On the occasion of the publication of his novel The Madonnas of Echo Park, Brando Skyhorse writes about the decades-long path that got him there and the rules for writing that he devised. (Thanks, Steve)
The Long Road
Decenter and Frisk
According to Gilles Deleuze, “the lives of philosophers are rarely interesting.” This may have come as a surprise to Jacques Derrida, who once spent a couple days in jail after cops in the Prague airport tried to frame him for smuggling weed. (This incident gets ample coverage in a new biography of the scholar).
Straight to the Moon
Looking for something to watch this weekend? Might I recommend Moon (2009), starring Sam Rockwell? It’s available for free on YouTube.
Tuesday New Release Day: Fuentes, Lee, Klaussmann, Netzer, Toutonghi
New this week is Carlos Fuentes’ vampire tale set in Mexico City, Vlad. Also out are The Collective by Don Lee, Tigers in Red Weather by Liza Klaussmann, Shine Shine Shine by Lydia Netzer, and Evel Knievel Days by Pauls Toutonghi, who last year introduced us to six Egyptian writers as the world watched the Egyptian revolution.
R.I.P. Denis Dutton, Founder of A&L Daily
Denis Dutton, founding editor of the esteemed web digest Arts & Letters Daily, passed away today at age 66 after a battle with prostate cancer. We echo the sentiments of Three Quarks Daily that Dutton’s site “set the gold standard that we have aspired to match in our own curating of slightly different intellectual content on the web.”