Features & Reviews
-
Young, Unemployed, and Scottish
“Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television. Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players, and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol and dental insurance. Choose fixed-interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter…
-
Some Kind of 29th-Century Sci-Fi Lobster
Over at New York Magazine, Sam Anderson (interviewed here) has published a review of Inherent Vice that is one of the funniest pans of a novel I’ve ever read. “There is no easy way to say this,” Anderson begins, “so here…
-
Stylistic Departure
Dan Chaon has written a guest post for Kepler’s Books’ blog, Well-Read Donkey, in which he discusses his love of thrillers, how we look at “genre” fiction versus “literary” fiction, writing his new novel Await Your Reply, and his genealogical…
-
David Rees: The Last Book I Loved, The Plague
“Followed by scowls and protestations, (the doctor) left the committee-room. Some minutes later, as he was driving down a black street redolent of fried fish and urine, a woman screaming in agony, her groin dripping blood, stretched her arms toward…
-
Sex and the Witty
There’s Something Wrong with Sven combines imaginative leaps worthy of Calvino and Vonnegut with tragicomic irreverence of the George Saunders variety.
-
Charlie Stross Talks Happy Slapping, Robot Chauffeurs with Paul Krugman
I just came across this transcript of a conversation between Paul Krugman and the sci-fi writer Charlie Stross. They talk about why flying cars are a bad idea, what kitchens tell us about ourselves, and how “future shock” leads to…
-
How Idioms Might Save the World
“…I was astonished (original meaning = struck by lightning) by something Bob Mankoff … said in a Charlie Rose Show interview. He said he thought of “humor as a necessary counterweight to the hegemony of reason.” I use that as…
-
Smart People Talk Short Stories
In a post last week titled More Crappy News for Short Story Writers, I lamented what I considered to be a lost opportunity for the big publishing houses. They could, I suggested, use similarities between good short story writing and…
-
Africa and Science Fiction
Nnedi Okorafor has an essay over at The Nebula Awards site about Africa’s relationship with science fiction, as well as a discussion on Penguin’s decision to make science fiction ineligible for The Penguin Prize for African Writing. “As (director Tchidi)…
-
The Rumpus Sunday Book Review Supplement
This week, Rumpus books reviews a novel, a collection of prose poems, and a debut collection of short stories set in Louisiana.
-
Rumpus Sunday Book Blog Roundup
I’m hoping to God that it’s just temporary, but for whatever reason, the book blogs are suddenly all worried about ethics, whether it’s what to do about reading writers with objectionable opinions or whether writers should base characters on people…
-
Help Make a Story
“Any bird departing the yard in a north-north-westerly direction could by chance alight on the window-ledge of room 62A of the Florencio Motel, where a recently arrived woman is living out of a suitcase and several single-serving cereal boxes.” A…