Category / Roundup

by Edward Champion

Roundup

by Edward Champion

The Eight Hours Later Than Usual Roundup

  • “Your money is now our money and we will spend it on drugs!”
  • Simon Owens has written an extensive piece on Harriet Klausner, who is truly a menace to coherent sentences and taking a stand — two things that one would expect from a critic. If Harriet Klausner is a critic, I am a turtle chronically nibbling on Tetra Ropotmin who copulates four times a day with an even-toed ungulate.
  • Warren Ellis: “Note: cigarette breaks are built into all signing times.”
  • Christ, I can’t take this anymore. Fuck Raincoast. Get your Potter torrents here.* I do not endorse downloading the book, but someone has to offer a contrarian response to the insistent demands, protocols, and other wretched assumptions that the Harry Potter publishers have been dictating to the media, and which the media in turn has been willingly kowtowing too. Christ, folks, you’re literary journalists. Show some spine from time to time. Must you devote every column inch to this “phenomenon?” Any newspaper mention of the Deathly Hallows without the journalist actually reading the book is, as far as I’m concerned, nothing less than an ignoble junket. Nicholas Lezard has more reasons why you must take a stand. Look, if you want a damn good children’s series, seek out Lemony Snicket, which has more brains, imagination, and wit per book than J.K. Rowling has in her whole oeuvre.
  • You and me both, Brockman. I underwent a six-hour interview today in an effort to obtain my “cultural credentials.” At the end of the interview, the interlocutor took one of those little hammers out of his suitcase — the kind that doctors have. I thought he had intended to test my reflexes, but he decided to repeatedly hammer upon my molars while two guys in expensive suits were holding me down. This was, they said, “the final stage of the interview.” After half of my teeth were pulled out with a rusty set of pliers and I was left on the floor, paralyzed with pain, my gums bleeding onto the concrete, these three guys laughed and me. “You want your cultural credentials? There’s your cultural credentials!” Then they kicked me in the stomach and the nads, dislocated both of my shoulders, and shaved off my eyebrows. If anybody knows of a better way to earn “cultural credentials” (and, incidentally, if you know of a good dentist who works cheap), please drop me a line.
  • It appears that John Steinbeck’s granddaughter is going into the film industry as a scribe. Her first offering, I Travel With Charley in the Biblical Sense, should be uploaded to YouTube next week.
  • The independent publisher Night Shade Books is having a sale to clear out their warehouses. 50% off all titles, four book minimum. That means M. John Harrison, Iain Banks, Tricia Sullivan, the remarkably underrated Paolo Bacigalupi, and Joe Haldemann. Do help support Jeremy Lassen, one of the craziest motherfuckers in the science fiction industry.

* — And it appears that the Harry Potter snapper made a serious mistake.

by Edward Champion

Roundup

by Edward Champion

Roundup

  • Schedules being strange and wills being obdurate, the roundup comes the night before. In this week’s Los Angeles Times, the lead review is William T. Vollmann on Oliver August’s Inside the Red Mansion, a biography of Lai Chang-Xing, who Vollmann succinctly describes: “Here is someone who worked hard, took risks and knew whom to bribe.” There’s also a review of Tito Perdue’s new novel by Antoine Wilson. And Ed “I’ll Have a Better View of the Chrysler Building Collapsing Than the Other Ed If Matthew Sharpe’s Dire Predictions Come True” Park has a new column.
  • And what do we have on the other coast? Roy Blount, Jr. and Kathryn Harrison. But, alas, it’s all severely undercut by the obnoxious Joe Queenan, a lout who wouldn’t know euphoria even if he were surrounded by a million smart and shapely women.
  • And speaking of journalistic institutions, Scrivener’s Error, his views perhaps colored by an inveterate text message junkie, opines that Roger Ebert has lost it.
  • Never let it be said that Borders didn’t kowtow to the politically correct. The bookstore chain has moved the Tintin books from the children’s section to the adult graphic novels section, because the Tintin books feature racist stereotypes, but they also feature introductions alerting the reader to these stereotypes. But thankfully Borders has assumed that parents are incapable of making their own decisions, ensuring that their consumer base will remain a thoughtless herd and children will remain attracted to books that offend nobody. No word yet on whether Clement Hurd’s books will be placed behind the Borders counter, with a large sticker reading “SALE OF BOOKS CONTAINING AUTHOR PHOTOS WITH CIGARETTES TO PERSONS UNDER 18 YEARS OF AGE IS PROHIBITED BY LAW.” (via Quill & Quire)
  • Robert Birnbaum talks with Thomas Mallon.
  • Needless hysteria doesn’t get any sillier than this. The Gowanus Lounge reports that some parents are declaring Carroll Park “unsafe for families” with “an increasingly unruly element” of kids. The police won’t do anything about the problem. What are these kids’ crimes? Three teenage boys were slapping each other around with some wet T-shirts and were getting a little too close to the mothers. The boys “pursued us and started snapping their wet shirts over the fence, spraying our children with the water and threatening me.” You know, this is the kind of stuff I usually experienced growing up. If this is the kind of over-the-top hysteria to be found within the five boroughs, I think I’m going to have to do a little bit of investigation here.
  • Is current wi-fi a problem?
  • Harry Potter hubris? “In the past few weeks, Warner’s London legal office has sent e-mails to booksellers and party organizers around the country, warning them against unauthorized celebrating, under the threat of legal action. ‘[Your event] appears to fall outside our guidelines,’ said one e-mail. ‘Therefore, HARRY POTTER cannot be used as a theme for your event.’ It should also be noted that some of these events actually benefit charities. (via Bibliophile Bullpen)
  • Well, if the folks at Warner Brothers are going to be such assholes about this, I call upon Return of the Reluctant readers for a plan! Why don’t we all set up Harry Potter-themed events around the country for next Saturday and see if Warner sends out emails to us? The Harry Potter-themed events must involve drinks, debauchery, BDSM sex parties (with everybody dressed up in leather or Hogwarts costumes), passing around a bong — pretty much anything guaranteed to be adult and well “outside guidelines.” It doesn’t have to be about Harry Potter, of course. Hell, you can all just get together in some bar and call it a “Harry Potter-themed night” for all I care. But if anyone wants to throw a “Harry Potter-themed” drinking session next week, feel free to email me or leave a comment and I will collect all the “Harry Potter-themed” drinking binges and keg-chugging contests in a future post!
by Edward Champion

