Month / January 2004
Maslin: Pop Lit Ghetto ‘Ho
Janet Maslin is a good critic, but any doubts that she’s been ghettoized by the Times as the “pop lit gal” should be removed. In fact, considered with this unfortunate headline, part of me suspects an anti-Maslin conspiracy.
Students now spend an average of $828 per year on academic books. A new study reports that the average textbook costs over $100, and that the cost has risen from $650 in 1996-1997. In related news, sales of Top Ramen have risen along the same exponential curve.
And you thought the David Denby coverage was bad? When I think about who to ask about sex, Steven Bochco is probably the last guy in line.
The lower your testosterone, the greater your chance of developing Alzheimer’s. Scientific proof that Ronald Reagan and Charlton Heston were never men’s men.
Donald Trump has a new book out in April, How to Be Rich. Random House will be paying Trump close “a lot more than a million dollars” with sizable royalties. Guess the folks at Random House didn’t learn from the book, did they?
The Sunday Times claims that Pete Dexter is the most injury-prone writer in the world and then, because the writer of the article doesn’t believe his own thesis, he offers a long expose of Dexter’s physical condition. What next? A 2,000 word essay on Saul Bellow’s hair?
Pay no attention to the title. Vintage Didion is not a Slouching/White repackage, but represents Didion’s work in the Reagan era.
Norman Mailer turns 81 on Saturday and the Scotsman tries to examine why he isn’t considered “America’s greatest living writer.” Without, of course, asking anyone here why.
Is the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette appropriating Crooked Timber’s Books I Did Not Read This Year idea?
Sarah compares the TMFTML imbroglio with Moonlighting.
And cool enough that Yardley champions A.J. Liebling, a guy I’ve been meaning to read, but Teachout’s there too.
Unilateral Typography, Motherfucker
The U.S. State Department has banned the courier font from all diplomatic correspondence. “That’ll show ’em,” said a State Department official, who hoped that Times New Roman would be next. “Who the hell do they think we are? Screenwriters? Typists? We’re diplomats first and foremost. And we’ll fuck your shit up without using Courier.” (via Six Different)
Okay, So I’m About Four Months Behind on This, But…
Naomi Wolf: “But the effect [of porn] is not making men into raving beasts. On the contrary: The onslaught of porn is responsible for deadening male libido in relation to real women, and leading men to see fewer and fewer women as ‘porn-worthy.’ Far from having to fend off porn-crazed young men, young women are worrying that as mere flesh and blood, they can scarcely get, let alone hold, their attention.”
Tracking Sensations Is A Tough Racket
“If you reject absolutely any single sensation without stopping to distinguish between opinion about things awaiting confirmation and that which is already confirmed to be present, whether in sensation or in feelings or in any application of intellect to the presentations, you will confuse the rest of your sensations by your groundless opinion and so you will reject every standard of truth. If in your ideas based upon opinion you hastily affirm as true all that awaits confirmation as well as that which does not, you will not avoid error, as you will be maintaining the entire basis for doubt in every judgment between correct and incorrect opinion.” — Epicurus