…apparently, you can watch every episode online. (via Quiddity)
Author / Edward Champion
Impartial Information
It is especially heartening to know that some ostensible writers, scribbling in blog-like form for their columns, confuse their shaky Fleet Street sinecures and their indolent journalistic dispositions with “educated comment” and proceed to make absurd generalizations as egregious as these apparent “axe-grinding amateurs.” (Sorry, Mr. Sanderson, but not even a Red Dwarf reference cannot inure your ass after writing such nonsense.)
Did Harper Purchase a James Frey Short Story Collection for $1 Million?
While Gawker merely reports rumor, I decided to make some calls. According to a decidedly nervous Tara Cook, who is Jonathan Burnham’s assistant, Harper can neither confirm nor deny that Harper purchased a new James Frey short story collection for $1 million. I have also left a message for Tina Andreadis. If I get anything substantive, I will let you know.
[UPDATE: Confirmed by Jeffrey Trachtenberg. Press release here. And, yes, Gawker, you are vindicated — somewhat.]
Next Week on Bat Segundo
Correspondent: But if you like to be liked, doesn’t this kind of get in the way of actually having to necessarily take conventions to task sometimes? I mean, you know…
Saunders: Yeah.
Correspondent: The other thing too is that, going back to Ben’s observation, I mean, I could actually possibly agree with him. Like you commented upon the big-screen TV with the Web access, but you didn’t, I guess, focus in on the fact that the Web is heavily censored in Dubai. Or, for example, you know, the ecosystem — the problems of that caused by the manmade islands.
Saunders: But see, but see, I think that the problem is if you — to my way of thinking, there are people who do that a hundred times better than me. If you want a comprehensive story about Dubai, Ben would do it better. You know. Kind of the journalistic version: go there and tell me everything I need to know. But these pieces never, you know, in my view, if you’re going for a week, you’re really saying, “Here’s one slice through the data.” So to me, it’s not . You know, I have a very, very limited talent, right. For me to go and try to be a true investigative journalist is — I would fuck it up. I don’t know if I can say that word on your…
Correspondent: You can say whatever you want.
Saunders: I would fuck it up. Because I don’t really — I’m not trained in that, it doesn’t interest me. So what I’m doing in these pieces is just saying, “Here is one subjective observer going in and seeing some stuff.”
The whole of this provocative interview, which also involves George Saunders challenging Our Young, Roving Correspondent on the merits of Borat, will appear next week on The Bat Segundo Show.
In the meantime, you can listen to this clip.
Listen: Play in new window | Download
Having Sullied Music with Synth-Laden Horrors, He Moves to Another Medium
The Book Standard: “John Tesh, the radio and television personality, has joined with Thomas Nelson to release his upcoming book, A Passionate Life. The book, which will be published March 11, 2008, will reveal Tesh’s own personal story of how he ‘has applied certain principles to live a complete and passionate life,’ according to the publisher.”