Columns
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Fear of Flying Anniversary
Fear of Flying marks its fortieth anniversary this year. The book’s portrayal of feminine sexuality is recognized as a key part of second wave feminism. Writer Natasha Vargas Cooper tells of her connection to the classic novel.
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We’ll Be the Last Ones to Let You Down by Rachael Hanel
Elena Carter reviews Rachael Hanel’s WE’LL BE THE LAST ONES TO LET YOU DOWN today in The Rumpus Book Reviews.
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Interview with Katie Kitamura
It’s as insulting to men as it is to women…Writing can’t be gendered in that way. In an interview about her latest book (Gone to the Forest), Katie Kitamura discusses her frustrations with the idea of masculine versus feminine writing.
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Spotlight: Ben Nadler and Alyssa Berg
Writer Ben Nadler and illustrator Alyssa Berg team up on a graphic story titled “The Broadway Express.”
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Dan Weiss’s Morning Coffee
Oh hey, there’s a new van Gogh painting! The world’s tallest buildings ain’t all that. Furthermore: the world’s largest volcano probably isn’t really. Let’s follow this thread and talk about the mud volcanoes of Azerbaijan. Meanwhile: men with smaller testicles…
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Lexicon Valley Now In Written Form
Slate‘s language podcast, Lexicon Valley, now has a blog component, by popular demand. (Surprise, surprise—word nerds want to read more.) So far, it’s mostly cross-posts from the always-wonderful Language Log on the topics of slang, translation, and the word meh. We look…
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Buy Robert Heinlein’s Bed
“How would you like to own Heinlein’s ‘second-best bed’?” asks this eBay listing, which is apparently legitimate. The bed was designed and built by the sci-fi writer himself, who built all kinds of nifty conveniences into it, including “a drawer,…
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¡Qué Vivan Los Exóticos!
Mexico’s lucha libre—professional wrestling conducted by bombastic masked luchadores—is fairly well known in the United States. But many of us haven’t heard of los exóticos, gay luchadores who often wear makeup and make a show of flirting with their opponents. NPR has…
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What Jhumpa Lahiri is Reading
If certain books are to be termed immigrant fiction, what do we call the rest? Native fiction? Puritan fiction? This distinction doesn’t agree with me. Given the history of the United States, all American fiction could be classified as immigrant…
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Ted Wilson Reviews the World #198
MOUTHSTREEM ★★★★★ (3 out of 5) Hello, and welcome to my week-by-week review of everything in the world. Today I am reviewing Mouthstreem.
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“I Just Wasn’t In the Mood to Be Bossed Around”
In the latest installment of The Toast’s “unglamorous series about DUIs and drinking problems,” Rebecca Pederson relates everything she remembers about being hit by an intoxicated driver while crossing the street one night. It’s remarkable not just for the inherent…
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Shakespeare As It Was Meant to Be Heard
Via 22 Words, here’s a video demonstrating how Shakespeare plays sound when performed in their original pronunciation. That’s right: the sonorous received pronunciation we associate with Shakespeare didn’t evolve until long after the bard’s death. This new, old accent sounds…