The Times: “France’s cultural heritage is in peril because students are shunning literature in favour of more practical courses that they believe will help them to secure well-paid jobs, the Education Minister said….’We need literary people, pupils who can master speech and reason,’ he said. ‘They are always in demand.'”
Author / Edward Champion
Is This VHS vs. Betamax All Over Again?
The Independent: “Online bookseller Amazon has plans to unveil a wireless electronic book reader, a kind of literary iPod, which already has UK publishers scrambling to digitise their entire range of titles. The device, which sources claim could be launched as early as next month, would follow the recent US launch of the Sony eBook Reader, a machine the size of a hardback that stores digital copies of up to 80 books and lasts 7,500 pages on a single charge.”
So when’s JVC going to jump into the fray?
An Author’s Hubris Can Be Yours for the Low, Low Price of $1 Million!
Hari Kunzru: “Literary critics will never grow up. Luckily for me, these days, people seem to be more interested in talking about my work than about money.”
Gee, that’s odd. Adam Mars-Jones, Daniel Mendelsohn, David Kipen — to name just three critics — didn’t mention the advance at all in their reviews, although all expressed some quibbles about The Impressionist. Nithya Khrishnaswamy promised not to talk about the advance and only about the work. Could it be that the work in question isn’t nearly as spectacular as Kunzru believes it to be? Maybe it’s the author here suffering from a Peter Pan complex.
Roundup
- Hey hey, ho ho, Cornholio has got to go. (via Tod Goldberg)
- Led Zeppelin reuniting? Okay, who needs the alimony money?
- RIP Joe Zawinul.
- Dear Comics Industry: Please Grow Up.
- Now here’s a way to merge Rosh Hashanah with Moleskine.
- As widely reported, the New York Post will be running more book reviews.
- 1 in 3 Americans still believe that Saddam was involved in 9/11. Then again, 1 in 3 Americans also believe that the Bible should be taken literally.
- Christ, you two, get a room.
- A Curious Singularity has started a roundtable discussion of Grace Paley’s “A Conversation with My Father.” (via Matthew Tiffany)
- Is Steven Pinker “the cognitive philosopher of our generation?”
- If this MySpace page is to be believed, Wal-Mart is now asking mothers to check in their babies. Presumably, Wal-Mart has found a legitimate way to sell random babies on the open market?
- I’m no fan of Kathy Griffin, but I don’t see why these remarks needed to be censored. Indeed, the joke’s more tepid than John Lennon claiming that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus. Will we see Kathy Griffin product burnings? And are we in 2007 or 1966?
- And speaking of which, here’s Jonathan Lethem on the Fifth Beatle.
- An interview with the co-creator of The Bionic Woman. (via Quiddity)
- So what do you do after a Coney Island career running around as the eponymous target in the “Shoot the Freak” booth? You go to law school.
- Only the New Yorker would find a way to get Baudrillard and Facebook in the same paragraph.
- Where are the men on TV? Anglling for your job, Rebecca, in a new reality TV show called Who Wants to Be a 3,000 Word Columnist? Stag club only, I’m afraid.
- “Ask Yahoo! is teaming up with Yahoo! Answers to bring you Ask Mike.” No, this is not what anyone asked for. When I sent in my question to Ask Yahoo!, I damn well expected Yahoo! to answer it! And now you’re telling me that some lesser being named “Mike” is the guy responsible? Who the hell is Mike? And what can Mike offer that Yahoo cannot? Are you now outsourcing?
Blondes and Brunettes, You’re Back in the Game
Contrary to previous reports, it appears that redheads will not — repeat, NOT — be going extinct. You can go back to schtupping blondes and brunettes with egalitarian rapacity.