Contrasting takes on Peter Carey‘s Parrot & Olivier in America, from Open Letters Monthly and…er, The Onion.
Peter Carey Point-Counterpoint
Novel Reviews You
Maybe your novel got bad reviews, but at least you weren’t attacked for it. This is the story of Oleg Kashin, a reporter-turned-novelist who was beaten to within an inch of his life for his critiques of the Russian government.
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Digital Books for Kids
A literature-loving dad tries to make sense of the new frontier: Digital books for kids.
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How Many Spaces After A Period?
According to Slate: “Typing two spaces after a period is totally, completely, utterly, and inarguably wrong.”
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“Wounded Women”
“I am worried about the implications of throwing the label ‘women’s pain’ around individual experiences of suffering, and I am even more uncomfortable with women who feel free to speak for all women. I worry about making pain a ticket to gain entry into the women’s club. And I worry that the assumption of vulnerability threatens to invigorate just the sexist evils it aims to combat by demanding that men serve as shields against it.” In an essay for the Boston Review, Jessa Crispin shares her concerns about the “wounded women” trend in literature right now, citing Leslie Jamison‘s The Empathy Exams and Roxane Gay‘s Bad Feminist as well the Twitter campaign #yesallwomen as particular examples. Pair with Ryan Teitman‘s Millions review of The Empathy Exams.
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“Something like this has never been created before”
Steve Lee, the product lead heading Google’s Project Glass digital eyewear, explains the development process and his vision for the future. Suffice it to say that it’s a brave new world out there.
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The Illusion of Control
Recommended Reading: Maria Konnikova on “flow” and first-person shooters.
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Ur Doing It Rong
“Skipping or skimming parts of a narrative should not only be expected but encouraged, particularly if an author is writing without clarity or purpose or showing off. Life’s too short to slog through some smarty-pants attempt to demonstrate a mastery of mechanical engineering or botany.” Adam Kirsch and Anna Holmes face off for The New York Times Bookends column about whether there are right and wrong ways to read a book.