August 16, 2013 On the Shelf Jumping for Joyce, and Other News By Sadie Stein Gerald Mynott, “Towards the New World, Dublin Harbour” via Francis Kyle Gallery Sci-fi or fantasy fan? Hie on over to Tor.com, where the site is celebrating its fifth birthday by giving away a free anthology. A class at the University of Utah will examine the Book of Mormon as literature. The actual book, not the musical. The Francis Kyle Gallery is mounting a show titled “Jumping for Joyce: Contemporary Painters Revel in the World of James Joyce.” We would have gone with “Joyce Division,” but carry on. A new study says journalism students are consuming virtually no print journalism. Meanwhile, Penn Jillette is characteristically defiant about his abandonment of print: “I always read electronic. I won’t touch paper any more even if water damage costs me a few devices.”
August 15, 2013 On the Shelf Kafkaesque Toilet Paper, and Other News By Sadie Stein Kafka cameos in a Charmin toilet paper commercial; one of those incontinent bears is a fan, apparently. “But if the sort of world that I am afraid of arrives, a world of two or three great superstates which are unable to conquer one another, two and two could become five if the Führer wished it. That, so far as I can see, is the direction in which we are actually moving, though, of course, the process is reversible.” In a 1944 letter, George Orwell explains his reasons for writing 1984. The literally question is, in fact, more complicated than it seems; its misuse (this is known as a contronym) has been going on for centuries. Pioneering Swedish crime writer Maj Sjöwall says contemporary Scandinavian thrillers are are “not about police work and crime, but very much about love and relationships—like girls’ books.”
August 14, 2013 On the Shelf Ron Burgundy Is Writing a Memoir, and Other News By Sadie Stein In the immortal words of David Cross, “When you misuse the word literally, you are using it in the exact opposite way it was intended.” He must be dismayed at the growing usage of its “informal” meaning. Is comedic literature making a comeback? Random House’s Crown Archetype imprint certainly hopes so: they’re releasing Let Me Off at the Top! My Classy Life and Other Musings, a memoir by anchorman Ron Burgundy. A ton of unpublished romances by the remarkably prolific Barbara Cartland will be published posthumously. Bucking trends, Enigma Books—specializing in science fiction, fantasy, and mystery—is opening in Queens.
August 13, 2013 On the Shelf Secret Erotica, Jane Austen, and Other News By Sadie Stein Photo Credit Sean Malone A tribute to the Blackwing 602, the favored pencil of many a writer, including Nabokov. The saga of the Jane Austen ring continues! Now, an anonymous donor has given £100,000 to prevent Kelly Clarkson from spiriting the gold and topaz bauble off to America. “All had a little twinkle in their eye that suggested a colorful, lively imagination!” The secret lives of erotica writers. The British Library’s Wi-Fi blocks Hamlet on grounds of “violent content,” fixes it.
August 12, 2013 On the Shelf Flannery O’Connor’s Peacocks, and Other News By Sadie Stein Anonymouth is a computer program designed to strip text of stylistic markers and, in the words of The New Republic, “turn famous writers into anonymous hacks,” should this be your desire. Meanwhile, libraries are increasingly dependent on computer games to keep the kids coming. Salman Rushdie: “Thomas Pynchon looks exactly like Thomas Pynchon should look … He is tall, he wears lumberjack shirts, and blue jeans. He has Albert Einstein white hair and Bugs Bunny front teeth.” Since 2009, there have been three replacement peacocks at Andalusia (sadly, not actually descended from Flannery O’Connor’s flock): Manley Pointer, Joy/Hulga (who appears to have two working legs), and Mary Grace. The New York Times visits the Chekhov Museum, a testament to dedication.
August 9, 2013 On the Shelf Wretched Writing, and Other News By Sadie Stein “I draw a hot sorrow bath in my despair room.” This quote, by Keanu Reeves, is part of an anthology called Wretched Writing. Herewith, the Kill Your Darlings trailer, featuring Daniel Radcliffe as Allen Ginsberg. Meet idiosyncratic Houston-area used bookstore Good Books in the Woods. A beautiful missed connection electrifies the Internet; the author is revealed.