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
Tuesday New Release Day: Pamuk; Murray; Houellebecq; Smiley; Cantor; Shonkwiler; Vowell
Out this week: A Strangeness in My Mind by Orhan Pamuk; The Mark and the Void by Paul Murray (whom our own Mark O'Connell interviewed today); Submission by Michel Houellebecq; Golden Age by Jane Smiley; The Hours Count by Jillian Cantor; Moon Up, Past Full by Eric Shonkwiler; and Lafayette in the Somewhat United States by Sarah Vowell. For more on these and other new titles, go read our Great Second-Half 2015 Book Preview.
Not the First Ebenezer
Our own Kevin Hartnett has an interesting theory as to how Charles Dickens came up with the idea for A Christmas Carol. At The Boston Globe, he looks at the evidence that Dickens got inspiration from the amateur writings of millworkers in Massachusetts.
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Amanda Hocking Gets the Times Magazine Treatment
Amanda Hocking, 26-year-old self-publishing wunderkind, earns a New York Times Magazine profile describing her road to a $2 million deal with St. Martins for rights to her ten novels including My Blood Approves and Hollowland.
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On the Hill
In Garden & Gun, sometime Millions contributors Wells Tower and Nic Brown pen an appreciation of Chapel Hill, NC.
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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.