July 19, 2012 Books Character Studies: Lady Brett Ashley By Stephanie LaCava “Damned good-looking” is how Ernest Hemingway—or, rather, his antihero Jake Barnes in The Sun Also Rises—describes Lady Brett Ashley when she appears at a Parisian club with a mob of pretty boys. “Damned good-looking” is better than pretty. It’s better than the colloquial “hot,” better than beautiful, even. Damned good-looking, it is. Imagine Hemingway, the great economist of words, deciding just how he would introduce perhaps his most enduring siren. Original drafts of the novel open with the character Ashley (better known as Brett), though she would eventually come to play a smaller role. Hemingway was bewitched, at the time of writing, by the self-possession of the real-life Lady Duff Twysden, and she—rather than his wife, Hadley—would serve as the partial inspiration for The Sun Also Rises’s heroine. (Indeed, he would dedicate later editions of the novel to her.) Read More
July 19, 2012 On the Shelf Erotic Classics, Christian Colleges, Dealbreakers By Sadie Stein Yup: e-books outsold hard copies in 2011. Out of the mouths of babes: a six-year-old judges classics by their covers. Speaking of classics: a British publisher adds sex scenes to them. Erotic rewrites include Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre. Written a great opener? Call the first graf hotline. The C. S. Lewis Foundation plans to open a college based on his Christian teachings. Dealbreaker books . [tweetbutton] [facebook_ilike]
July 18, 2012 Video & Multimedia Watch: The Mosaic Man of the East Village By Sadie Stein Chances are, anyone who has spent any time in Manhattan’s East Village is familiar with the work of Jim Power, aka “The Mosaic Man.” For the past three decades, Power has been on a single-handed quest to beautify an area which, when he started decorating lampposts with beautiful tile work, was far from salubrious. Despite twenty years of homelessness and the city’s destruction of some of his lampposts, Jim has remained undeterred and is a beloved fixture of the neighborhood. Etsy—with whom Power now has a shop—pays tribute with a video. Jim Power and the Mosaic Trail from Etsy on Vimeo. [tweetbutton] [facebook_ilike]
July 18, 2012 Video & Multimedia Watch: Interpublication Sexytimes By Noah Wunsch THE MAGAZINE MAGAZINES FANTASIZE ABOUT from The Paris Review on Vimeo. Story by Noah Wunsch Video by Carib Guerra & Noah Wunsch Special thanks to Eamon Kelly [tweetbutton] [facebook_ilike]
July 18, 2012 On the Shelf Drama, Tantrums, and Bird-Watching By Sadie Stein High drama at the Oxford American. What exactly is going on? A (very) strong month for booksellers.The beach-read effect? A list of writers who throw tantrums. The great Larry McMurtry book sale. An American Writers Museum? “But the thing that bugs me most about Jonathan Franzen is that he’s becoming the public face of bird-watching.” [tweetbutton] [facebook_ilike]
July 17, 2012 Bulletin This Saturday: Help St. Marks Books Relocate By The Paris Review Despite your best efforts, it looks as if our faithful friends at St. Mark’s Books will have to move. That’s the bad news. The good news—at least, if you care about keeping bookstores in lower Manhattan—is that they are trying to find a cheaper location in the East Village. Help them raise money for the move: join the “cash mob” at three o’clock this Saturday afternoon. The first five customers who spend $500 or more will receive a free one-year subscription to The Paris Review. [tweetbutton] [facebook_ilike]