Rebecca Mead
-
The Work That Remains to Be Done
“I keep trying to imagine a universe in which too many public figures declaring themselves feminists would be a bad thing,” Roxane Gay, the novelist and the author of an essay collection entitled “Bad Feminist,” wrote, before concluding, “Of all…
-
The World of Mommy Bloggers
Mommy blogging has not, of course, been a panacea, remedying women’s undervaluation. In keeping with certain political ideals of the time, the Wages for Housework campaign sought to redistribute wealth more fairly. Mommy blogging, by contrast, offers rewards that only…
-
Notable NYC: 5/2–5/8
Saturday 5/2: Independent Bookstore Day: Events are being held throughout the day at your neighborhood bookstore. The following stores are hosting special events: WORD; Housing Works; McNally Jackson; Greenlight Bookstore; BookCourt; Community Bookstore; The Strand; BookCulture; Astoria Bookshop. Emma Straub, Jami…
-
Skewed Standards
The YA battle rages on at Flavorwire, where Sarah Seltzer responds to Rebecca Mead’s New Yorker essay pondering the effects of supposedly lowbrow children’s lit: We have to interrogate our basic assumption that writing skills possessed by educated white people…
-
Why You Should Read the Comments
A profile of classicist Mary Beard at The New Yorker describes how Beard’s career in Britain brought her into the public eye. Beard gave a well-known lecture titled “Oh Do Shut Up Dear!” about how women (in literature and in…
-
My Life In Books Besides Middlemarch
Looking back on her reading life in her late teens, the New Yorker’s Rebecca Mead discusses the “flawed and pernicious division” between books read for pleasure and books read “because we have to,” because they’re part of the established literary…
-
What’s So Great about Relatability?
In the wake of a tweet by Ira Glass that called Shakespeare’s plays unrelatable, Rebecca Mead explores why we care so much about whether we can relate to a play, story or work of art. She admits there’s nothing new about people wanting to see…
-
Notable NYC: 5/3–5/9
Saturday 5/3: Joanna Fuhrman, Dan Magers, and Debora Kuan launch the Hyperallergic Poetry reading series. Berl’s Poetry Shop, 7:30 p.m., free. Melanie Neilson and Kate Zambreno join the Segue Series. Zinc Bar, 4:30 p.m., $5. Sunday 5/4: Kodi Scheer and…
-
My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead
I was walking around Washington, D.C., my hometown and the city where I lived for 34 years, while reading Rebecca Mead’s My Life in Middlemarch. I imagined all the selves I had been while walking on a few blocks full…
-
The How and Why of Reading
Writing “in defense of reading” essays is an outmoded literary form. Leo Robson points out in an examination of a slew of new books that reading, unlike other pastimes such as smoking, is generally considered a healthy pursuit. Since nobody…
