“‘A good projectionist should be invisible,’ he says, his small rectangular glasses steadied on his forehead. ‘No one should be able to tell you’re in the booth changing the reels.’” A look at the hidden process of reel-to-reel cinema.
Reel Art
Not the Worst Thing
Step one: go read A. Igoni Barrett’s bravura confessional for The Millions. Step two: go check out this excerpt from his upcoming book in Guernica.
Book & Beer
To kick off German Literature Month, Melville House's marketing manager picked the best beers to drink as you read Heinrich Böll. Now Dogfish Head's brewmaster Sam Calagione has paired beers with a few other literary classics.
●
●
Enigmatic, Disturbing Sirens
Marina Warner reviews the "enigmatic and brief" and somewhat disturbing “The Professor and the Siren” for The Paris Review. As luck would have it, our own Sonya Chung reviewed the same story for The Millions.
Fame: A P&L
$500,000 annual home improvements? $125,000 allotted for annual "domestic salaries and expenses?" A $95,000 tutor for Gwyneth Paltrow's 5-year old? New York Magazine's "Celebrity Economy" package is as thorough and informative as it is revolting.
Memories of Home
For NPR, Joyce Carol Oates talks about her childhood home and how it’s influenced her as a person and a writer. Pair with Brittani Sonnenberg’s Millions essay on finding a home as a writer.
●
●
Kindred
The new novel by Colm Tóibín draws largely from the author’s memories of his father passing away when he was young. In a Guardian essay, the author writes about his discovery that literature can be a vessel for grief, with a nod to the writer and Dublin mainstay Mary Lavin. If you’d like to learn more about Tóibín's fiction, you can read our pieces on his books.
●
●
Envying Men
What's the one thing that Rivka Galchen envies about men? Well, "the envious thought was simply that a man can have a baby that his romantic partner doesn’t know about. This is a crazy thought, of course, but I find myself feeling it with such sincerity that I cannot see its edges."