The Google Maps Street View was one thing. But a certain magazine, which I will not name or link to, has offered a map of New York for literary enthusiasts. The map in question contains both an address and a photo of a notable author’s house. I’m fairly certain that the magazine did not obtain permission from the author to do this. And I have a problem with this. Are not authors — or anyone, for that matter — entitled to some reasonable privacy? Granted, the true stalker lunatic will go to any lengths to discover a phone number or an address. But how is aiding and abetting a stalker a good thing? Is Gawker Stalker responsible for this trend? Who benefits by the dissemination of such private information? Or are we simply becoming a less private society and am I the only guy who gives a shit about it?
Month / August 2007
Roundup
- I don’t really agree with the suggestions made in this somewhat interesting revisitation of Kerouac. Various individuals bring out the standard charges — that traveling and writing on the road is largely a middle-class endeavor, that the age of Beat-like exploration is dead, et al. If there is a literary paucity, I’m wondering, however, if it’s more of a case of the publishing industry taking fewer chances on work they deem as experimental. (via Books, Inq.)
- Litblog Co-Op madness begins this week with Nicola Griffith’s Always.
- I’ve been informed that Issue #4 of A Public Space features a lengthy piece involving Vollmann in Toronto (including illustrations). As soon as I get my hands on a copy, I’ll offer a report on this essay.
- Min Jin Lee on Middlemarch. And more on Middlemarch from A.S. Byatt. (latter link via Bookdaddy)
- Louise Tucker insists that the publishing industry never had a golden age.
- Fuck off, CBC. (via Bookninja)
- Over at Sarah’s, the new Warren Ellis novel seems to have caused a rather bizarre series of clarifications.
- Is Bella Stander confessing that she’s into zoophilia?
- Burmese novelist Tayar Min Wai has passed on.
- It looks like things aren’t going so well in Zimbabwe literary affairs.
Contentious Critical Clips
The Siskel & Ebert balcony archives have opened. Witness Roger Ebert dismissing Full Metal Jacket as “too little and too late” and lesser than Platoon. And recycled basic training scenes? Not visually exciting? WTF? (And here they are on Blue Velvet.) (via Hollywood Elsewhere)
She’s Also Looking for a Husband
Interview M.I.A. and mention Diplo at your own peril. (via Fimoculous)
Thumb Your Nose Up at Genre at Your Own Peril
As Josh Glenn observes, it would appear that Anthony Lane does not know his science fiction film history, presumably because such knowledge would get in the way of additional quips.