Roundup

  • On the AMS fallout front, five publishers have been selected for the AMS creditors committee: Random House, Penguin, Hachette, Grove/Atlantic and Wisdom Publications. The Delaware Bankruptcy Court declined to form a second committee consisting of the remaining PGW clients. Whether the creditors committee will take into account the precarious burdens of indie publishers remains to be seen, but with the second committee denied, this doesn’t look good. Galleycat has more.
  • Over at the LBC, this quarter’s Read This! choice has been announced. Once again, The Bat Segundo Show will be teaming up with Pinky’s Paperhaus to bring you interviews with all the nominators and nominees. (And I’ll be back in business very soon on the Segundo front, as soon as I get things squared away on other fronts. There are some hot interviews coming up that you won’t want to miss.)
  • Norman Mailer says that there’s very little interest in novels anymore. Perhaps he means to suggest that there’s very little interest in his novels anymore.
  • Is knit lit a new genre? I hope not. It’s difficult to take any word that’s close to “nitwit” seriously.
  • Normally, I’m all for awards that recognize both the novelist and the screenwriters behind a literary adaptation. But I must strenuously object to awarding P.D. James the Scripter. Children of Men went from potboiler to engaging cinema entirely because of Cuaron and his writers. And to award James any kind of merit for the way that these screenwriters turned a sow’s ear into a bleak purse is to reward mediocrity. What next? Giving a hack like John Grisham an award for the work done by Clyde Hayes and Francis Ford Coppola? If ever there was an honor awarded for a no talent assclown sitting on her ass, the Scripter may very well be it.
  • UPI reports on the Decibel Penguin Prize controversy. The prize, established to award diversity, faced serious legal action because it discriminated against Caucasians. It probably wasn’t a wise idea to introduce an award in a country where affirmative action was about as common as food without mayonnaise. Perhaps this was a case of misunderstanding with our friends across the pond. But don’t worry, folks! The oppressed white male will get yet another shot at dominating yet another literary award. Remember, folks, there’s always room for Whitey!
  • Paul Krassner is right. Where’s the mainstream media attention to Robert Anton Wilson’s death?
  • Dana Spiotta appears as part of Largeheartedboy’s Book Notes series.
  • Laila Lalami reports on the banning of Nichane.
  • And I’m the walking dead today, folks: good for perhaps little more than a poorly translated (and poorly remembered) Swedish joke about a milkmaid in a brothel that I heard from a bleary-eyed pal in a beer hall. No putsches here, but certainly many putzes now parked on my medulla oblongata. But I’ll try and check in later.

One Comment

  1. Re: P.D. James… I’m in the middle of the sow’s ear, and looking forward to seeing the bleak purse. But, honestly, the book is not at all bad. There are a few plotholes here and there, maybe some overwrought didactics, but it’s certainly not Dan Brown…

    So, based on your assessment, can I assume the screenplay is absolutely mind-blowing?

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