Quasi-narrative images
A strong image, like a good (or annoying) song, is easily trapped in my head. It can rattle around in there for weeks or even years, popping up randomly and refusing to go back into the closet of my brain until I’ve sufficiently paid it attention. I work in medical publishing, so more often than [...]
You make the call
Guess the author of the following quote and win a prize:
It was then that I knew we took breaths together and fought forever. The Gator bath changed history and neighbors cried. We raised the trophy we desired so much. Exchanging glances with one another, we knew that our season had just started. But just for [...]
The oh so subtle art of the non sequitur
Wow! I am full of Mexican food suddenly.
Speaking of which, did any of you happen upon former Haypenny editor Matthew Tobey’s website recently? Probably not or else you’d still be reading the massive Top 500 Best Songs Ever! (Sort Of) list he’s compiled.
As a response to Rolling Stone’s “snoozetastic” Top 500 list, he asked [...]
Jesus may love you, but I think you’re garbage wrapped in skin
I can’t tell you how often people approach me on the street and say, “Dennis DiClaudio, I have no idea who you are, but I can’t help wonder what writers have influenced your short stories that I’ve never read.” My ready-made response is usually, “You’ll just have to wait for the first volume of my [...]
The Smart Set: Lauren Cerand’s Weekly Events
The Smart Set is a weekly feature, compiled by Lauren Cerand, that appears Mondays and highlights the best of the week to come. Special favor is given to New York’s independent booksellers and venues, and low-cost and free events. Please submit details to lauren@maudnewton.com.
MONDAY, 1.31: Break out your swan dresses and satyr outfits for [...]
Israeli satirist I’ve never heard of dies at 80
So, there was a Hungarian holocaust survivor named Ephraim Kishon who wrote brilliant social satire, targeted mainly at his home state of Israel, and he died the other day.
What the fuck?! How have I never heard of him? He’s supposedly, like, the best Israeli writer ever.
This kind of thing drives me nuts.
Related link:
The US has [...]
I can’t wait to read this book!
I have for a long time suspected that the Civil Rights movement was a terribly destructive force in in our nation’s progress and that the Northern states were actually somehow responsible for Jim Crow laws down South. I mean, it just seems so obvious, doesn’t it? Come on, think about it. Summon the image [...]
Interesting piece of literary trivia
Apparently, Douglas Coupland still writes books.
Do people still buy them?
This is good news
It looks like US literati and Middle Eastern Muslim fundamentalists have have more in common than they ever knew. They’re both producing an alarming number of books with a common theme: Hate America!
A report, headed by former CIA director James Woolsey, found that Saudi Arabia is exporting a ton of books to American mosques urging [...]
Who the frick is Dennis DiCarlo? Where’s Maud?!
Oh my God, this sucks, doesn’t it?
I know just how you feel. It’s Monday morning and you’re sitting at your desk with your coffee and you’re thinking, “You know, Andy and Jimmy and Wendy were really good substitutes, and Annie’s always a welcome change-up on Fridays, but I’m totally ready to have Maud back behind [...]
Introducing Dennis DiClaudio
I’m away until at least February 2. With the exception of last Friday, when the lovely Annie Reid worked her usual magic, guest bloggers have been taking over in my absence. I’ve pre-posted introductions to appear before each begins.
Today’s guest, Dennis DiClaudio, A/K/A Captain Badass (see self-portrait, right), co-edits Ducky and (parenthetical note), and maintains [...]
Signing off
That’s all for me this week. Do not despair, good people. Maud will return, and not a moment too soon.
Remembrance
In case you missed it, yesterday was the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz/Buchenwald.
As part of Germany’s national remembrance, Austrian literary critic Sigrid Loffler examines how Holocaust literature is changing now that survivors are aging and passing away:
If memory experienced should not be lost or disappear from collective memory, it must be transformed [...]
Remains of the day
It’s HER OWN lighthouse, dammit! The famous lighthouse which inspired Virginia Woolf (“To The….”, natch!) may be switched off.
The Telegraph’s Mark Rowland’s sees Camus everywhere on ABC’s Sisyphusian Desperate Housewives. Well, this part, for sure.
In case you missed it, Edwidge Danticat wins the first annual Story Prize, which honors the author of a collection [...]
“Sugaring the maple?” —mmmmmmm……yes, ma’am!
PBS (the one, remember, who put Barney on the air, who has lately been seen in the company of notorious pantywaist SpongeBob) is in trouble again, for putting radical lifestyles propagandist “Buster” of the infamous “Postcards from Buster” children’s educational television show on the air with….lesbians.
In the upcoming episode “Sugartime!”, the animated bunny Buster [...]