Roundup

by Edward Champion

Roundup

  • Paul Shaffer will be writing a memoir. You can be absolutely sure that the man who has sucked up to Letterman for three decades will offer the kind of penetrating insight that good books are known for.
  • I saw this cover at a bookstore last night and I have had extremely horrible ideas about furniture. I pondered the sounds that the chairs would make, should such a coupling go down. Sure, there would be some squeaks. But would the chairs find a way to express their euphoria? It struck me that if the chairs were silent about their activity, it would be a very sad thing. Like anyone, they certainly have the right to enjoy themselves. I’m not sure who came up with this book cover, but I’d like to thank them for making me see chiffoniers schtupping dinettes and making me wonder if I should meticulously wipe the chair before I sit down.
  • I’m with Darby. I seem to be the last person on the planet who hasn’t read Tom McCarthy’s Remainder. But I do plan to rectify this very soon. If recent responses are any indication, I should end up dancing with strangers, telling everybody I know that Tom McCarthy is better than oral sex, and otherwise getting into a euphoric tizzy over the book. All this is assuming that the book lives up. I suspect I’ve avoided the book because I read it after everybody said that it was cool and I’m supposed to be one of those guys who reads these books before everybody else. Then again, I enjoyed Cormac McCarthy’s The Road after I read it at a much later time than was acceptable. Perhaps I’m simply late on the draw with authors named “McCarthy.” For this, I’m sorry. If you’re a talented author named McCarthy, get in touch with me nine months before your book comes out and I’ll promise to read you before the cool kids.
  • Steve Mitchelmore wonders if we’re living in a new age of anxiety about art: “What we see every week is anxiety about personal exclusion. It would be better if critics, rather than hiding, mitigating or condemning the exclusion, brought out how the dual experience is liberating.” I couldn’t agree more.
  • A reason to read this month’s Playboy for the articles.
  • Carolyn points to Luna Park — a helpful blog investigating literary magazines.
  • $3.75MM for a vampire trilogy? Okay, Elizabeth Kostova was one thing. And we all know Max Brooks moved units. But when you have publishing insiders merely gushing, “It is totally awesome,” one wonders if the people who purchased this are aware of just what they are getting into. How do the words “totally awesome” transfer into making back this investment? And were the words “totally awesome” uttered by the person who signed the check?
  • I am now convinced that we will see a spate of “Why did science fiction become so popular?” articles in the next year. “Why did science fiction become so popular?” is the next “Comic books are literary too!” If you have to ask what’s going on, you simply aren’t paying attention.
  • The 30 Most Popular News Sites in June.
  • Kevin Spacey is, according to the BBC, set “to reprise Superman role.” That’s funny. I thought he played Lex Luthor in Superman Returns.
by Edward Champion

Roundup

  • Apparently, the Chicago Sun-Times wants to redefine itself as a liberal, working-class paper. Presumably, this is a clever ploy to pay the staff abysmal salaries. But no matter. What is most interesting here is that Books Editor Cheryl Reed has become the Editorial Page Director. Does this mean the Books section is dead?
  • Dan Green on Tom McCarthy’s Remainder.
  • Sebastian Faulks has written a new James Bond novel.
  • Daft Punk: “The encore was just fantastic. two red lines were released from the pyramid, travelling around the outer frame like a game of snake, entering back into the pyramid at the base, then upwards until the lines connected with the artists, transforming their robot costumes into glowing red outlines.” At the next show, the encore will involve three green lines extending into a middle finger and then a series of words across the pyramid reading “WE ARE DAFT PUNK AND YOU ARE SUCKERS! WE TOOK YOUR MONEY BECAUSE YOU ARE EASILY AMUSED BY LIGHTS! NEXT TIME, OUR AVARICE WILL BE HARDER, BETTER, FASTER, STRONGER!” The crowd will nevertheless be wowed by the “performance” of two guys resembling a bad Tron ripoff. Look, I like Daft Punk as much as the next guy and perhaps in piecemeal (say, in a festival environment with several other bands, as I saw them a few years ago at Coachella), their postmodern presence works. But what makes their stage act anything more than a needlessly gargantuan planetarium laser show? Does watching two guys in robot suits and lots of lights extruding from a pyramid really justify the $50 ticket purchase? Particularly if one is way in the back? That’s all I’m saying.
  • “How to Write the Great American Novel.”
  • Here’s one reason to be less liberal about ordaining reverends.
  • RIP Doug Marlette. The cartooning world needs more provocateurs.
  • Motoko Rich investigates the phenomenon of Sara Greun, who built up her reputation entirely on word-of-mouth and even beat out two Oprah books this summer. Wait a minute! I thought television had whacked the novel!
  • And if reading is dead, why then are more Brits reading books now than in 1975?
  • Publishers Weekly examines the seemingly limitless social networking sites devoted to books.
  • EW offers a literary stars list. I’d deem it dubious, had not EW included Warren Ellis on the list, who observed of writing Crooked Little Vein, “It came down to banging out a thousand words a day in the pub before I started the day’s comics work. If it wasn’t for Red Bull and Silk Cut cigarettes, the damn thing would never have seen the light of day.”
  • Good Christ, people are talking about Jane Austen! But is there any real cause for alarm here? (via Isak)
  • OK Computer turned ten today? Christ, I’m getting old.
  • Colleen on mysterious houses.
  • How to get that literary guy’s attention. I’m no great fan of Anne Rice, but if you’re going to badmouth her, at least least spell her name right. (“Grammar is everything,” my ass.) And wait a minute, isn’t it the guy who’s supposed to walk up to a girl and get her attention? I fear that several young men with good intentions will be laid astray by Adam’s well-intended advice. (Adam, what the hell’s going on, sir? Put down that issue of Maxim posthaste!) Lounging about and waiting for something to happen will not cut the mustard! Action is needed! Why not simply walk up to a lady and ask about the book she’s reading? From there, after the inevitable trial and error, great conversational and flirtatious possibilities await!
by Edward Champion

