It turns out Martin Amis wasn’t the only literary gamer. Check out this 1980 Intellivision advertisement in which George Plimpton uses his iconic voice to slam Atari’s lineup of sports games — a full two years before Amis’ book released.
Plimpton Really Would Try Anything
Hedging Against Future Risk
Recommended Reading: This excerpt from Nathaniel Rich’s Odds Against Tomorrow.
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“Where flash becomes word and silents selfloud.”
Are you still not following Pentametron, even after I urged you to do so last week? (And even after New York Magazine added it to its Approval Matrix?) Well, if that’s the case, I shouldn’t even share Earwickr with you. You don’t deserve to read Finnegans Wake spelled out on your Twitter timeline, 140 characters at a time. (Bonus: Michael Chabon reviews James Joyce’s final work for The New York Review of Books.)
Reading Dickens in Lagos
George Packer at Lapham’s Quarterly writes of meeting a young Burmese reader of Charles Dickens: “‘All of those characters are me,’ [he] explained. ‘Neither a British nor American young man living in the twenty-first century can understand a Dickens as well as I can…I am more equipped to understand Dickens than modern novels. I don’t know what is air conditioning, what is subway, what is fingerprint exam.’” (via Book Bench)
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Publishing’s Payout
Publishing is a business in which some authors make seven to eight figures, some executives make six figures, most editors make five figures, and most interns make nothing.
Dead Ends
Recommended Reading: Enrique Vila-Matas on rock ‘n’ roll, anti-artists, and the central motor of his work.
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“Only two people?”
In 1862, Fyodor Dostoevsky met Charles Dickens… Or did he? In a thoroughly researched piece for the Times Literary Supplement, Eric Naiman tells the thrilling story of how one – or two? or several? – hoaxers managed to dupe biographers, New York Times reviewers, London Review of Books editors as well as readers of numerous scholarly publications. Long story short: be wary of ostentatious “nipple” references.
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And then there’s Plimpton’s video falconry, which you can play (and learn about) here:
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/571422
Ah, of course. And don’t forget the George Plimpton Hotplate. It’s perfect for soup!
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lgw5whN1Uo1qgllp5o1_500.png
Hilarious, but also bittersweet. This is the era when you had artists and intellectuals on the Tonight Show, right there with Sonny and Cher or Charo. Can’t really think of anyone today with Plimpton’s calibre who has that kind of household name status.
It seems the only late night cable shows in the US to regularly bring on writers and intellectuals are The Colbert Report and The Daily Show. I would love for something like the UK’s QI with Stephen Fry to catch on in the States, but that’s a dream.
I’d probably laugh out of my chair if I ever saw Franzen endorse an XBox, too.