• Because of other deadlines and ancillary technological healing, I won’t be covering the New York Anime Festival today. But I will be there on Saturday and Sunday. In the meantime, Heidi McDonald has assembled a crazed journalistic army. So you can no doubt find coverage over at The Beat. Making sense of the daunting schedule does indeed require a strategy. So I have decided to simply throw myself on the floor with full gusto and see what happens. This always seems to be the best policy under such circumstances. Podcasts and reports are forthcoming.
• It’s that time of the year again when Congress devotes its energies issuing ridiculously draconian Internet policies instead of showing a little backbone in relation to larger matters of war and corruption. CNETs Declan McCullagh reports on a bill known as the SAFE Act — not to be confused with the efforts a few years ago to curtail the PATRIOT Act — that seeks to punish anyone running a Wi-Fi network with a $300,000 fine if they do not report on someone downloading an “obscene” image. And The Nation‘s Larisa Mann reports on a House Resolution that threatens to do away with a school’s federal funding in toto if the school allows even one illegally downloaded song. Democrats in large part supported both of these bills. In fact, for the first bill, the only two people who voted against it were Republicans — including Ron Paul. These two pieces of legislation suggest that the Democrats have special interests in mind more than the First Amendment. And if you want to do something about both of these bills, Public Knowledge has an action page for the school bill. Meanwhile, the SAFE Act has now been received by the Senate and is being referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. Contact the Senate Judiciary Committee and let them know that asking a wi-fi network operator to consistently be on the lookout for an image that is “obscene” or “lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value” (the bill as passed by the House specifies U.S.C. Section 1466A as well as child pornography) places an undue hardship on coffee shop owners trying to attract customers and runs contrary to the First Amendment.
• Three Percent lists the Best Translations of 2007.
• On a related note, Scott observes that the book he voted for — Enrique Vila-Mata’s Montano’s Malady — didn’t make the longlist. I likewise think this is disheartening. And as NBCC Board Member, I hope to draw greater attention to translated titles. It’s bad enough that newspapers frequently ignore non-English titles for review, but the time has come to draw greater attention to the fact that not all books are written in English and that there are translators regularly doing hard and often thankless work, sometimes denied even a mention in book reviews! (For instance, in all the celebration of Roberto Bolaño’s The Savage Detectives, how many of you are aware that Natasha Wimmer translated the book? Wimmer’s name isn’t even on the cover. Thankfully, Scott interviewed Wimmer a few months ago.) For more insights into translation, see the Segundo interviews with translators Betsy Wing and Jordan Stump. And I hope to feature more translators in future Segundo shows.
• Is Joshua Henkin a manly writer or not?
• Why isn’t there more hypertext fiction? (via Maud)
• Sign of the times? The Sacramento Bee has outsourced some of its advertising production work to India.
• $3 million for Karl Rove’s memoirs? (via Quill and Quire)

• A brief goose-step from deadline dancing for some afternoon discoveries.
• Due to considerable labor I needed to apply elsewhere, I had to bow out of the Litblog Co-Op. But I’m pleased to observe that they’re back in action this quarter, having selected Matthew Eck’s The Farther Shore as their Read This! pick.
• Scott Esposito has unleashed a brand new issue of The Quarterly Conversation.
• The magnificent Scarlett Thomas can be found at the Independent, chronicling how technology affects her writing. (via Bookslut)
• Sarah examines mysteries outside of America and Britain.
• Some great news for Vollmann fans. Vollmann and Madison Smartt Bell have both been awarded the Strauss Living Awards. They will both receive $50,000 a year over the next five years to devote themselves to writing. Hopefully, in Vollmann’s case, this will help him finish up the remaining three dreams left in his Seven Dreams cycle.

• It’s good to see Katie Haegele not only investigating how sites like LibraryThing have value in cataloging obscure printed zines, but discovering how academic librarians are using LT to keep track of small collections. I’ve been resistant to LT because of the 200 book cap. But perhaps someone might be interested in establishing a universal database tracking all known titles that have ever been put out. John Labovitz is certainly doing this for e-zines. But not every print zine went online. So why not the print catalog equivalent?
• A single page of a love story written by Napoleon Bonaparte has been sold for $35,400. Assuming that there are about 400 words on this page, Napoleon now writes at a rate of $88.5/word. I suspect Ted Kennedy’s on the phone with his agent right now wondering why he couldn’t get a better word rate for his memoirs.
• Why don’t the Brits love science fiction?
• Now here’s a use of public tax money that I have no problem with. Apparently, US and Russian astronauts have had sex in space for, ahem, research purposes. “The issue of sex in space is a serious one,” says Pierre Kohler. I quite agree. Until some enterprising inventor figures out a way to control discharges in zero-G, only a creatively deranged mind would look upon the slapstick comedy possibilities. Why then do I have an idea for a movie called There’s Something About Density?
• Someone recently suggested to me in a conversation that nobody cares about Guy de Maupassant anymore, but it appears, thankfully, that some people do indeed care.
• It looks like Putin now wants to censor Russian culture. Didn’t he learn anything from glasnost? Should I have bothered to ask that last question?
• Did editors corrupt Kerouac and Carver?
• A slim but welcome profile on Donald E. Westlake. (via Booksurfer)
• Pricing problems for newsprint production.
• If Erin O’Brien is the Pynchon of hack feature writing, does anyone have a shot at being the Nabokov of hack feature writing?
• The obligatory book tours are dead article. (via Book Glutton)

[UPDATE: Snopes says there were no sex experiments by NASA.]

