Vanity Fair remembers Christopher Hitchens, a favorite of ours who was always fun to root for, and who, as you’ve no doubt heard by now, died last night. Andrew Sullivan remembers an email exchange from happier times. Hitchens’ ebook from this year, The Enemy, is in our Hall of Fame, and we reviewed his memoir, Hitch-22, last year.
We’ll Miss Hitch
Dem O’s
Recommended Reading: Laura Bogart on growing up in Baltimore.
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‘Dislike’ Button Forthcoming
Writing for The Wall Street Journal, Neil Strauss warns readers about the "insidious evils of 'like' culture." Was he in the audience for Jonathan Franzen's May 21 commencement speech at Kenyon College?
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No, I Will Speak
"How had no one ever told me about (Othello's) Emilia, who, in only a couple of lines, brings down one of the most conniving, merciless villains in all of Western literature? How had no one told me about this fantastic female character who defies not one but two sword-wielding men in order to make sure Desdemona, her mistress and friend, receives justice? I wanted to rip up my diploma. I wanted to start over as a freshman and devote my entire undergraduate career to the Gospel of Emilia." On Othello's Emilia and her refusal to be silenced.
Keep It to Yourself
Recommended Reading: Against book lending and borrowing.
In Response to Rejections
At the Electric Literature blog, Judson Merrill responds to his many rejection letters: “If you were that excited about my submission, I’m concerned you may have read it with unfair expectations... I’ve reattached my submission under the new title ‘Eight Pages of Tripe’...”
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Vasily Aksyonov, Giant of Russian Literature, Dies at 76
It would be a shame if the death of the Russian novelist Vasily Aksyonov yesterday got lost in the welter of cultural losses that surrounds it. Aksyonov is one of the towering literary figures of the postwar era - one who might have been more widely recognized as such were it not for the strictures of Soviet publishing culture. In his novels The Burn, The New Sweet Style, and especially Generations of Winter (which we have championed at this site), Aksyonov synthesized the Tolstoyan legacy of the 19th Century with the innovating impulses of the revolutionary generation. In making Russian literary tradition his own, and re-opening its dialogue with the rest of world literature, he pointed the way for the novelists who would succeed him. I can think of no more fitting way to honor him than to read him.
Does this mean Will Ferrell will play Steve Eisman?
The man who directed such Will Ferrell vehicles as Anchorman, Talladega Nights, and Step Brothers is turning toward the world of finance for his next movie project. That’s right. Adam McKay is adapting Michael Lewis’s The Big Short for the big screen.
New York City on Fire
The trailer for City on Fire, Garth Risk Hallberg’s highly anticipated 944-page debut novel, is finally here. The trailer features a new song by Paul Maroon and Year in Reading alumnus Hamilton Leithauser. Also check out the opening paragraph of the novel.
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