Roundup

  • I must concur with Brian Raftery. It is absolutely criminal that The Bees’ fantastic third album, Octopus, which may very well be one of the best albums of the year, has received as much attention in the States as an obnoxious experimental film from an obscure Danish filmmaker playing on a mere three screens. The Bees have shifted away from Free the Bees‘s highly energetic homage to 1960s soul, slipping one decade further into 1970s summer radio to find a striking maturity that combines a more nuanced quirkiness, emotional sincerity, and the dependable enthusiasm of veteran music lovers who know when to steal hooks and when to improve upon them. From the bluesy opener “Who Cares What the Question Is?” to the tight ballad “Listening Man,” the drumming (alternating between Michael Clevett and singer Paul Butler; like a dependable garage band unafraid to tailor its sound, the band members swap instrumental roles quite a bit on the album) is reminiscent of Mitch Mitchell — never using more fills than it needs to and keeping things basic. Paul Butler has shifted away from crooning like Jim Morrison and John Lennon, to fall into the custom of Englishmen shamelessly impersonating R&B singers. If the radio stations were less in the pockets of corpulent music companies and if they actually gave two damns about music, then I truly believe that this would be the summer album to be heard at kickback siestas. Don’t believe me? Well, check out these tunes. Alas, the band only appears to have made a dent on its native soil. Which also means no U.S. tour dates. The Bees deserve better treatment.
  • Howard Junker: “The worst thing a writer can do is to launch an internal editor during the writing process. Nothing could be more stifling.” Oh, I don’t know about that. Without discounting the need for an editor, I should point out to Mr. Junker that T.C. Boyle is a prolific novelist of some considerable talent and Boyle writes all of his novels in a “continuous first draft,” constantly tinkering to get the words right. I don’t believe there’s any uniform manner to writing a novel, except to get to the end of the damn thing. What matters most is not how one gets there, but what the finished product entails. [UPDATE: Here’s the video for “Listening Man.” Alternate link to The Bees videos: here.]
  • I’m convinced that the Boston Herald could have come up with a less obvious headline for this story. (via Jeff)
  • Dubious, straw-grasping lede of the week: “When Bob Dylan sang, ‘To live outside the law you must be honest,’ he probably wasn’t thinking of seventeenth-century pirate captains.”
  • Hack interviewer meets hack novelist.
  • CAAF + About Last Night! Tangerine Teachout?
  • Peter Craven offers a more interesting angle to the “novel is dead” argument than others. He believes that the only way to save literature is to film it. While I am more optimistic than Mr. Craven about literature’s ability to persevere, there is some validity to his argument. The idea here doesn’t involve looking the other way like a coward and flailing one’s hands up in the air without any clear-cut solutions upon hearing people talking about The Sopranos. Why not have more anthology series on television that use short stories or novellas as their source material? In fact, this was precisely the case for the anthology series from the 1950s Consider some of the writers who got their material adapted on Playhouse 90: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Horton Foote, John P. Marquand, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway. Or consider this list of writers from Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stanley Ellin, Roald Dahl, Robert Bloch, Ray Bradbury, Cornell Woolrich, A.A. Milne (!), and John Cheever. (Alas, I must bemoan the disproportionate lack of women here, but the point stands.) Even as television was getting its start, the producers knew that quality material could be found by employing literary people and the television writing gigs enabled these writers to continue their craft in the printed word. Whether any of this had any direct correlation to these writers’ print sales is difficult to say. But when I see a David Chase or a David Simon trying to bring a more literary approach to television, I see possibilities for convergence and a support system for writers. I see someone trying to up the game of narrative in all mediums. And it’s all considerably more constructive than the kind of “novel is dead” bullshit I’d expect from some guy with a THE END OF THE WORLD IS NIGH placard strapped to his corpus, ringing a bell at Times Square. (via Orthofer)
  • James Wood on Falling Man.
  • Happy birthday, Mr. VanderMeer!
  • So here’s the big question. In the wake of the D.C. Madam phone list, will Steely Dan pen a new song called “Rikki Do Lose That Number?”
  • Peter Davison as King Arthur in Spamalot! Brilliant casting!
by Edward Champion

Roundup

  • Ms. Skurnick had the BOOG. Mr. Sarvas has Mrs. TEV. And now Ms. Stockton, flush from her recent honeymoon (and again congrats!), has the ALP. Acronyms, of course, are how we litbloggers celebrate our loved ones. So I henceforth refer to my own as ILWYDFM (quack quack quack quack), leaving the explanation a strange mystery.
  • Experimental collective autobiography? Ron Silliman points to three volumes of The Grand Piano, an ongoing title he is involved with.
  • Seattle Post-Intelligencer: “Kugler badly miscalculated the public’s mood when he assumed viewers would want to see O.J. Simpson films after the ex-football star was acquitted in his double murder trial in 1995.” I should say so.
  • In an effort to take all the salt and vinegar out of the English language, Random House has introduced a dubious method of avoiding insensitive and offensive language in their latest lexicons. The new Random House Webster’s College Dictionary now has an “Offensiveness Quotient.” I find it interesting that, in Random House’s examples, “queer” is noted as “a positive term of self-reference” in the gay community, whereas “nigger”‘s use along these lines in the African-American community is not. This suggests that oversensitive and sheltered Caucasians represent the ideal audience for this family friendly dictionary. The problem with dictating an “Offensiveness Quotient” (and what’s the OQ for “fuck” or “niggardy?”) is that, considering the social and ethnic context, one would have to take each word usage on a case-by-case basis. And, of course, there are only so many pages. So I must ask what words will fall by the wayside as these new OQ items occupy needless space? Is it not more valuable for the student of English to get out in the world and get into a few unexpected multicultural fistfights? Or must our dictionaries now reflect our regrettable hand-holding culture without a single reference to the famous Lenny Bruce routine? (via Quill and Quire)
  • Not everyone is excited about Catherine Texier’s David Markson review. As Carolyn rightly points out, NYTBR grammar often leaves much to be desired.
  • Bad enough that we’re seeing hipster librarians, but, because some folks insist on resorting to aesthetic generalizations, will we start seeing hipster comic book guys?
  • Justin Theroux: “New York chicks, girls who are really from here, are the fastest women around.” He says this like it’s a bad thing. Prude.
  • It’s been decades since I read the Berserker books. Bummer. RIP Fred T. Saberhagen.
  • I’ll have more to say about Roy Blount, Jr.’s very funny book, Long Time Leaving, once I finish it (as well as a few other books from other Southern writers I’ve been enjoying). But in the meantime, here’s a Star review.
  • Guardian: “For almost the first time in two centuries, there is no eminent British poet, playwright or novelist prepared to question the foundations of the western way of life.” This foolish lede must be the British answer to “Rick Moody is the worst writer of his generation.”
  • Between that and Freeman’s article, that’s two extremely silly Guardian articles within days. What the hell’s going on over there? Is the books editor asleep at the wheel? But I like the Guardian. Really, I do. So if they happen to be reading this, here’s how to do a provocative 700 word article right.
  • Question for the Times. I like Ian Rankin just fine, thank you very much, but how is this serial “funny” exactly? Or are there really that many humorless people in the Times building? Since I’m known from time to time to consult with dubious individuals, I think the only way to cure this problem is to get David Orr and Joe Queenan into a conference room, with each talking for ten minutes. Every Gray Lady employee must then decide which of the two gentlemen is funnier. Should the Gray Lady employee recognize the former as “funnier,” then management should promote them to a higher editorial position. Should the Gray Lady employee recognize the latter as “funnier,” then they must enlist in a six-week comedy camp retreat, where they can then return to the Times offices with a full understanding of the Marx Brothers, Dorothy Parker, Richard Pryor, and Chris Morris. This is the only remedy I know that will solve this regrettable problem.
  • Joyce Carol Oates on amnesiac novels, but I’m sure she’s forgetting something.
by Edward Champion

