The new film adaptation of The Great Gatsby is going to be released next summer, rather than on Christmas day as it had been originally scheduled. Too bad; I was really looking forward to the Gatsby themed New Year’s Eve parties, I mean just look at those costumes.
Waiting for Gatsby.
Revealing the System
“You know, it’s dangerous to focus on one person as a way of talking about a big system. But I think Kissinger reveals the system. He’s not singularly responsible for the system—if we expunge Kissinger from history, we still wouldn’t have a Virtuous Republic—but he illuminates it like nobody else.” Greg Grandin discusses his recent release, Kissinger’s Shadow: The Long Reach of America’s Most Controversial Statesman, at The New Republic.
Hiding Under the Covers
The book cover is in decline, Tim Kreider writes. “It seems as if sixty-five per cent of all novels’ jackets feature an item of female apparel and/or part of the female anatomy and the name of some foodstuff in the title—the book-cover equivalent of the generic tough-guy-with-gun movie poster with title like ‘2 HARD & 2 FAST.'” We judge books by their covers, too.
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Amis Scoffs at Literary Prizes
Martin Amis told the Hay Festival in Wales that only unenjoyable books win prizes, but the Telegraph’s lede implies sour grapes.
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Measuring Hell
“Given his devotion to empirical fact, it seems odd to think that Galileo’s most important ideas might have their roots not in the real world, but in a fictional one.” Galileo’s crucial contributions to physics may have come from measuring the hell of Dante’s Inferno.
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The Masters Review Submissions are Open
Submissions have opened for The Masters Review. Ten short stories written by emerging writers will be published in their latest anthology. Amy Hempel will judge the submissions, and the winners will receive a total of $5,000.