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Coetzee fiction incoming

In J.M. Coetzee’s forthcoming novel, Diary of a Bad Year, an aging writer contributes to a volume called Strong Opinions. (Via.)

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Jonathan Lethem on cribbing

Lethem’s “The Esctasy of Influence” examines the collision between intellectual property law and the “plundered, fragmentary state” of literature (and culture generally).

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Primo Primo Levi

“This star was very big and very hot, and its weight was enormous: and here a reporter’s difficulties begin.” — from the title story of Primo Levi’s A Tranquil Star.

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Too pat?

Inside Randa Jarrar’s MFA workshop: “Chopin’s ‘The Story of an Hour’ was ‘cheesy.’ Borges and Poe tied some of their stories up too ‘neatly.’ Maupassant’s twists were ‘pat.’”

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