Roundup

  • National Review: “One promising development in the culture today is that mainstream critics are more and more growing tired of postmodern fiction.” Actually, this is not promising at all. This is, in fact, a serious problem that runs counter to literature’s natural developments as a form. I will have a lengthy post on this subject in the not too distant future. (via The Valve)
  • If you enjoyed Austin Grossman’s appearance on The Bat Segundo Show, he also chatted with Rick Kleffel.
  • It hasn’t been mentioned by anyone other than Tod Goldberg, but it appears that the New York Post is axing its book coverage.
  • Vlad the Impaler’s castle is now for sale. In an effort to respect “the property and its history,” prospective buyers are being asked to demonstrate their bloodletting talents before closing escrow. (via Slushpile)
  • Book artist Gloria Helfgott has passed on. (via Ron Silliman)
  • I’m a few episodes into the third series of Doctor Who. But with the horrible news of Catherine Tate returning, as well as Kylie Minogue appearing (what the fuck?), in future episodes, I fear the worst. Pardon me if I go all geeky on you, but I’m convinced that Freema Agyeman is one of the best things that has happened to the show. Here we have a strong female character who is educated, curious, and who takes action when she needs to, instead of standing doe-eyed and helpless — as Rose often did — marveling at the Doctor’s genius. That it would take so long for the show’s producers to rectify this dated gender imbalance to the program is bad enough. But it would appear that Agyeman will be returning in the middle of the fourth season. The message here? Russell T. Davies and company like their companions dumb and helpless, instead of smart and kickass. (via Ready Steady Blog)
  • Yes, “inhaling” is really the only way to describe reading Sarah Waters’s books. But think of it this way. Better to snort crafty narratives up your nasal lining than Bolivian marching powder.
  • I don’t care for Sarkozy very much, but I think it’s pretty damn silly to declare jogging a right-wing activity. Outside of Leni Riefenstahl’s Olympia, since when did exercise have any political agenda? Besides, if you really want to get right down to it, were I blessed with a bountiful expendable income, I’d expect a personal trainer to demand that I exercise hard rather than have him pat me on the back and offer an Alan Alda-like hug if I couldn’t make my crunch count. If you want to get rid of flab, you have to do the work. Does doing the work make one a Nazi? More from Josh Glenn.
  • Personally, I feel “devastated” that so many words were devoted to J.K. Rowling feeling “devastated.” Next up: a series of 2,000 word Rowling profiles in the Telegraph about how Rowling feels “almost euphoric,” “less than stellar,” “pretty darn okay,” and “just peachy keen.”
  • What the Dallas Morning News layoffs mean for the paper. (via book/daddy)
  • The Heritage Book Shop has closed. (via Bookninja)
  • Hamlet translated into modern English. (via Books, Words & Writing)
  • Armistead Maupin on why he loves San Francisco. (via Colleen)
by Edward Champion

Fourth Recovery/Roundup

  • Until I observed last night’s series of fireworks displays across the East River, I had not encountered political fireworks in the literal sense. It seems that the Jersey authorities were extremely pissed off after Battery Park was closed to the public. So from Jersey’s side of the Hudson, the Jersey boys proceeded to offer as momentous a show as public money could offer — minutes before the Macy’s display had begun. Their fireworks, which declared with every burst that Jersey was as much a part of the July 4th celebrations as the big boys, were designed to be seen across a considerable expanse of water. At first, the assembled throngs on the Brooklyn Heights Promenade appreciated this. And I had to smile and empathize over the Jersey effrontery. Yes, it was a case of flagrant dick wars. But it was the kind of symbolic penis measurement that reminds everyone that there’s more to life than deep pockets. All of us ducked beneath umbrellas, buffeting a downpour that lifted shortly before Macy’s 9:20 PM start time. But the minute that Macy’s began launching jellyfish low-risers and smiley-shaped explosives into the sky, the crowd quickly turned on these apparent Jersey upstarts, becoming deeply vociferous about how “we” — meaning New York — had showed the folks in Jersey. Yet, “we” entailed Brooklyn and Queens for the most part. There was something deeply allegorical about all of this: private money vs. public money, proletariat vs. bourgeoisie, New York vs. New Jersey. And I soon began to understand that East Coast provincial lines were more ridiculous than I ever imagined. But it was still a good show. And I’m not just referring to the fireworks.
  • While I contend with the largest podcast backlog I think I’ve ever had (which includes APE and BEA coverage), the folks behind the BookExpo Podcast have released Maud’s interview with Shalom Auslander. There is thankfully at least one use of the word “foreskin.”
  • Mark Sarvas has inside dirt on Tom McCarthy and Soft Skull.
  • Manga turned into Noh drama.
  • Mark Sanderson reports on the Tina Brown launch party craziness in London. Apparently, Brown was upset that Tony Blair, Madonna, Helen Mirren, Julie Christie, and Shirley Bassey had crashed her party, or were rumored to attend. Here’s a PR hint, Tina: When you publicly announce that classy women like Helen Mirren and Julie Christie weren’t invited, this causes any slightly curious outsider to consider the questionable éclat in the party planning stages.
  • As if the email scammers weren’t bad enough, Nigeria also has a crisis in literary criticism.
  • I will have more later when the caffeine kicks in. (Will it kick in?) I blame incongruous holidays.
by Edward Champion

Late Night Roundup

  • I looked at the clock a minute ago and it read differently from how it reads now. I do not know if it is a reliable clock, but I am considering taking it in and getting it replaced. The problem is that I purchased the clock quite some time ago and have since lost the receipt. I believe I purchased the clock for about $20 and I am wondering if any exotic entrepôt exists to understand and remedy my circumstances. Perhaps I have simply misperceived the clock. Or perhaps I should simply accept the clock’s strange temperament — that is, once I get past the sentiment that the clock is not cognizant. Maybe I’m the clock and the clock is the observer who reads me differently. I’d consider drinking at this point to place this predicament into some perspective. But I have accidentally ingested a double dose of Tylenol Chest Congestion pills, which indicates that it “helps loosen phlegm (mucus)* and thin bronchial secretions to make coughs more productive.” It was an accident because I relied on this clock, expecting to take my next dose “every 4-6 hours,” and the clock lied to me. I have also not detected any “thin bronchial secretions” and I have no way of knowing if my coughs are “more productive.” This phrasing seems to suggest that I am more a machine than an actual human being. And perhaps I look to the clock with the hopes of commiserating with a fellow machine. But what am I doing relying upon Tylenol catechisms and phrasings for advice? The whole point of this post was to offer a roundup at an incongruous time and here I am going into a needless segue about clocks and expectorants. Expect the unexpectorant. Expect further a bulleted item (or more) that actually pertains to current literary news.
  • Nicolas Cage and his son have decided to have you pay for their father-son bonding experience. If you ask me, this is a very shrewd marketing move, although the tax consequences now pertain to the paternal consequences and it could get very ugly, if Mr. Cage and his son Weston are not careful.
  • Like Carrie, I wish I could report upon my athletic triumphs. Alas, there have been none to speak of these days — in part because I contend with the effects of acetaminophen, which I don’t believe is particularly helpful in maintaining an exercise regimen. But I’m very happy for those who do report their athletic triumphs. We should all do this before what little remains of our personal liberties is taken away.
  • Tayari Jones offers a response to Martha Southgate’s essay. Southgate also offers this addendum.
  • I haven’t read as many romance novels as I should, but if it’s bad for me, perhaps I can report on this instead of athletic triumphs. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, demonstrating its dubious commitment to literature, has decided to serve up a bizarre she-said, she-said matchup over the issue of whether reading romances is bad for you. A few strange leaps in logic later and the romance defender is claiming that porn is bad for you. What neither of these two silly columnists tell you is that the National Foundation of Irresponsible Statistics has determined that asinine columns, particularly two extremely histrionic ones juxtaposed against each other, are 425% more harmful than porn, romance novels, and second-hand smoke combined. (via Smart Bitches, Trashy Books)
  • Arthur Salm talks with Susan Vreeland about what she reads.
  • Michelle Richmond goes Hollywood.
  • The Star investigates Jim Harrison’s gourmand tendencies.
  • This week’s New Yorker features a lengthy Margaret Talbot piece on liars.
  • Elizabeth Hand on Rick Moody.
  • Hasdai Westbrook on the Gunter Grass 92nd Street Y appearance.
  • As is typical of these “roundup” posts, they have become mere one-sentence summations. There is no witty barb to match each link. I have failed you, blog reader, and I shall flagellate myself with the nearest weapon when I am not as lazy. Because I realize this is unacceptable. Whether this is because of temporarily diagnosed ADD or fatigue, I cannot say. But with this, I send this post into the bristling online pastures — as sure an athletic triumph as I am bound to experience tonight.

