Recommended Reading: Anna Wiener on Speedboat by Renata Adler. Adler’s book, which David Shields recommended on our site two years ago, will be reissued by NYRB Classics in March, 2013.
“It was as though the novel had outstretched arms and I fell in.”
Outkube
The Onion‘s tired of incendiary comments left by trolls reading their articles. (Who isn’t?) So the publication has created Outkube, a “decoy website” rife with troll-bait. It’s hysterical. Elsewhere, they’ve started curating a list of people who just don’t get the joke.
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On Pronouns and Ownership
Dr. Dennis Ryan Storoshenko is conducting research for a Yale Linguistics project, looking to ask people about theirselves and their pronouns. Take a minute of your time to help him out.
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We Do Not Know Her Real Name
Today in 1773, 20-year-old Phillis Wheatley became the first published African-American author of a book of poetry. Pair with our own Ed Simon‘s case for the candidacy of her work as national epic.
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And You Thought Literary Magazines Had It Rough
Trouble might lie ahead for Skymall. Rohin Dhar makes the case in The Atlantic that everybody’s favorite in-flight magazine might’ve just merged with a dubious “nutraceuticals” company in need of SEC scrutiny.
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Accounting For Taste
Accounting for taste: a Cambridge University psychologist has concluded that people’s aesthetic tastes can be broken down into five “entertainment-preference dimensions.” (via Book Bench)
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Charles Yu on Rejecting the Grand Narrative
Yu reflects on the rise in anti-Asian harassment and violence, and how storytelling can resist the dehumanization that stems from erasure.
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The Book Prisons Fear
The New York Times dives into why prisons fear the New Jim Crow certain states have gone to great efforts to allow their prisons to ban it and in other states it’s fairly difficult to obtain if you’re a prisoner. We’re big fans of the New Jim Crow here; it was a Millions staff pick and extremely popular on Year in Reading lists back in 2013.