Bertrand Russell’s alphabet book
Design Observer posts pages from Bertrand Russell’s very entertaining The Good Citizen’s Alphabet. “L: Liberty — The right to obey the police.”
Last Hardy Player pays homage
At age 101, “the only surviving member of Thomas Hardy’s theatrical group,” the Hardy Players, will recite the poet’s work as part of an event called Dorset Voices.
Book-banning cries get weirder
The FBI has been forwarded a “Values in Education” complaint that assigning books by Wright, Morrison and Vonnegut violates laws against distribution of porn to minors.
New Alexie incoming
Flight, Sherman Alexie’s first novel in a decade, hits bookstores in late March.
How an obscene work becomes a classic
Looking back on the Madame Bovary trial, and the banning of Lolita, Ulysses, and Lady Chatterley’s Lover, it’s easy to feel superior to the philistines who didn’t recognize these literary works as high art. (Flaubert disséquant Madame Bovary caricature, at right, found here.)
But Elizabeth Ladenson argues in Dirt for Art’s Sake that each age, [...]
Shepping nachas
Everybody please congratulate my dear friend Mark Sarvas, whose first novel, Harry, Revised, has been picked up by Bloomsbury for publication in 2008.
Presumptively classified
Seventeen poems by Guantánamo Bay detainees will be published later this year. Many other poems won’t be included, though; the Pentagon refuses to declassify them.
Tom McCarthy surplus
Dogmatika recommends Surplus Matter, a site packed with the essays and criticism of writer Tom McCarthy.
Challenging critics
“Should authors reply to wrong-headed reviews?” See also.
Lynch and Au Revoir Simone: match for a future film?
Maximus Clarke (AKA Mr. Maud) saw David Lynch Upstairs at the Square last month. This belated report appears here and at his own site, Voltage. (Lauren Cerand of The Smart Set publicizes and helps mastermind these events, and MaudNewton.com friend Katherine Lanpher hosts them, but I can attest that Max’s fascination with all [...]
The Smart Set: Lauren Cerand’s weekly events
The Smart Set is a weekly feature, compiled by Lauren Cerand, that usually appears Mondays at 12:30pm 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 send details to lauren [at] maudnewton.com by the Thursday prior to publication, [...]
Who we are at the office
The Office has the realities of cubicle life covered, right? And after so many disappointing fictional treatments of the subject, the last thing we need is a debut novelist throwing his 375-page effort into the ring?
Well, I get where you’re coming from, but hold on a minute: Joshua Ferris’ Then We [...]
Cuba silences foreign journalists
Cuba has ordered correspondents for the Chicago Tribune, BBC, and El Universal to stop reporting from the island, leaving the Sun-Sentinel the sole U.S. newspaper with a Cuba bureau.
Inside the NYTBR
A New York Times Book Review editor revealed the publication’s secrets at Harvard last week. Gawker reports.
U.S. gets Britain’s Remainder
Praising Remainder, Rupert Thomson found “echoes of Beckett, Flann O’Brien too,” but also “a precision, a surreal logic and a sly wit” all author Tom McCarthy’s own. The book is just out here.
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