* — Helpful, don’t you think, of the Tylenol company to offer this parenthetical comment, yes? All this time I had thought phlegm and mucus were two entirely separate concepts, without a biological Venn diagram to connect them. But now I have learned that phlegm is mucus too! Did I know this before? I shall ask the clock, which knows all!

by Edward Champion

Roundup

  • The Bay Area Intellect, a website that I was regrettably unfamiliar with when fog-drenched weather was a regular part of my daily life (as opposed to a Somerset Maugham-like tropical humidity), offers a report on the Katherine Taylor reading. Howard Junker, however, is surprisingly absent from this report. I do not know if last week’s controversy was ever resolved. Did Junker and Taylor submit to pistols at dawn and resolve this issue with the appropriate satisfaction? And can we believe that the Howard Junker now blogging at ZYZZYVA Speaks is the real Howard Junker? If Katherine Taylor was capable enough to devise a fictive Katherine Taylor, then I contend that it is equally possible that Taylor actuated a Howard Junker alter ego. Whether this Howard Junker surrogate has been programmed to tip well is something I leave the blogs to speculate over.
  • A Valve correspondent investigates how descriptive language leads to personal disgust. The interesting question is whether one’s personal reaction is joined at the hip to a larger groupthink response. For example, if you or I see a steaming pile of shit being whipped up on a hot plate (and as the twisted bastard concocting this example in the early morning, I could probably go a lot further in disgusting you), then we might both agree that this is disgusting. But at what point do our individual responses relate to some conformist impulse? And is there some responsibility of the author to balance a reader’s judgment of a disgusting image with that of how far one goes in describing it? Discuss with class.
  • The weather as comic strip. Another missed opportunity in perception: any real-world view of windows from another building. (via Darby Dixon)
  • Reading in a Foreign Language.
  • John Krasinski reads one of DFW’s “interviews.”
  • Jennifer Weiner: “It took a little longer than five days, but the Times’ book blog has finally belched up its completely gratuitous Gary Shteyngart reference (if his book is just now being reviewed in England, it’s new to you!).” In defense of Garner, however, regular gratuitous references to authors (which reminds me that Matthew Sharpe’s Jamestown is much funnier than its idiot detractors* give it credit for) are what litblogs are all about.
  • The Rake that is quite curious about what the Spice Girls might effect with their reunion. Yes, dear readers, I’m coming out as a closeted Spice Girls fan. It takes some astonishing moxie to pen lyrics like “Yo, I’ll tell you what I want, what I really really want / So tell me what you want, what you really really want / I’ll tell you what I want, what I really really want / So tell me what you want, what you really really want / I wanna I wanna I wanna I wanna really / Really really wanna zig-zag ha!” By my count, that’s eleven uses of “really” in one stanza. Name me another song in the history of pop music that dares to immerse itself so boldly in high school vernacular.
  • Rodney Welch offers a dissenting view on The Savage Detectives. (via Dan Green)
  • An ebook reader for the iPod?
  • I’m not sure why this doesn’t surprise me exactly, but it appears that Michiko and Andrew Keen have locked lips. (via The Millions)
  • It’s sitting in my vertiginous pile of books. So I can’t quite comment on Edward P. Jones’ editorship on New Stories from the South 2007 (and I actually have a lengthy post about Southern writers and a number of recent books I’ve read that I hope to write eventually), but Maud has an excerpt from Jones’s introduction.
  • Elizabeth Hand on Rebecca Curtis.
  • J. Hoberman on the CIA and the 1954 film adaptation of Animal Farm.
  • To respond to Mr. Orthofer’s complaint about American coverage of Günter Grass (or lack thereof), I don’t think the fault can be leveled exclusively at the newspapers. I left about eight voicemails to set up an interview with Grass and had planned to hole up with thousands of pages of Grass before talking with him. (I did, after all, have no wish to waste the man’s time.) Not only did the publisher fail to return any of my calls (the least that could have been said was “No”), but the publisher never sent me a review copy of Peeling the Onion. Now granted, I don’t harbor any illusions that I’m entitled to any of this (and, indeed, never have). But I have a feeling that other media outlets may have received similar treatment. Ergo, the paucity of coverage.

* — By Susannah Meadows’ logic, we should discount Shakespeare’s comedies. After all, Measure for Measure is not funny in that ha-ha way and is therefore inured from exegesis. This is the attitude espoused by someone incapable of understanding the novel as nothing more than a bauble that amuses her. Which begs the question: if Meadows cannot comment properly on Jamestown‘s thematics or maintain a cogent and convincing argument, why then is she not working as a film critic for the New York Post?

by Edward Champion

The Big-Ass Roundup

by Edward Champion

Mini-Roundup

  • Is Michael Chabon the first author to credit his writing software in the acknowledgments section? I’d like to thank WordPress and Firefox for permitting me to write this sentence. I’m absolutely positive that there was no other way I could have blogged in quite the same way or quite the same circumstances, had it not been for these two stunning programs. If someone gets me drunk enough this weekend, I will be sure to tattoo that silly Firefox logo into my upper arm. After all, I pride myself on my individualism. And if you want a link to Chabon’s Google Calendar, here you go.
  • What is the Nigerian literary scene like after Abiola Irele’s infamous statement?
  • Dan Green examines the Small Beer anthology Interfictions.
  • Rebecca Mead on Obama’s poetry.
  • Is Annie Dillard done writing? (via Orthofer)
by Edward Champion

The Laryngitis Roundup

I have lost my voice. And while the coughing still irritates (but shows definite signs of abating), this has made me feel delightfully anonymous and humble. I have become more attuned to verbal and visual cues, in part because I cannot respond to them. Socializing feels like facing an incomplete Jumble puzzle in the newspaper, and I do my best to quell these impulses to fill in the blanks. If I had my voice and if I was operating anywhere close to my full energy, I’d do it.

