That dictionary sitting on your bookshelf has a more scandalous past than you might think.
“The Scopes Monkey Trial of American literary culture”
Meet the Millions.
If you’re in NYC this coming Sunday, come out to KGB Bar and meet some Millionaires Millions staffers. Emily St. John Mandel, Michael Bourne, Garth Risk Halberg, and Sonya Chung will all be reading. Our editor in chief, C. Max Magee, and other friends and staffers will be there too, so if you’re able why not come out and put faces to names, say hi, have a drink, and help us make a little merriment.
Primary Colors for the Age of Obama
Anonymous strikes again: On January 25th, the entity that brought us 1996’s deliciously scandalous Primary Colors: A Novel of Politics, offers a roman à clef for the Obama age: O: A Presidential Novel. Then it was Joe Klein, but this Anon. is still Anon. Perhaps better than the insider gossip: The media-fueled whodunit the novel’s sure to inspire.
The Greatest Show on Earth
“On January 14, 2017, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus—America’s oldest and best circus, America’s last true touring circus—announced that it was closing, and six days later the country mourned, with an exit parade, a grand-finale funeral: the inauguration of Donald J. Trump.” Year-in-Reading alum Joshua Cohen, whose Book of Numbers spent seven months on our top-10 list back in 2015, and whose new novel Moving Kings made our most-anticipated list for the latter half of this year, reflects on the end of an era for The Point.
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Fate and Fiction
Recommended reading: Catherine Lacey writes for Granta about “The Question of Fate” and fiction writing.
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Writin’ State o’ Mind
“I try to edit my work in different states of mind. So I’ll go running on a really hot day and then read the 2,000 words I just wrote. Or if I’m upset, or really sleepy, or if I’m drunk, I’ll read this stuff. If you’re sleepy and you find yourself skipping over a paragraph because you’re bored by it and just want to get to the interesting part, it comes out. Those different states of mind are a really interesting filter.” Writing advice from Sebastian Junger.
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On Better Halves (or Twentieths)
Wondering what it’s like to have twenty different personalities? Kim Noble can tell you — she’s published a memoir on the topic.
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Murakami on 1Q84
A blogger translates a long Murakami interview about 1Q84 (scroll down for parts I, II, and III). (via)
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