The text of Salman Rushdie’s PEN World Voices lecture on liberty and censorship has been published on the New Yorker‘s website.
Liberty is the air we breathe
An Illusion To Think So
"We always try to create the worst opinion of everything there is in the United States, as a response to what they have always done with us. The only difference is that we do not write falsehoods about the United States. I told you that we emphasize the worst things, that we omit things that could be viewed as positive, but we do not invent any lies." This excerpted interview with Fidel Castro over at The Paris Review is enlightening for its candor and frankness.
Street Cred
Recommended Reading: Jody Rosen on Ashley and JaQuavis Coleman.
An Animated Crime and Punishment
Recommended viewing: Open Culture has tracked down two animated adaptations of Dostoevksy's work. There's one of his short story "The Dream of a Ridiculous Man" "in full-on existentialist mode," and slightly more ambitious (though dramatically abridged) short film of Crime and Punishment.
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The Case of the Selfless Detective
In one among several lost Nancy Drew books, the girl detective asks herself "why she feels compelled to spend all her time and energy solving other people’s problems.”
Scrabble For Cheaters
Next Saturday I will be competing (fiercely, one hopes) in Scrabble For Cheaters, a charity tournament to benefit 826CHI, Chicago's chapter of the national creative writing organization (founded by Dave Eggers) that provides free tutoring, field trips, writing workshops and the like to over 4,000 Chicago students a year. To support their work, and augment my ability to cheat during the tournament, click here and scroll down to my team - The Dillon Panthers. Thanks!