I am wondering if I should keep one of my Moleskines on me and draw funny pictures for people. I feel like a friendly stranger. I divagate through a world often asking me questions and receiving only smiles, woozy shuffling, and raspy whispers as answers. The people at my new neighborhood cafe have been very kind, with the friendly woman leaning in close to hear my order. She seems alarmed to see me out and about. Finding the balance between resting and working has been a challenge. I cannot commit myself to either antipodean variable. In the meantime, I drink enough daily water to rival an ungulate.

I feel compelled to step in here, even when I know I shouldn’t, for a very quick roundup:

  • Salon’s Pryia Jain conducts some reporting on what the AMS fallout means for today’s indie publishers. There are quotes from Eli Horowitz and Richard Nash.
  • There’s some great stuff over at Colleen’s, along with links to other blogs, including this interview with Eddie Campbell.
  • I have little to say about the tone-deaf Hillary Clinton Sopranos finale spoof, except to respond to the ridiculous claim that America is apparently concerned with what Hillary’s campaign song is. Really? More than Iraq? More than the issue of universal health care that Hillary waffled on? More than the lack of a safety net (e.g., welfare to work) or affordable housing? More than the disparity between the rich and the poor? At least the people who cooked up this campaign had the smarts to respond to David Chase’s onion rings symbol, suggesting that Hillary would not represent an interminable cycle of corruption extending to all in the family. But when cultural appropriation, particularly of the clumsy variety, replaces engagement on the issues, I’m troubled by the referential depths that next year’s candidates will sink to in order to woo voters. Lest we forget, homage’s original meaning involved a vassal demonstrating fealty to a lord. What of the Clintons showing some deference to the voters? Is this not what a constitutional republic is all about?
  • I hope that the clip is eventually made available online. At his new digs, Jeff VanderMeer reports that Greg Bear was interviewed on The Daily Show.
  • David Orr is under attack for allegations concerning his Dana Goodyear essay.
by Edward Champion

Roundup

  • Frank Wilson on the Michael Gorman brouhaha: “The point of all of this verbiage seems to be to disguise the main worry: that anyone can have access to the information, that gatekeepers are no longer able to keep the gates closed to those they deem unworthy of entrance. It still comes down to the experts know best. Well, read Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s the Black Swan: They don’t.” There’s also another factor motivating all this discussion. Since the print vs. online debate began, NYC & Company has been immersed in a veiled uproar. Prospective tourists with a literary bent have been seduced from Midtown hotels by the Magical Basement Tour, a considerably more affordable vacation package for a family of four, now being advertised by the Terre Haute Convention & Visitor Bureau. Never underestimate the correlation between a drop in niche tourism and those cultural gatekeepers who have a modest stake in dictating where people visit during the summer.
  • Colleen talks with David Brin.
  • Michael Dirda on Kingsley Amis.
  • Julia Keller offers a provocative column in which she declares that it’s okay just to like books. I think it’s a mistake to conflate those who love books with those whose livelihoods don’t depend on the publishing industry. There are plenty of book lovers out there who have no interest in becoming a publishing professional, and Klein’s position strikes me as kind of a reverse snobbery. However, I do agree with Keller that appealing to “book likers” is something for every professional to consider, if only because “book likers” eventually might turn into “book lovers.” (via Kevin Smokler)
  • Terrible news. Punk Planet Magazine is dead. The book imprint will continue on. For now. Throw some support their way. (via Jeff)
  • Tayari Jones on Meredith Hunter and Sam Green’s film on Altamont. Another great novel that dramatizes this incident is Colson Whitehead’s John Henry Days.
  • Joseph Duemer offers a few thoughts on why he abandons novels. The last novel I abandoned featured a plotline in which a bald thirtysomething narcissist, resembling a cross between Lex Luthor and Little Baby Huey, moved from San Francisco to New York. I simply wasn’t convinced that the author, who was more fond of tossing around strange and often deranged details rather than addressing his ideas or larger thematic points, really knew his protagonist and I found the narrative extremely unconvincing and quite absurd.
  • Hitch on On Chesil Beach.
  • It’s a question that will no doubt remain unanswered for some time, but it’s not a bad idea to ask it again: How much information is Google collecting about us? (via Persona Non Data)
  • Bill Keller has a leak.
  • Maitresse: “In my opinion, it isn’t sufficient for people to only read easy books that reinforce their worldview, because only reading someone like Sophie Kinsella or Meg Cabot does nothing to elevate the general discourse. If everyone is just reading people who talk exactly like they do, people who have exactly the same ideas as they do, the culture will never move forward. They will remain mired in mediocrity.” There are more interesting thoughts on a wide range of subjects (including reading, the current state of criticism, and the possibilities of the Internet) here and here.
  • Literago offers a report of the Dennis Loy Johnson-Jessa Crispin discussion. (via Marydell)
  • It’s good to hear that Diesel is doing well. (via Bookninja)
  • Likely Stories: “If I sound dismissive, it could be simple envy at work. No, I’m not envious that all these dads are in touch with their new role in life – I’m envious that they had the foresight to take notes.”
  • Is citation plagiarism an underreported issue?
  • John Scalzi explains why he told teens that their writing sucks. Just think what would have occurred if he told them their iTunes playlists sucked. (via Justine Larbalestier)
  • As it so happens, web users also like print. While the trees may be falling, it’s good to know that the sky isn’t.
  • Miles Johnson asks why there’s no such thing as the Great British Novel.
by Edward Champion

Roundup

by Edward Champion

Roundup (The Benadryl Edition)

  • In an effort to cure the nasal drip that will not die, I am currently in a Benadryl haze. I am waiting for the purple rabbits. So please forgive any woozy asides here in the next couple of days.
  • As widely reported elsewhere, Per Petterson has taken the IMPAC Award. Whether Petterson plans to use these riches for a campaign to point out James Patterson’s writing inadequacies is anyone’s guess.
  • I’ve seen many labels attached to Stephen King, but “gateway drug” is a new one to me.
  • Colleen has assembled a master list of authors that can be found making guest appearances on blogs this summer. This is a remarkably helpful resource. There are more authors here than you might expect. (Perhaps it was the Benadryl, but Gwenda has quite rightly pointed out that Colleen’s list is just for next week!)
  • Wet Asphalt has offered a passionate post on the criticism vs. reviewing debate, where I’ve been categorized in the House of Commons. That’s fine by me, although I’d be grateful if someone could send me the food stamp application forms.
  • M. John Harrison on Eggers.
  • Slushpile interviews Matt Diehl.
  • Jennifer Weiner has outed herself as the commenter on Paper Cuts, although I would prefer to see Garner engage with more than just “not-entirely-satisfied readers.” Of course, that will happen once the sun goes supernova.
  • Levi speaks favorably about On Chesil Beach. While I don’t think it’s McEwan’s best (two of the flashback chapters felt like narrative padding to me), it’s a considerably more focused book than Saturday.
  • James Tata has succumbed to Scarlett fever.
  • Stephen Fry on Web 2.0. (via Patrick Cates)
by Edward Champion

