Though Franzen would surely argue (in great excess of 140 characters) to the contrary, the excellent introductory essay from the latest issue of N+1 lauds Twitter for “the very last thing to have been expected from the internet: a renovation of the epigram or aphorism, a revaluation of the literary virtues of terseness and impersonality.”
Salon Culture 2.0
Multiple Personas
If all you associate Ingmar Bergman with is moody chess games and dead doves, it’s time to add “novelist” to the list.
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Mrs. Dalloway’s Privacy
Joshua Rothman writes for The New Yorker about Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway, privacy and “a gift that you’ve been given, which you must hold onto and treasure but never open.”
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Love Letters to Walt Whitman
Maria Popova over at Brain Pickings recounts the enduring epistolary friendship—one that often bordered on infatuation—between Anne Gilchrist and Walt Whitman.
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Now Those Are Some Good Ribs
The By the Book series at the Times has produced some pretty great entries, but we have a feeling that Colson Whitehead may go down as its best interviewee. Why do we say this? Well, it might have something to do with his weeping fit in a Chelsea Dallas BBQ, prompted by an early scene in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.
Wells Tower on Mitt “Tin Man” Romney
Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned author Wells Tower hit the campaign trail with presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney, and his lengthy piece entitled “Desperately Seeking Mitt” is sure to ruffle some red-colored feathers.
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“You have always been a dark labyrinth”
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