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 First Person Confessions of an Accidental Book-Burner By Michele Filgate My name is Michele Filgate, and I am a book burner. The first thing you need to understand: I love books. I’m the kind of girl who volunteered at the local independent bookstore when I was in middle school, just so I could get the staff discount. I come by this honestly; my grandmother was fired from her first job because she was caught reading behind the clothing racks. While some girls spent hours playing house and naming their dolls, I whiled away entire play dates alphabetizing my personal library with my best friend. Nowadays, I’m a fan of marginalia—but I cringe at the idea of even dog-earing a page. In 2007, I was young and naive and penniless. My first job out of college was one of those typical sixty-to-seventy-hour-a-week gigs that so many new-to-New York dreamers end up in. Specifically, I was a production secretary, and later a broadcast associate, at the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric. Read More
August 14, 2013 Weird Book Room Catflexing: The Catlover’s Guide to Weight Training Aerobics and Stretching By Sadie Stein Selected from AbeBooks’ Weird Book Room.
August 14, 2013 Arts & Culture The Surreal Life By Tobias Carroll A young woman from an affluent family finds herself dreading her formal entrance into high society. An affable hyena offers to take her place; the young woman acquiesces, but the hyena demands a face to wear in place of her own. A maid enters, and the hyena murders her. The debutante doesn’t object; she merely asks that the killing be done quickly. Later, the debutante learns of what transpired at dinner: the hyena’s masquerade persisted until she took umbrage to the cake being served. She stood, tore off her false face, and escaped through a window. All of this takes place in Leonora Carrington’s short story “The Debutante.” The motifs it contains recur throughout her fiction: an occasionally amoral protagonist; animals that speak and attract no alarm while doing so; and a satirical jab at certain institutions—here, the wealthy. Carrington is best known for her surrealist paintings and sculptures, but her idiosyncratic literary legacy is equally deserving of attention. Carrington’s best-known work of prose, the novel The Hearing Trumpet, begins on a note of gentle absurdity and gradually becomes truly bizarre. Marian Leatherby, the novel’s protagonist, is an elderly woman living with her son and daughter-in-law. Using the titular device, she learns that they plan to place her in a home; after she arrives there, her narration gives way to a low-grade conspiracy narrative. Marian discovers evidence of mysterious gatherings, disappearances, and hints of the supernatural. Ultimately, all this leads to a total reordering of the terrestrial order: a world “transformed by the snow and ice.” Marian anticipates the day when “the planet is peopled with cats, werewolves, bees, and goats. We all fervently hope that this will be an improvement on humanity …” Read More
August 14, 2013 Bulletin Rowan Ricardo Phillips Wins 2013 Osterweil Award By Sadie Stein Photo by Sue Kwon. Many congratulations go out to our frequent contributor and sometimes outfielder Rowan Ricardo Phillips, whose book The Ground has just won the 2013 PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry. The Osterweil “recognizes the high literary character of the published work to date of a new and emerging American poet of any age and the promise of further literary achievement.” Judges cited his work’s “vivid images and rhythms, its fully present, personal voice, its lightning-bolt sincerity.” We heartily concur.
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.