Roundup

  • There are fourteen new Segundo podcasts coming, which will include the bounteous audio recorded at APE and BEA. The first two are almost finished.
  • Richard Rorty is dead. There are remembrances from Dan Green and Christopher Shea.
  • Carlin Romano talks with John Updike, with Updike disturbing a pristine bar within minutes. Who knew that Schweppe’s could set Updike off? There’s also an abruptly engineered 12 minute podcast of the conversation.
  • Michael Redhilll gets a bit goofy about Roberto Bolaño.
  • Tom Bissell on Ryszard Kapuscinski.
  • Tao Lin: “if a novel called the statutory rape of dave eggers by al gore existed there would be less depression and loneliness in the world.”
  • Katherine Dunn is guesting at the inferior 4+1. To be clear, “inferior” is part of the name of the site. I need to bounce around like a Java-programmed jumping bean to see what the skinny is on this LiveJournal and can therefore not bandy about a modifier like “inferior” until I’ve examined the goods. All I know is that Dunn is there, and I remain curious if she will ever follow up Geek Love with another novel. These are the things, I suspect, a dutiful reader should put forward to a guest blogger. (via Gwenda)
  • Like Howard Junker, I too prefer John O’Hara to Frank.
  • Paul Collins on the Biotron.
  • Does Will Smith watch Woodstock? And will this prove disastrous as I, Robot? With Akiva Goldman mangling Richard Matheson, I think it’s a sure bet that the Will Smith Adapted Science Fiction Rule will hold: Under no circumstances should one see a science fiction movie adapted from a classic novel starring Will Smith and expect quality results.
  • Alcatras Versus the Evil Librarians.
  • There aren’t any decent book reviews in the blogosphere, did you say? Check out Colleen’s latest YA column.
  • Moonlight Ambulette: “And so he attempts to give this brief reading (the Accompanied Literary Society was somehow involved in the event) but of course it’s this loud, crowded room and no one is listening. Well, like 12 of us are listening. In the middle of rock bands! What a thing to do to a writer! So he reads about half a page from Wake Up, Sir, before he gives up and says, ‘You know what? Why doesn’t someone just come up here and paddle me with my own book? That would be less painful.’ And so someone does! A sunglasses-wearing lady appears out of no where and gleefully thwacks Jonathan Ames on the bottom with his own hardcover book. Again and again and again. And then she lets him spank her with the book, too.” Between boxing a much younger, albeit physically inept writer and attempting to read between bands (should he not know better in both cases?), I’m wondering what’s going on in Mr. Ames’ mind these days. (via Matthew Tiffany)
  • So here’s the question. Why weren’t podcasts represented in this panel?
  • Canadian author Rebecca Eckler is suing Judd Apatow for certain similarities between her book and Knocked Up. Apparently, both Eckler’s book and Apatow’s film contained a small appearance by Harold Ramis. Eckler has insisted that Ramis is funnier in Canada, despite the fact that Ramis was born in Chicago. Apatow has countered, pointing out that there have been several enjoyable mainstream comedies directed by Ramis in America and that Eckler needs to understand that Canadians often come to America in search of more fame and cash, and that this often comes at the expense of their edge. Ramis, thus far, has said nothing. We shall see how this all unfolds. (via Big Bad Book)
  • 100 Words That All High School Graduates Should Know. Dream a little dream.
  • The Shyness Reading List. (via Books, Words and Writing)
  • And the latest print hit piece on blogs? Joe Klein.
  • RIP Michael Hamburger.
  • Neil Gaiman on H.G. Wells.
by Edward Champion

Mini-Roundup

by Edward Champion

Roundup

  • Lee Goldberg reports some potential legerdemain pertaining to Simon & Schuster’s new indentured servitude policy. The Authors Guild claims that S&S is more interested in a “revenue-based threshold” as opposed to a reversion of rights. The problem with such language is that this is precisely how Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons were screwed over by DC Comics regarding The Watchmen. As the famous story goes, Moore and Gibbons agreed to let DC Comics keep the rights to The Watchmen once it went out of print. Alas, DC Comics has never permitted The Watchmen to go out of print. Thus, Moore and Gibbons have not seen royalties. If “revenue-based threshold” is a replay of such diabolical tactics, then the Authors Guild (and any writer striking a deal with S&S) should probably pay serious attention. Writers may be little more than prostitutes to some moneymen, but even whores should stick up for themselves. I will look into this story later in the week and try to clarify these questions.
  • Another reason why technology is fun: You can track down the subjects of Dorothea Lange photos if you want to. (via Bill Peschel)
  • Ron Hogan has a detailed report on the Crisis in Book Reviewing panel, including a few minutes I missed. And it’s even more absurd than I reported: “When National Book Critics Circle president John Freeman finally got the show moving, he started off by announcing that the NBCC had decided to create a new award honoring book review sections as a class. (As Hail Mary conciliatory gestures to the newspaper industry go, I have to say I was rather underwhelmed, but I imagine section editors who are also Circle members will strive keenly to earn the shelf decorations.)” Take that, you corporate vultures! Self-aggrandizement from the inner circle! This is too close to some of Mailer’s stunts to be taken seriously.
  • I seem to have the same crap cough that Maud has. Can someone explain this respiratory perdition to a sudden East Coast transplant? I hope Maud gets well. She will be reading on Sunday, June 10, at 5:00 PM.
  • Cormac McCarthy isn’t the only one on TV this week.
  • Slushpile interviews Mark McNay.
  • More grim news at the Baltimore Sun.
  • Terry Brooks is heading for the big screen.
  • Again, Reuters gets it wrong about Andrew Keen. Various people have been rightly lambasting this decidedly unkeen specimen of the monkeys because he is decidedly not an intellectual. Keen is, as I observed a few months ago with considerable supportive examples, an indolent and idiotic thinker who wouldn’t know a nuanced argument even if James Wood holed up with him in a motel room for a week to “deprogram” him of his sophist tendencies. The only reason he gets column inches is because there is nobody else out there attempting a civil argument and because many print journalists have a vested interest in protecting their turf from the online upstarts. The real gonzo come lately is Keen himself.
  • Happy Antipodean observes that more books are being banned in Malaysia.
by Edward Champion

