Dalton Trumbo's Deep Throat

Dalton Trumbo’s Deep Throat

FADE IN: EXT. WASHINGTON D.C. — DAY Several ENSLAVED EX-GOVERNMENT WORKERS, all of them in their nineties, are led by ROMAN CENTURIONS into the Washington…

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Taking A Bite Out of the Big Apple

Taking A Bite Out of the Big Apple

Postings are going to be light and then heavy. But whatever the format and timing, they will be comprehensive on the other side. Either way,…

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Insomnia

Insomnia

How to make a lightsaber dildo The Daily Dancer: “I am Daily Dancer, a computer geek who loves to dance! Every weekday morning, you can…

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Sun-Soaked Roundup

Sun-Soaked Roundup

Sarah is interviewed by Kacey Kowars. Sarah talks about the history of her blog, how she reads and selects content, her new day job, inter…

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I Heart Garry Trudeau

I Heart Garry Trudeau

The latest Doonesbury pretty much sums up my disillusionment with Memorial Day.

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Things Just Got A Bit Hotter in Saudi Arabia

Things Just Got A Bit Hotter in Saudi Arabia

King Fahd is dead. This guy’s next in line. Crown Prince Abdullah is mostly friendly, but unlike Fahd, Abdullah didn’t like American involvement in the…

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Vollmann Club Update

Vollmann Club Update

Several new Vollmann posts are up. The main page has been updated.

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Well, Living Your Life By A Movie Can’t Be All Bad If It Eventually Involves Triple-Breasted Ladies

[Above: Arnold using taxpayers' money to stage a scene and play a guy performing construction.] [Below: Arnold using Hollywood money to stage a scene and…

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California State Assembly: The Forum for Fruits & Nuts

California State Assembly: The Forum for Fruits & Nuts

Scott points to this disturbing article. The California State Assembly has decided to ban school districts from purchasing textbooks longer than 200 pages. The bill…

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Oh, More Hype of It All!

Oh, More Hype of It All!

Michiko: “It’s a book as hip and intermittently tender as Dave Eggers’s ‘Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius,’ as gripping and overstuffed as David Foster Wallace’s…

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A History of Violence

A History of Violence

Cronenberg’s new film, A History of Violence, looks like a ballbuster.

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Ten Things I Wish I Did

Ten Things I Wish I Did

While I believe it’s still possible to do some of these things, I still wish to respond to Mr. Teachout’s recent item. Here are ten…

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Maybe Because Machines Designed to Destroy Aren't Sentient Enough to Populate a Narrative?  Just a Wild Guess.

Maybe Because Machines Designed to Destroy Aren’t Sentient Enough to Populate a Narrative? Just a Wild Guess.

Jimmy Beck has the scoop on Charles Baxter. He writes: When asked what he was working on, he said he spent two years on a…

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Author Recognition Survey Results

Author Recognition Survey Results

METHODOLOGY: On May 26, 2005, during lunch hour, surveyor Edward Champion asked various people in the Embarcadero Center (a multi-block shopping center in San Francisco’s…

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In the Works

In the Works

We’ve finally discovered that we can actually view the Internet on our cell phone and that it actually loads fairly fast (under the circumstances) and…

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Deconstructing Amazon Images

Deconstructing Amazon Images

The website AAUGH has unearthed how Amazon adds those annoying image tags (“40% Off!”) to their cover images. It’s all in the tags. (via )MeFi)

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On Audio Books and Reading

On Audio Books and Reading

In a heated post, Scott takes audiobooks to task, pointing out that the audio book experience ain’t tantamount to reading. “Listen Jim,” writes Scott, “and…

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Updated Hitchhiker's Guide Entry: Case Histories Mostly Not a Bestseller

Updated Hitchhiker’s Guide Entry: Case Histories Mostly Not a Bestseller

At the LBC site, editor Reagan Arthur weighs in on Case Histories. Arthur confesses her partiality, but does remark that Case Histories is the first…

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Birnbaum Alert

Birnbaum Alert

Seconds after throwing the Birnbaum Signal into the sky, our literary superhero respodned by interviewing Courtney Angela Brkic and Kevin Guilfoile. Commissioner Gordon’s services are…

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Literary Awareness

Literary Awareness

Today at The Elegant Variation, during the course of Kevin Smokler’s appearance via the Virtual Book Tour, there was a heated though civilized thread about…

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Will Repetition Destroy Vollmann’s Legacy?

While reading The Rainbow Stories, a book that I’ve been greatly enjoying (if kicking around with skinheads, drug addicts and terrorists can be “enjoyed”), I’ve…

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A Craving Holds Across the Blogosphere

A Craving Holds Across the Blogosphere

For those who can’t wait for the Pynchon Bookforum issue (which we are salivating for as readily as the Learned English Dog), as Maud points…

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The Great Speeches

The Great Speeches

American Rhetoric has listed the top 100 speeches of all time. The text is available for all speeches. But what’s particularly amazing is that audio…

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Email Catchup

Email Catchup

I’ve sent close to 150 emails tonight and I’m still backed up. If you sent me an email before May 5 about something, give me…

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He's Not a Naughty Librarian, But We Suspect He'll Do

He’s Not a Naughty Librarian, But We Suspect He’ll Do

Pop Matters has kicked off a new column entitled “Bad Librarian.” The column is written by Erik Wennermark, a man who may or may not…

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The Worst Kind of Blogging Hiatus Imaginable

The Worst Kind of Blogging Hiatus Imaginable

A blogger, merely worrying about his Japanese report, posted an eerie entry just before he was murdered. Police used it to find the killer. Eerie…

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The Robert Sheckley Fund

The Robert Sheckley Fund

Neil Gaiman provides the link for a Paypal fund for the noted science fiction satirist Robert Sheckley. Sheckley, as reported here not too long ago,…

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Whither the Beach Book?

Whither the Beach Book?

To whit: Phil at Collected Miscellany asks whether reading choices are related to the season. Anthony Miller looks into the “summer reading” semantics. The Columbus…

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Pynchon Anecdote of the Month

Pynchon Anecdote of the Month

Said Laurie Anderson: “She tells a story about asking Thomas Pynchon whether she could turn his novel Gravity’s Rainbow into an opera. He said yes,…

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The Impetus Behind CliffsNotes

The Impetus Behind CliffsNotes

If you’re like me, you avoid CliffsNotes with a passion and go out of your way to remember pedantic book details that the slackers salivating…

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