In today’s NY Times, former Simon & Schuster executive Joni Evans ruminates on the Darwinian transformation of publishing, from tactile and sensory (paper and fountain-pen stains and typewriter bells) to e-everything (bidding wars and clean desks); she herself picked flight over fight.
Survival of the Sleek in Publishing
“There is no other planet like Earth, […] so Superfund sites have to be super fun.”
We’ve entered the Anthropocene. It’s time to read up: David Biello provides a list of required reading and a thesis on the goal of literature in this new geologic age.
Twi-Hard
At The Daily Beast, a bounty of Twilight-iana, including an interview with New Moon director Chris Weitz (aka the man who ruined The Golden Compass) and pictures of Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson et al before Twilight.
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The Best Comics of 2013
Want to get rid of some of that holiday money? Timothy Callahan’s list of The Best Comics of 2013 is a good place to start.
Public Solitude
“You can’t be worrying how you sound. You can’t wonder whether you or your characters are likable or smart or interesting. You have to be inside the scene—the tactile world of tables and chairs and sunlight—attending to your characters, people who exist for you in nonvirtual reality.” Paris Review editor Lorin Stein writes for The New York Times about solitude in the age of the Internet and the future of the book.
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You Can Watch 24 If You Don’t Sleep At All
Attention Cinephiles: You can watch Hulu’s Criterion Collection films for free all weekend long.
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Read Russia 2012
Read Russia 2012 aims to celebrate contemporary Russian literature and book culture, and they’ve scheduled a bunch of events in the NYC area to coincide with next week’s BEA. You should certainly check them out, as well as NYRB Classics’ ongoing coverage of their own Russian literature highlights. (You can get even more information over here, too.)
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