Roundup

  • The Rake contemplates the Franzen factor in relation to Cormac McCarthy’s upcoming appearance on Oprah.
  • Deborah Moggach: “I went to meet Spielberg and he’s very casual, all latte-drinking, Navaho rugs and adobe walls. But it’s still a studio and he’s still the boss and all the people who work for him are desperate not to say the wrong thing and lose their job, so they agree with everything he says. He referred to the Danish all the way through the meeting – the book is about the Dutch but nobody corrected him. He said, ‘I think it’s a comedy about poverty’, which it isn’t but everyone just agreed.” I’m not certain what Moggach was expecting. This is, after all, a man responsible for the film adaptations of not one, but two Michael Crichton books. This is also a man who lacked the cojones to follow through with the lesbian relationship between Shug and Celie in his version of The Color Purple. To claim Spielberg as any serious friend of the literary or a careful reader is to likewise suggest that any garden-variety house painter was capable of painting a Diego Rivera mural. Spielberg is a skilled cinematic manipulator who knows how to find good scripts and knows how to make money. I do not necessarily think this is a bad thing. But he is decidedly not a literary man.
  • Doris Lessing has said that women are as violent than men, suggesting that some of the worst crimes in history have been committed by women. Personally, I think that some of the worst crimes in history have been committed by monsters and the gender as a whole doesn’t matter. But that’s just me.
  • Roxana Robinson appears baffled that cab drivers from Bangladesh would be interested in literature. I’m mystified that such borderline racism (“I wasn’t sure there would be any writers from Bangladesh”) would be permitted in a 21st century newspaper.
  • Why am I concerned about such cultural depictions? This article should explain why. The proposed immigration bill will dramatically effect New York’s feel and character.
  • This month, Reading the World begins in earnest for the third time. There is, as I mentioned yesterday, much on this subject over at Scott’s, perhaps with additional assists, coverage-wise, by Joshua Glenn in the future.
  • Dan Quayle, book reviewer. (via Amy’s Robot)
by Edward Champion

Roundup

  • If cursory glances at MSNBC headline tickers on the flight over are anything to go by, the Judeo-Christian world seems to be up in arms with Rosie O’Donnell and Cindy Sheehan. Given the relatively ridiculous nature of both figures, I hope you’ll pardon my own similarly pedantic concerns with Giants pitcher Armando Benitez, who deserves a serious reaming for last night’s abysmal performance. The man blew a potential twelfth inning victory over the Mets by serving up not one, but two balks. I watched this game, wondering if I might be easily converted from the Giants to the Mets through this rather uncanny propinquity of two teams playing for two towns I’m currently more or less in between. Alas, I learned that a Giants partisanship is a difficult personal persuasion to shake. The median arrogance expressed by certain Mets players, which outdid even Barry Bonds’ strut and swagger, dissuaded me, as did the Giants’ fantastic field work. If one is to choose a relatively trivial topic to become obsessed with, well then I choose baseball. Bluster from the likes of Rosie O’Donnell is predictably and unfathomably one-note. When one considers that Rosie O’Donnell’s career has essentially been predicated upon a shaky talent for chatting and bluster, one wonders why anyone would pay millions of dollars to provide such “entertainment” to the masses. It’s almost as bad as paying out a few million to a hothead kid who wants to play ball.
  • Carolyn Kellogg cracks the LATBR.
  • The Best Novels You’ve Never Read. My own picks (if we’re talking the last ten years) is Richard Flanagan’s Gould’s Book of Fish and Rupert Thomson’s The Book of Revelation.
  • If you can get past Silverblatt, he’s talked with John Banville.
  • Speaking of literary interview craziness, the Segundo backlog stands at around fourteen, including a special two-parter and all the APE nonsense. And I haven’t even started with BEA. Please bear with me. I sent off the last of about thirty boxes to FedEx yesterday.
  • I guess nobody told Gabriel Garcia Marquez that you can’t go home again.
  • I could care less whether Peter Carey’s Theft is a thinly veiled attack on his wife or not. Shouldn’t the bigger question be whether or not it’s a good book?
  • Lots of Pessl discussion at Callie’s.
  • Also, far too much information for me to sort through. Will try for another roundup later. BEA reports are forthcoming tomorrow!
by Matthew Tiffany

Roundup?

Until we guest-bloggers pool our collective blogginess and figure out how to keep together Ed’s excellent Roundups, I offer you some reading from elsewhere. Consider it a bite-sized roundup. Particularly as I don’t know how to make WordPress do bullets, or pretty much anything useful. Ed: WordPress?

Bullet!: Books are not sweaters. This post made me sweat until I bled.
Bullet!: Harry Matthews goodstuff.
Bullet!: A good review for Chuck P’s Rant.
Bullet!: Your online writing hideaway.
Bullet!: Books we want and books we need.
Bullet!: A good place to go, every day. Well, go with your browser. You know what I mean.

by Edward Champion

Roundup

by Edward Champion

Roundup

by Edward Champion

Roundup (Been Caught Stealing Edition)

  • Scott smells a rat with Susannah Meadows’ review of Jamestown. I have to agree. Why bother to bring up the dog and penis imagery and not venture a stab as to what it might symbolize? Richard has more and has urged everyone to stop caring about the NYTBR.
  • Another offering in last weekend’s NYTBR was (no surprise) Joe Queenan’s smug and feckless essay on bad books: “Indeed, one of the reasons I became a book reviewer is because it gives me the opportunity to read a steady stream of hopelessly awful books under the pretense of work.” Which is not unlike a food critic boasting about how a steady stream of Burger King meals permits him to remain a manic-depressive. One of the reasons I became a book reviewer is because it gives me the opportunity to read a steady stream of books from people who dare to think and write differently. I start off hoping to love a book and I am immensely disheartened when a book lets me down. As Nathan Whitlock observed this morning, Orwell had some interesting thoughts on “good bad books.”
  • This week at the LBC, folks are offering thoughts on Alan DeNiro’s short story collection.
  • Scott McKenzie examines the myth of stealing ideas. I’ve written before about the “screenwriter” I once met who seemed convinced that her “idea” about a fallen angel had been stolen for the John Travolta film Michael. When I interviewed Guy Ritchie many years ago, I pointed out that his subtitled streetspeak in Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels was similar to the jive speak in Airplane. He told me that it hadn’t occurred to him and that I was the first person to point this out. Outright theft, along the lines of Mencia, is one thing. But the best artists have no shortage of ideas. They are also intuitively aware that creative people sometimes think along similar lines. I do my best not to steal ideas and, if there is some inspiration, I try to attribute it to others. If I know that someone else has set a precedent, I generally try to avoid pursuing the idea until I can come up with my own unique execution.
  • And while we’re on this subject, Good Man Park has found an astonishing emblematic similarity between the “Neon Bible” symbol and vanity publisher Author House. Did the Arcade Fire rip off Author House? I don’t think so. Happy accidents happen.
  • A third digression on this topic and then I’ll stop: Many have remarked on how Queen’s “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” is a grand Elvis homage. But I overheard Elvis playing in a coffeehouse last night and it occurred to me that the “Someone still loves you” part of “Radio Ga Ga”‘s chorus strikes the exact five notes as the fifth stanza line in Elvis’s “Love Me Tender” — A#, A, G, A, A#, if I’m not mistaken. I’m not sure if this was deliberate, but, in light of the song’s commentary on radio’s omnipresence, it does add an interesting nuance to the tune, no?
  • Michiko likes fiction again!
  • Tom McCarthy’s top ten European modernists. (via Messr. Thwaite)
  • The Star-Tribune has cut 145 jobs, and the casualties include James Lileks’ column.
  • Lynne Scanlon invokes an infamous line from Henry VI in her appraisal of book reviewing.
by Edward Champion

Roundup