Artifact casts doubt on Christian God’s homophobia
Joshua Glenn and Rob Walker created the Significant Objects project earlier this year to prove the theory that a writer could invest an otherwise worthless object with value by making up a story about it.
That’s my object, above, and you can find out its (invented) provenance at the [...]
Erik Maza on new(ly translated) Bolaño
“The Skating Rink is beginner’s Roberto Bolaño: there are no six-page sentences … or jeremiads against Octavio Paz.”
The Habit of Art
“An author is sometimes surprised by what he or she has written.” The great Alan Bennett on his new play about W.H. Auden.
Moroccan censorship
Cartoon controversy: for two days last week, Morocco blocked distribution of French daily Le Monde. (Via.)
U.S. dialects preserved
The Center for Applied Linguistics houses 118 hours of recordings documenting North American English dialects. (Via.)
Empanelled! Also, questions and more questions.
I guess my cardigan and the cat hair I couldn’t lint-roll off of it must’ve screamed “truly, I have renounced every aspect of being an attorney,” but, in light of my background, I was surprised to be selected for a civil jury today.
Evidently the trial is an expedited, one-day affair. I’ll be at [...]
Inside NYRB Classics
“Finding something lost gives us a sense of new possibility.” A talk with Edwin Frank of NYRB Classics, on restoring books to print.
If I were Eve, I would have done the same damn thing
Blame R. Crumb for this rash of Bible posts. His new illustrated Genesis has reanimated the characters in my mind and led me back to all the “moral lessons” I puzzled over as a child.
For instance: Yes, Eve disobeyed God, but His rule was condescending, and His punishments [...]
Focus: Cairo
A portfolio in the ninth issue of A Public Space focuses on the next generation of Egyptian writers. (Via.)
Byatt appearance
A.S. Byatt reads from her latest novel, The Children’s Book, at the 92Y this Thursday.
Dear Mrs. Wharton
“I applaud, I mean I value, I egg you on in, your study.” On this day in 1900, Henry James wrote his first letter to Edith Wharton.
Memoir in reviewing, difficult women, and 30 years of the London Review of Books
“I sometimes find it difficult to get on with people who use sentences badly.” LRB editor Mary-Kate Wilmers, profiled. (Via.)
Pamuk-Nabokov podcast
Orhan Pamuk reads Nabokov’s “My Russian Education,” from Speak, Memory. (Via.)
A stick to beat writers with
The transformation of “historical fiction” into a pejorative term signals a misunderstanding of history and contempt for its uses, says Hilary Mantel.
Inside the lunatic asylum
Christopher Payne’s Asylum, a photographic history of state mental hospitals, depicts soaring ceilings, and rows of toothbrushes left hanging. (See also.)
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