Here’s the perfect example of something you didn’t even know you wanted: Gary Oldman doing a dramatic reading from R. Kelly’s memoir, Soulacoaster: The Diary of Me. This performance will surely join the pantheon of great pop culture readings alongside Christopher Walken’s reading of Lady Gaga’s “Pokerface” and John Lithgow’s reading of Newt Gingrich’s “florid” and “overwritten” press release.
So Oldman, Walken, and Lithgow Walk Onto a Stage…
“In The Shadows”
The Daily Bruin is a running a stunning multimedia series about “the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in Malawi, a country that outlaws homosexuality and in which UCLA has a strong research presence.” Two recent UCLA graduates – Sonali Kohli and Blaine Ohigashi – spent 24 days interviewing LGBT Malawians, activists and researchers “about the healthcare and human rights challenges the community faces.” As with the 40 Towns project I’ve mentioned previously, the result of Kohli and Ohigashi’s reportage is a testament to the quality of student journalism.
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Ayobami Adebayo: Rising Star
Ayobami Adebayo is interviewed by Abigail Bereola for Hazlitt and it's fantastic. They discuss proverbs, romantic love, sickle cell anemia and writing your first book. "At the risk of sounding very narcissistic, I’m going to say I write for myself ultimately. And maybe my sister. I think that when I’m working, it’s very difficult for me to think about an audience, perhaps because sometimes it gets a bit overwhelming. I’m trying to figure out so many things that I really don’t start thinking about the idea that other people might read this thing until, 'Oh my God, it’s publication day' and I have a panic attack like 'Oh my God, what have I done?' I think the awareness of an audience is something I’m just coming into because this is a first book."
Like It or Love It?
Recommended Reading: A very long (and informative) piece on Tom Vanderbilt's new book, You May Also Like, and why people enjoy the things they do in the Age of the Internet.
Review of Sonya Chung’s Long for This World
Lisa Peet at Open Letters Monthly / Likefire blog on Millions contributor Sonya Chung's novel Long for This World: "When a novel, particularly a debut novel, is referred to as 'ambitious,' there’s usually an implicit 'but' present... Chung takes on the dynamics of family—what draws it together and what pulls it apart—through the eyes of a number of players, male and female, old and young, Korean and Korean-American. Both her subject matter and her approach are ambitious, to say the least. The only 'but' in my reaction, however, is but she pulls it off—and admirably." Read the full review.
Paying Hommage
There’s a new literary magazine on the digital shelves. The Neu Jorker is “an hommage d'triomphe” to a magazine with an eerily similar name.
Dedicated Fans of that Old Book Smell
The British Library paid £9m to buy a copy of St Cuthbert Gospel, the oldest intact European book in existence.
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Lydia Davis, in Short
The Village Voice offers a pretty good briefing on the charms of Lydia Davis, whose Collected Stories are out this week.