Lalami on The Professor
In an appreciation of the Nobel Laureate for the Nation, Laila Lalami says the “story of Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz is the story of modern Egypt itself.”
Why is writing an editorial like pissing yourself in a blue serge suit?
Now that the publication of n+1’s fifth issue is imminent — assuming the $3000 that went missing after a fundraiser doesn’t force a scheduling change — I’ve finally read all of issue four. (We have established that I am the most disorganized person in the universe, yes? Yes.)
As always, there’s a great deal [...]
Textbook warnings
The first of the textbook warning stickers pictured below actually appeared on public school science textbooks in Cobb County, Georgia until a judge ordered their removal last year.
The three that follow are the handiwork of one Colin Purrington, whose 14 variants “demonstrate the real meaning of a scientific ‘theory’” and illuminate “the true motivations [...]
Inside The New Yorker
Emdashes’ “Ask the Librarians” series enables you to submit any question you’ve ever had about The New Yorker for possible consideration by the magazine’s head librarians. The latest installment features a discussion of The New Yorker’s first conventional Table of Contents, which ran in the March 22, 1969, issue.
This version included all major departments, [...]
Participating in a work of performance art — by mistake
Traditionally I’ve been a total curmudgeon about book trailers. (It’s a book. Who’s going to watch a promotional film for it? Maybe publishers should focus on putting out good books instead of amping up the marketing for crappy ones. Etc., etc., Amen.)
But this funny short devoted to Grégoire Bouillier’s The Mystery Guest, a breakup memoir [...]
Wednesday afternoon miscellany
Egyptian novelist and Nobel Prize winner Naguib Mahfouz died today in Cairo at age 94.
“Do all Indians look alike? No. But those who write do.” (Via RoR.)
As the city clears out for Labor Day, Taylor Carman, philosophy professor (and brother to Sean), ponders nothingness. “Nothingness is everything to philosophers…. I’m writing a book [...]
A year after Katrina
On the left is a Long Beach, Mississippi restaurant that was once called Pirate’s Cove and served the most delicious shrimp poboy I’ve ever eaten. My grandparents took my sister and me there every time we visited.
I fantasized so hard about that sandwich — the crusty bread! the ripe tomato made even [...]
The divine right of Christian candidates
U.S. Representative Katherine Harris became a household name when, as Florida Secretary of State, she halted the 2000 presidential election recount. Last week she filled the Florida Baptist Witness in on her vision of the role “people of faith should play in politics and government.”
The Bible says we are to be salt and [...]
In and out
I’ll be around this week, but irregularly. Right now I’m up at my sister’s place, after a correspondent got me hankering for some wildflowers.
On Saturday, Sister and her partner drove me out to the Montague Bookmill, a used bookstore set in a gorgeous 19th Century gristmill perched over the Sawmill River. [...]
Thursday fragments
Spy: the Daily Transom previews the book of the magazine.
Alison Bechdel’s upcoming art show at Burlington’s Pine Street Art Works.
More humiliating than your literary idol selling the book you inscribed? Your mother doing it. Or finding a contest judge’s unopened copy for sale.
Lorrie Moore, Edward P. Jones, and Carl Hiassen support the First Amendment [...]
Camp becomes her
Ila wanted to wear a tank top, but the laundry wasn’t done. Her dad, inspired by news of the Susan Sontag show at the Met, “dressed her up in the garb of theory.”
Alternative pest control strategies
The mice nesting in Lauren Stover’s Victorian couch declined to vacate her apartment. So she kept them all winter and finally disposed of them at Yaddo.
May rolled around, and Paul drove me and the mice to Yaddo, the artists’ retreat in Saratoga Springs. The mice spun around on their wheel even as the car [...]
Exoticizing yourself for publishers
Denunciations of the memoir machine tend to be as boregasmic in their uniformity as most of its products. But Azita Osanloo takes a slightly different tack, criticizing the pressure on “ethnic” writers to trade on their backgrounds.
When we got around to chatting about our latest writing projects, she asked me, without mincing words, why my [...]
Wednesday morning miscellany
Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys once worked at Marvel Comics UK. (Photo above.)
Another unqualified War on Terror success: Georgia novelist Joshilyn Jackson “was arrested and jailed because her maiden name was on her Social Security card and her married name was on her driver’s license.” (Via.)
Paul Giamatti has signed on to play Philip [...]
When your literary idol sells the book you inscribed
Writer John McNally sent one of his literary heroes an inscribed copy of his first novel. In return he received a brief note of thanks. He might not have thought about it again, except:
Today, I ran across a listing for that very book on ABE: “Book Description: New York: Free Press, 2004. Hardcover. [...]