I’m in the minority, I gather, but my favorite of Henry James’ novellas is probably The Aspern Papers, what with all the narrator’s scheming, the old woman’s secrecy, and the delicious melodrama of the finale. (The book centers on a biographer who’s determined to uncover a dead poet’s rumored love letters.) So I got a kick out of this passage . . .
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 Significant Objects site. A preview: This astonishing “Cracker Barrel” artifact appears . . .
“The Skating Rink is beginner’s Roberto Bolaño: there are no six-page sentences … or jeremiads against Octavio Paz.”
“An author is sometimes surprised by what he or she has written.” The great Alan Bennett on his new play about W.H. Auden.
Cartoon controversy: for two days last week, Morocco blocked distribution of French daily Le Monde. (Via.)