What Is Literature For? – A Symposium on Angus Fletcher’s “Wonderworks” (LARB): Three reviews of Wonderworks (two glowing, one scathing) and a reply by the author. Erik J. Larson: “All of this tech-talk injected into literature would seem superficial,…
sign read: “PERMANENTLY CLOSED.” The lock on the door was busted.
Two short, bittersweet scifi stories about people changing their journeys. “Personal Trainer” by Meg Elison has a new way to exercise and a new kind of hammock to relax in. “Wait Calculation” by Derrick Boden has political intrigue aboard a generation …
“I am here on business and my accountant’s a real wizard.”
Alexandra Erin (previously) posts short speculative fiction stories on her Patreon, including a one-sided conversation about dead people posting status updates on Facebook, a fairy tale about a healer’s price, a political horror story about scars that …
Three and/or Sixty-One Literary Bears
Patricia Lockwood (LRB, 08/12/2021), “Pull Off My Head”: “Is Bear one of those 1970s books about growing out your armpit hair? Kind of, but not only. Is it a metaphor for our relationship to nature? Fuck off.” Marlena Williams (LitHub, 10/23/2020), “Sy…
Get off my lawn
In which a guy decries Sally Rooney, praises Ottessa Moshfegh, ties himself into a knot about Philip Roth, dumps on Ben Lerner, and includes the names Toni Morrison, Raven Leilani, and Zadie Smith.
Read It and Weep
Margaret Atwood on the Intimidating, Haunting Intellect of Simone de Beauvoir and her untimely lost friend Zaza (NYT link). Beauvoir wrote this book [Inseparable] in 1954, five years after publishing The Second Sex, and made the mistake of showing it t…
“the alchemy of total opposites”
Soprano Jóna G. Kolbrúnardóttir sings Jóhann Jóhannsson’s “Odi et Amo” from the album Englabörn, accompanied by the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra. Usually when the piece is performed, the Latin poem by Catullus is sung by a computer and played off a tap…
“places where Real Life unfolded”
Anthony Veasna So explored what it was like to grow up as a queer son of Khmer refugees in Stockton, California. Last year he died suddenly at the age of 28, just after correcting the proofs of his debut story collection, Afterparties. Four of the nine…
Everyone Already Knows What Owl She’s Talking About
How Data Science Pinpointed the Creepiest Word in “Macbeth” (SL Medium) Actors and critics have long remarked that when you read Macbeth out loud, it feels like your voice and mouth and brain are doing something ever so slightly wrong. There’s somethin…
Ursula LeGuin, Jacqueline Jackson, and the Wooden Woman
A previously unpublished poem by Ursula LeGuin has just appeared on the web. You can learn much more about Jacqueline Dougan Jackson, children’s author and college professor, on her website. A few of the many previous posts on LeGuin: here, here, and h…