The latest issue of the University of Toronto Magazine has an informative, if slightly hagiographical, tribute to the literary critic Northrop Frye. This year marks a century since his birth.
Northrop Frye… “a prodigy whose promise was entirely fulfilled.”
Frank O’Hara: 21st Century Poet?
In a piece for The Atlantic, Micah Mattix responds to the 50th Anniversary Edition of Lunch Poems with a reflection on the social media-esque quality of Frank O'Hara's poetry. "O'Hara's Lunch Poems—like Facebook posts or tweets—shares, saves, and re-creates the poet’s experience of the world. He addresses others in order to combat a sense of loneliness, sharing his gossipy, sometimes snarky take of modern life, his unfiltered enthusiasm, and his boredom in a direct, conversational tone. In short, Lunch Poems, while 50 years old, is a very 21st-century book."
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Tuesday New Release Day: Zambra; Close; Hatton; Rathbone
Out this week: Multiple Choice by Alejandro Zambra; The Hopefuls by Jennifer Close; Monterey Bay by Lindsay Hatton; and Losing It by Emma Rathbone. For more on these and other new titles, go read our Great Second-Half 2016 Book Preview.
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Tuesday New Release Day: Frangello; Theroux; Alameddine; Antopol; Minor; Schaffert
New this week: A Life in Men by Gina Frangello; Strange Bodies by Marcel Theroux; An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine; The UnAmericans by Molly Antopol; Praying Drunk by Kyle Minor; and The Swan Gondola by Timothy Schaffert.
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“Let a hundred languages contend and a hundred flowers will bloom.”
Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o's moving speech at The Sunday Times Literary Awards in which he speaks about the resilience of literature and the necessity of keeping less-popular languages alive is now available online. (Here's our handy guide to pronouncing the author's name, in case you were too embarrassed to ask.)
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The Trouble with Explainers, with Making Things Smaller
“There’s much to be commended in the work done by FiveThirtyEight, or even Vox,” writes Millions contributor Brian Ted Jones. “But making problems seem smaller then they are is a harm that outweighs all the good.” He goes on to tie together the rise of “explainer” sites, the problem with “hashtag activism,” and also references to Louis C.K., Teju Cole, and Leslie Jamison.
Gothic 101
Does your story have a ghost or monster? Does your heroine faint frequently? Then you might be in a Gothic novel. The Guardian has infographics on how tell if you're in a Gothic novel.
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Urban Homesteaders
Better late than never, here are eight great new books for Urban Homesteaders.
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