman.
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The Rumpus Mini-Interview with Shya Scanlon
We’re catching up with Shya Scanlon halfway through the serialization of his novel, Forecast, across 42 web journals and blogs. The Rumpus: How is the serialization going? How are people responding to it? Are they following the novel across its…
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Lynndie England Sues Tortured Biographer
Former Army reservist Lynndie England, the international face of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, is suing her biographer for seizing control of what was intended to be a shared copyright. In July, writer Gary S. Winkler abruptly resigned from the…
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Poems for the Gmail Generation
Brandon Scott Gorrell’s debut collection, During My Nervous Breakdown I Want to Have a Biographer Present is an anxious, ambivalent ode to Internet culture.
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“We Got Off on Being Puppeteers.”
Tamler Sommers of The Believer recently interviewed Dr. Phil Zimbardo about his infamous Stanford Prison Experiment. The 1971 experiment randomly assigned intelligent, normal, healthy young men to the role of prisoner or guard. What began as an investigation into the…
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Salon Lays Off 20% of Staff to Become “True Web Publication”
Salon laid off six of its 29 editorial staffers last week in an effort–according to CEO Richard Gingras’ statement to Gawker–to become “more of a true Web publication.” According to Gingras, the layoffs are tied to a fall relaunch of…
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“Amazon.com is watching you.”
Amazon, we’re still mad at you. Last week, the company once again stirred waves of customer indignation when it remotely deleted copies of George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm from users’ Kindles. The Rumpus covered the story here and here.
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When in Rome: DC Lit Mag Launched
The Rome Review, Washington DC’s new literary magazine, released its inaugural issue on June 27. The issue features work from Daniel Wallace, Blake Butler, Kathleen Rooney, and David Means, as well as photography from Jonathan Goley, Thomas Sayers Ellis, and…
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Shya Scanlon Experiments with Web Serialization
Beginning this Thursday, Shya Scanlon will be serializing his sci-fi novel, Forecast, in semi-weekly installments across 42 web journals and blogs. Forecast is a sci-fi tale of relationships and identity under constant surveillance. The novel opens in a world where…
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Scientology Defectors: Why Did They Stay?
I attended a Scientology service a few years ago as part of a Stanford psych course taught by Phil Zimbardo. My assignment was to act as a target of social influence, to evaluate the techniques that Scientology used to recruit…