The Literary Saloon: “Tanenhaus’ approach is so antithetical to almost everything we believe in that we really find it hard to believe anybody could approach book reviewing in this way. What is this guy thinking?”
Month / June 2006
The I’m Catching Up on News You’ve Probably Read Already Roundup
- Word on the street is that Harper Lee has written something for Oprah. This is the second essay that she’s written in 40 years, which makes one Harper Lee essay every twenty years. Maybe we might get another out of Lee if she lives another twenty years. But I think the workaround here is to cryogenically freeze Harper Lee and have her wake up a century now, only to extract the mandatory five essays she owes us. (via Bookslut)
- Maud unfurls an interesting Borges-Pynchon connection.
- I have a grand temptation to cover this. Of course, if all the purported “experts” are as clueless as Tee Morris, then it might be safe to say that the Dummies books are the publishing industry’s answer to Wikipedia.
- Pete Anderson happily reports that he’s received 100 rejections for his stories and speculates upon the reasons why.
- Gabriel Garcia Marquez can’t get his hometown renamed to Macondo.
- After four attempts, Roger McDonald has won the Miles Franklin Literary Award.
- Nearly 150 years later, the remains of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s wife will finally be moved next to her spouse. Eminent domain’s a bitch, ain’t it?
- Ed Guthmann talks with Dhanvant Shanghvi.
- Jeff VanderMeer may be suffering a fate worse than a DVD selection consisting solely of Uwe Boll’s oeuvre: he can’t leave New Hampshire.
- James Wood apparently reviewed Terrorist at The New Republic, but I’ll be damned if I can read the article. (Thank you for your HTML incompetence, TNR!) Does anyone have a working link?
- “Primo Levi and Translation” (via ReadySteadyBook)
- Lionel Shriver on immigration, with some cogent objections from Laila.
- Harry Potter to die in Book 7? Pop open the champagne. (via Bookninja)
- Frank Wilson, book review editor of The Philly Inquirer, offers some interesting thoughts on the whole print vs. online media debate. Like Bud, I have to say that it’s good to see someone in print media offering a more nuanced take over the standard “newspapers are gatekeepers/bloggers are upstarts” argument that guys like Tanenhaus and Freeman frequently resort to.
- Dave Munger on why he won’t go to the movies anymore.
- For those who missed the BEA speech in podcast form, the text of his speech is now available, which sends Levi Asher into an uproar.
- The best advice to a writer juggling exercise and a day job? Lots of exercise.
Bookish Journalism Summit
The extremely entertaining tale (along with the inevitable podcast) on how the below happened will follow shortly. (I even got to meet Rosie.) For now, I’m still decompressing from the flight. So bear with me as I adjust back to PDT again. Many thanks to El Rojo himself and Megan Sullivan for providing assist on this.
(Top photo courtesy of Ms. Tyrieosa.)
Gone Fishing
The Bat Segundo Show #47
Author: Hal Niedzviecki
Condition of Mr. Segundo: Temporarily replaced, due to being incapable of being crass and making a generalization at the same time.
Subjects Discussed: The advantages of studying American culture from Canada, individualism vs. conformity, pop star aspirations, American Idol, karaoke, television, the economics of media, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah Yeah, William T. Vollmann, the end of Western expansion, German billionaires, on one-upping explorers, the disadvantages of genius, media conformity vs. community, fundamentalists, homophobia, the BattleCry protests in San Francisco, the human ego, and retreating from society.
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