- Diana West’s The Death of the Grown-Up, has received a handful of notices: William Grimes mocked it and The New Criterion‘s Stefan Beck was less dismissive, pointing to the Grimes Defense (“If an argument has been exaggerated a little bit for effect, we can throw it out—baby, bathwater, and even the soap scum of lingering doubt.”). Beck appears to be unaware that Grimes’s diluted form of reductio ad absurdum has existed long before Grimes. Indeed, it’s in use by many of today’s critics. And while many bemoan this rhetorical tactic, it is nevertheless a valid form of argumentative response. The problem with Grimes’s review in question isn’t his stance, but the flitting manner in which he declares West “Wrong. Totally wrong.” on the subject of Islam without citing specific textual examples. A good editor would have called Grimes on this and demanded that he strengthen his argument. Grimes really should have been permitted to write a 2,000 word essay instead of having his argumentative column inches diminished. Alas, the days where essays could be expanded to meet their argumentative requirements (as opposed to advertising demands) appear to be long over.
- Heidi McDonald observes that a new Speed Racer comic is forthcoming.
- Yes, I too am worried about David Schwimmer as feature film director, but with Simon Pegg and Dylan Moran on board, maybe — just maybe — there’s a chance.
- Keir Graff has more astonishing numbers about book critics and ethics.
- More demonstrative proof that Katie Couric has all the journalistic prowess of a Vegas cocktail waitress. The CJR‘s Curtis Brainard, however, thinks that such a limp line of questioning is fair game.
- Jonathan Lethem’s “The King of Sentences.”
- This year’s Orange Broadband Prize celebrity dunce jude? Lily Allen. Presumably, Allen will call at least one of the Orange Prize finalists a “cunt” and find a way to blame her slur on Amy Winehouse.
- Bloglines appears to be seriously messed up. I’ve noticed that many blogs have lost scores of subscribers overnight. Between this, the delayed text, and the recurrent appearances of the Bloglines Plumber, I think I’m switching over to Google Reader or something else.
- Alas, I was too swamped in deadlines to offer a few thoughts for this, but January Magazine has released its holiday gift guide.
- Is it possible that the grand horror film company Hammer is using MySpace to make a comeback? (They will be releasing Beyond the Rave, the first Hammer film in 30 years and Ingrid Pitt is in the cast.)
- The Sharp Side on Malcolm Lowry. (via Mark Thwaite)
- Wayne Koestenbaum on Elizabeth Hardwick.
- Joseph Duemer investigates a mystery involving copyright and Bruce Springsteen’s image.
- Normblog responds to Doris Lessing’s Nobel speech, pointing to five ways in which the Internet is beneficial to books. (via Maxine)
- The 100 Great Christmas Bummers. (via Pages Turned)
- Motoko Rich investigates how web work transforms into book sales. (Also related, albeit not particularly penetrating: the rise and fall of blogger book deals.)
- Nicolas Cage and Alex Proyas are teaming up. I thoroughly loathed Proyas’s cinematic bastardization of I, Robot and have hoped since then that the guy who gave us the startling and underrated Dark City isn’t washed up.
- It appears that the Cincinnati Post is dead in three weeks.
- Harold Pinter’s papers are being preserved.
- Also from the Guardian: DJ Taylor argues that authors have the right to say controversial things.
Roundup
– December 13, 2007Posted in: Roundup
The Call by Yannick Murphy: The always interesting author of Here They Come and Signed, Mata Hari returns with a novel that whips up a worldview from a rather quirky set of limitations: namely, the call logs that a veterinarian maintains as his son is unexpectedly put into a coma and an unforgiving economy denies him work. What emerges is a surprisingly optimistic, often funny, and very moving account on how one family uses acceptance and forgiveness as a way to atone for hard knocks. (
Birds of Paradise by Diana Abu-Jaber: Forget Franzen and Eugenides. If you're looking for a social novel that counts, Diana Abu-Jaber is the author you're looking for. Building from the free-form exploration of consciousness and identity in Crescent and the gripping procedural structure of Origin, Abu-Jaber's latest novel is her finest, equally fluent with gutterpunk culture and smarmy real estate men. It has been suggested by The Washington Post's Ron Charles that you will likely gain some pounds while reading this novel. This is certainly true. Abu-Jaber's description of food is so precise that it often made me want to do more cooking. But I very much admired the way in which Abu-Jaber presents all her characters as unwitting victims of rough capitalism, which permits them some dignity even as they perform terrible acts.
The Last of the Live Nude Girls by Sheila McClear: This memoir isn't so much about the decline of the Times Square peepshow, as it is about one young woman's efforts to pull herself up by by her bootstraps when presented with few economic options. Filled with self-introspective candor and a quiet dignity, McClear's story is one that might befall any of us in these volatile times. While McClear does get back on her feet, her book leads one contemplating the terrible fates of other young women now moving to New York and falling into deadlier vocations. (
It’s pretty depressing losing the Post in the town where Clear Channel’s radio division was… hatched?
For newspapers, it’s gotten bad. In addition to the Post and Enquirer, you used to be able to get the Indianapolis Star, Dayton Daily News, and Louisville Courier-Journal at any BN or Fountain Square News if you wanted perspective.
The Star, DN, and CJ have long since stopped distributing here, except on the fringes, and the Star doesn’t even bother with the casino boat towns over the border in Indiana anymore.
With the death of the Post, we’re left with the dogmatically conservative Enquirer. Our only alternative is the weekly City Beat, which is against anything the Enquirer is for.
New Year’s Eve will be a sad day in Cincinnati.
Man, that Post head was really tasteless, even for the post.
Sorry you’re having trouble with Bloglines. I had lost all my feeds, but I attributed that to the new Firefox Christmas skin I installed. Once I dumped it and emptied my cache, they all came back.
Now, for some reason, Bloglines is feeding mee up to 200 posts from some people, forgetting I had already read them.
Still, I’ll be sticking with them. I’ve tried Reader twice and found it exceptionally clumsy. Bloglines throws up the posts much faster on my dial-up.
I switched from Bloglines to Google Reader about a year ago and have never regretted it.