- Who was Henrik Ibsen? (via Book Ninja)
- At the Frankfurt Book Fair, Korean publishing has been a dominant presence.
- Are zines still viable?
- Another year, another theory about who might have been the “real Shakespeare.” This year, Shakespeare may have been Sir Henry Neville.
- A profile of E.L. Doctorow.
- Every year, the kids get younger.
- Apparently, the young ‘uns aren’t fans of Ba Jin.
- And this doesn’t relate to literature at all, but holy shit! Rush-R30! A two-disc DVD set of Rush’s career! Aw yeah, mofos!
Year / 2005
New Literary Blogs
For those interested in thinking outside of the box (i.e., sick of reading the usual suspects), here are a few literary blogs I’ve recently stumbled upon : Notes on Non-Camp (who quite boldly suggests that he’s as good a short story writer as T.C. Boyle), Essay Format (unsure of whether this is abandoned or not, but it aims to teach students how to write essays and it’s a promising idea) and Harsh Mistresses (a frowning Las Vegas-based former lawyer and “nice guy” charting his progress writing a suspense thriller).
Strunk and White: Now Available for Prada Regulars
The Elements of Style gets an illustrated edition, baffling high school students and English majors everywhere who were denied the purty colors when they went to school. Hard-hearted writing instructors, however, have pledged to permanently ban this new volume from their classrooms, as they remain convinced that teaching grammar involves inflexible rigidity and a dry and humorless approach that bores most sensible people to tears. More importantly, the new hues don’t fit in well with the grey and asbestos-ridden squalor of contemporary classrooms.
Birnbaum Alert
Bob “He Puts the Cream In Your Coffee But Asks You First In Case You Take It Black” Birnbaum talks with recent MacArthur fellow Jonathan Lethem. There’s also a sweet photo of Lethem with a certain canine friend.
A Short List of Words That Inexplicably Turn Me On
From today’s edition of TMI Linguistics:
- librarian
- sizzle
- crackle
- Molly (and yet, strangely enough, I’ve never dated a Molly; likely because I’m terrified that the frequent use of this word in my presence (“Can I get you something, Molly?”) might cause me to move too fast)
- Almost any word with two Ls, except “Lolita” and “flagellation.”
- muffle (but not “muffin,” which sounds vaguely pederastic)
- pink slip (Fortunately, I’ve never been handed one. Or else the prospect of termination would become strangely alluring.)
- recherche
- splendiferous
- lap
- stipple
- comfort (in both noun and verb form; it is often confusing when women in particular refer to “comfort food,” as I suspect that these folks may have some interesting fetish that I’d like to find out about)
- wrinkle (only in verb form and in a highly specific context)
[SIDE NOTE: Would it be too much to ask for them to come up with a sexy word for intricate and orante? “Baroque” sounds like someone has just replaced the washcloth with a Brillo Pad without your knowledge and “rococo” reminds me of a certain cereal I didn’t care for as a child (that had an obnoxious bird mascot nonetheless).]