• A University of Alberta researcher has discovered that men are more likely to enjoy a story if they know it’s fictional, whereas women are more likely to enjoy a story if they know it’s based on the truth. (via The Valve)
• Tao Lin on the levels of greatness a fiction writer can achieve in.
• Dubious music criticism from NPR.
• Some background on Mae West’s SEX.
• George R.R. Martin interviewed.
• OS: “I don’t want to get started on a rant over here, but why can’t male celebrities have the same freedom in describing their own same-sex dream romps?”
• Latest Maslin pearl of wisdom: “‘Diamonds, Gold and War’ is the work of an author who knows African history intimately. If this ambitious volume seems to follow too closely on the heels of ‘The Fate of Africa’ (2005), Mr. Meredith can draw on decades’ worth of earlier research and experience to give it authority.” Given that Meredith has indeed spent decades of his life to studying African history, it would seem patently obvious that he “knows African history intimately.” And who gives a damn over how fast Meredeith is pumping out his books? How is that a crime? And does Maslin even understand that The Fate of Africa deals with a different time period than Diamonds, Gold and War?
• Costs have risen big time in New York.
• The Progressive interviews Jane Smiley.
• Updike on Ha Jin.
• No apologies necessary. Finish the book!
• Support staff axed at the New York Times.
• 60% of America believes political coverage is politically biased. The other 40% have dates with Kool-Aid Man.
• No Swedish jaunts for Lessing.

• Regrettably, my Hound has not yet come to life. Nor has my mouth become lathered with her sap. But I’m on deadline right now, with an avidity that could come only from the Evil One. So cut me some slack.
• Awards season is far from over. Indeed, if a literary award did not exist, it would be necessary for Voltaire to create one. Never mind that he’s been dead for centuries. In any event, the NBCC blog has long, long, long lists for fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. These lists represent books that received multiple votes from NBCC members and finalists. The most anachronistic choice: Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, which isn’t bad for a novel finished in 1869 that started off as a self-published title.
• Speaking of “self-published” authors, Sarah uncovers a remarkably austere attitude taken up by Lee “Anything Self-Published Must Be Fanfic” Goldberg and the Mystery Writers of America concerning Edgar Award submissions. Charles Ardai, one of the parties restricted by these rules, has offered several thoughtful comments. Imagine Tolstoy rebuffed because of these rules. But, alas, the trains must run on time.
• Motoko Rich reports that Senator Kennedy’s memoirs have been sold for $8 million to Twelve. Kennedy had hoped for $12 million. After all, $12MM at Twelve does have a golden circle quality about it. But an accountant used the wrong multiplier and, well, $8MM, it was. But Kennedy should be grateful that it wasn’t a mere $4MM.
• Jeff VanderMeer talks with Steve Erickson.
• The Los Angeles Times‘s Geoff Boucher looks into the Marvel online archive and points out that “it’s hard to assume that particular reading position with a desktop computer, just like it’s hard to roll up a laptop computer and jam it in your back pocket when you ride your bike.” Maybe this might be a rare scenario in which the Kindle is helpful. Alas, the likelihood of Amazon nixing the DRM is as slim as John Bonham returning from the grave for a Led Zeppelin reunion.
• CNET has an update on the Universal Digital Library. “You’re not going to find over 900,000 works in Chinese on Google,” says Michael Shamos, the UDL director of intellectual property. And he’s right. But you’re not going to find 900,000 works in Esperanto at the UDL either. So which online library should we be spilling our guts to a therapist over?
• An early review of the next Benjamin Black novel with this interesting observation: “Banville’s novels under his own name have mainly taken the form of monologues or confessions by the grieving or the guilty; Black’s characters are blocked from confessing, and the tension it brings to the form is palpable.”
• CAAF dredges up Henry James’s review of Louisa May Alcott’s first novel, Moods.
• Just overheard at my neighborhood cafe: “Boy, it feels naked here without art! I’ll hang my clothes on the wall if you don’t put up new paintings. I don’t care how cold it is outside!”
• Christ, True Grit was out of print? Thank goodness that’s been rectified. (via Maud)
• In the UK, it appears that the BBC, ITV, and Channel 4 have banded together for a joint on-demand service. Like Persona Non Data, I likewise find this surprising and intriguing. How long before bloodshed is carried out?
• Michael Ondaatje has received his fifth Governor General’s Award. The Canada Council for the Arts has responded by saying, “Okay, Mike, you’ve had your time. You’re the John Larroquette of the Canadian literary scene. If you think you’re getting a sixth award, then we’ll send Atwood down to kick your ass!”
• The Post-Intelligencer talks with Judith Thurman.
• This Recording recontextualizes American Psycho.
• Dolly Parton and Amy Sedaris! Does it get any better? (via Quiddity)