Features & Reviews
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Attention Spans are Not the Problem
A few weeks ago, I argued that the Internet age was uniquely well suited to selling short story collections. A few commenters did not agree with what seemed to be implicit in my argument: the idea that the “short attention…
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Tom Wolfe Takes on the Rich
“‘Tarantulas’ was the term the late-19th-century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche—steady … steady … some of us rich people went to college, too—used for those who are consumed by resentment. Unable themselves to be great men, they burn with a feverish fervor,…
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The Great Beast’s Landlady
Rodney Davis has a very entertaining essay up about talking to Aleister Crowley‘s landlady Kathleen “Johnny” Simonds. Apparently, Crowley lived with Simonds shortly before his death, and despite his reputation as “The Wickedest Man Alive,” he was a very solid…
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The Rumpus Sunday Book Blog Roundup
This week, the book blogs have been talking about the future of reading and literature, which leads me to believe that they don’t think it’s dead. I don’t believe them. The sad truth is that they’re taking Reading Rainbow away…
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The Rumpus Sunday Book Review Supplement
It’s the end of August. While most of the world is on vacation, Rumpus Books is publishing book reviews.
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Zak Smith Gravity’s Rainbow Giveaway
The Conversational Reading blog is giving away a brand-new hardcover copy of Zak Smith’s illustrated Gravity’s Rainbow in a contest held on their Facebook page. To enter, you need to become a member of their group, and write on their…
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The Write Links
Author/publisher Christopher Herz is giving new meaning to handselling. “Every day he takes 10 copies out to the streets and does not come home until he sells all of them.” Artifice Magazine‘s submission wishlist (via HTMLGIANT). Check it out, and…
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Crown of Sonnets
An anthology of stories from the new Russia shows the continuity between contemporary writers and their canonical predecessors
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Why Were Artists Poor?
Reading Jeremy’s post on Andrew Keen and starving artists, I couldn’t help but think of Joel Barlow (1754-1812). Barlow was a poet, one of the Connecticut Wits, to be precise, so my mental leap probably owes more to the fact…
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Writing Is Hard
First, watch this: Hamlet 2 preview (pay special attention around the 49-second mark). Steve Coogan, playing Dana Marschz, beautifully captures the life of a writer in the overshadowed and under-acclaimed Hamlet 2 when he laments, “Oh my god, writing is…
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The Last Book I Loved: The Moviegoer
I just had another read of Walker Percy’s The Moviegoer, because I admire it and because I sought two specific paragraphs from the novel. I wanted to read them again. With our everydayness so saturated with news media and opinion…
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Pittsburgh, Writer’s Haven
“According to the Post-Gazette article, writers are realizing how great Pittsburgh is, and moving there en-masse. “Of course, the article makes clear, it’s not about the money (there is not much)—it’s about being able to attend Encyclopedia Destructica’s weekly ‘binding…