The Rumpus Mini-Interview Project #192: Lara Vapnyar
“This novel is my most intimate and biographical.”
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Posts Tagged: Louis Menand
Self-Help
Self-help books, like diet books, are ever-popular. But, according to Louis Menand at the New Yorker, they aren’t necessarily making us better human beings—just workers who better fit current business practices: It’s not surprising that every era has a different human model to suit a different theory of productivity, but it is mildly disheartening to realize […]
...moreThe Year the Future Began
Reviewing W. Joseph Campbell’s 1995: The Year the Future Began, Louis Menand explores, among other things, the different conceptions and strategies for recording history.
...moreCan Creative Writing Be Taught?
I’ll hazard a guess and say that the majority of people who contribute to and work on the Rumpus have some sort of writing degree or are pursuing one, and yet there’s a surprising amount of debate as to just how much one can learn about writing itself in an academic setting. Louis Menand in […]
...moreLouis Menand on Creative-Writing Programs
Louis Menand has really been on a roll this year. First the must-read article about how the Village Voice changed journalism, then the article on Donald Barthelme, and now this week, an essay about The Program Era by Mark McGurl, a book dealing with the origins of creative-writing programs, their development over the past half-century, […]
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