Literary news

[uncanny hats]

An interview with Anne Carson, which has pretty much made this year worth it for me.

[Ms. Shart O'Nay]

I just saw her read this week! She was lovely - v scathingly funny, and even kind when I acted like an imbecile getting my book signed. Can't wait to read Red Doc.

[uncanny hats]

ALA releases their most challenged books.

Who is number one? Not "50 Shades." Oh no, there is something more sinister than EL James.

#1 Captain Underpants (series), by Dav Pilkey.
Reasons: Offensive language, unsuited for age group

#2 The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie.
Reasons: Offensive language, racism, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group

#3 Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher.
Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, sexually explicit, suicide, unsuited for age group

#4 Fifty Shades of Grey, by E. L. James.
Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit

#5 And Tango Makes Three, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson.
Reasons: Homosexuality, unsuited for age group

#6 The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini.
Reasons: Homosexuality, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit

#7 Looking for Alaska, by John Green.
Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group

#8 Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz
Reasons: Unsuited for age group, violence

#9 The Glass Castle, by Jeanette Walls
Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit

#10 Beloved, by Toni Morrison
Reasons: Sexually explicit, religious viewpoint, violence

[UnderTheFunk]

Audrey Niffenegger has a new book coming out next month-- Raven Girl.

It's 80 pages and will be illustrated.

I'm excited, but must confess I'm let down it's not a full novel. I love her writing and I'm hungry for something I can really spend some time with.

[JayPeaches]

I bought HFS on audiobook and when I started listening to it, I was a bit confused. I pressed on, thinking I'd start picking up on things (and I did). Then halfway through the book it ended and I realized I had listened to THE WRONG FILE. I started hallway into the book.

I was soooooo disappointed! It's been long enough that I may start over (for real this time), but I'm definitely more interested in a new book from Neffinger.

[tully]

I bought HFS on audiobook and when I started listening to it, I was a bit confused. I pressed on, thinking I'd start picking up on things (and I did). Then halfway through the book it ended and I realized I had listened to THE WRONG FILE. I started hallway into the book.

My friend was reading Gone Girl on her Kindle for an hour before she realized she had accidentally advanced forward more than 50% into the book ....... SPOILER ALERT!!


I picked up Her Fearful Symmetry at Barnes when it was like 75% or something but I never read it. Maybe this summer?

[UnderTheFunk]

I didn't love HFS. Some of it was gorgeous, but the last 1/4 of the book was a giant ol' WTF for me.

I remember loving the atmosphere and characters she created, but I don't remember what happens at the end. Maybe I blocked that out!

[swirly]

Harper Lee isn't best pleased

[uncanny hats]

Teacher suspended for buying student a copy of 50 Shades of Grey.

[tully]

I don't know if suspension is warranted for "distributing pornographic material," but he should certainly be disciplined for incompetence. A teacher should never give or assign a student a book that he or she is unfamiliar with, even if that familiarity is limited to reading the goddamn Amazon synopsis.


Plus it is a TERRIBLY written book!

[uncanny hats]

The Glossary has created an absurd representation of David Foster Wallace's "This is Water" speech.



Massive chunks were cut to create some bizarre narrative that he typically opposed.

For example:

Because here's something else that's weird but true: in the day-to day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship -- be it JC or Allah, bet it YHWH or the Wiccan Mother Goddess, or the Four Noble Truths, or some inviolable set of ethical principles -- is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. It's the truth. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you. On one level, we all know this stuff already. It's been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, epigrams, parables; the skeleton of every great story. The whole trick is keeping the truth up front in daily consciousness.Worship power, you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to numb you to your own fear. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. But the insidious thing about these forms of worship is not that they're evil or sinful, it's that they're unconscious. They are default settings.

They're the kind of worship you just gradually slip into, day after day, getting more and more selective about what you see and how you measure value without ever being fully aware that that's what you're doing.

And the so-called real world will not discourage you from operating on your default settings, because the so-called real world of men and money and power hums merrily along in a pool of fear and anger and frustration and craving and worship of self.

Now, if that was included in the video, it wouldn't be quite as inspiring. It would be more condemning and preachy. But for goodness sake, he was addressing Kenyon students as an Amherst grad, saying don't be a douche, not "look how were all involved in this mystical communism of commodity. We have the right to be happy about our positions if we choose to."

[Volta]

She is working on a new one (i think about a girl with hair all over her body?) but she said it would take years - TTW took 5+ years and her fearful symmetry took nearly 6-7. Yes I know these things. I definitely want to read more from her. I'm excited she's putting work out even if its short.

Curious.. how long (page length) are her novels?

[uncanny hats]

US Inmates Find Direction in Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky

[uncanny hats]

So back to the Wallace essay, I found this essay about the commencment speech pretty awesome:

It was meted out so mathematically in the excellent book "Change or Die," and it is this: If you change something, it as an acknowledgement that This Means You Have Been Doing it Wrong All Along.

And if you are Always Right, this is unfathomable.

This is fucking death. This is defeat. This is the blaring siren call of the unspeakable: It is shame.

As I get older, I see hope in the young people who are students, but with older people in general, all I see is everyone knowing everything, and anyone who disagrees with them is either stupid or crazy. It's like Gen X banned empathy or something. The only things anyone can seem to have empathy about are what's best for their personal identity. But the fact is anything we perceive as truth will always be from within us, making us default douches.

[uncanny hats]

A bit spammy, but mostly, I'm proud. The school gave me control of a radio show for the summer. Today I did James Joyce, in honor of Bloomsday which was yesterday. You can find the mp3 here.