Gavin Aung Than took Walt Whitman’s poem “When I heard the Learn’d Astronomer” and adapted it into illustrated comic book panels. This is the second time Than has illustrated the poet’s work.
Illustrated Whitman
Don’t Assume
“I asked myself – why don’t I state the race of my characters? And am I doing something wrong by not explicitly including a diverse cast of characters? Could I be doing something better? The short answer is yes.” An argument in favor of race bent fanfiction and resisting assumedly white characters from The Missouri Review blog.
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Jim Crace’s Last Novel
Author Jim Crace reflects on his final book in Abu Dhabi’s The National: “The thing is, I’ve written an appalling amount of books. … The writing life doesn’t last forever. I am fit and well, and there are plenty of other things to do that I’m excited about, which are incompatible with spending most of my life shut up in a room. So that’s what I’m going to do, write a final book, and that will be it.”
To the Edge of Sanity
Edmund Wilson famously said of the works of H.P. Lovecraft that “the only real horror in most of these fictions is the horror of bad taste and bad art.” In time, however, Lovecraft developed a substantial following, which raises the question of what attracted readers to his work. The answer? “The weird realism that runs through his writings undermines any belief system – religious or humanist – in which the human mind is the centre of the universe.” Related: Ben Dooley on the scariness of House of Leaves.
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A Longtime Pen Pal Meets Emily Dickinson
Thomas Wentworth Higginson was pen pals with poet Emily Dickinson for eight years before the two finally met face-to-face.
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Two Degrees of Fame
The copy of Shakespeare’s works disguised as a Hindu religious text and read by imprisoned Nelson Mandela will go on display for this first time later this summer.
Calvin’s Snow Sculptures: Animated
Some of the most enduring images from Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes series are Calvin’s disturbing snow sculptures. Apparently, Jim Frommeyer and Teague Chrystie agree, and so they crafted this lovely video tribute just in time for the holidays. (via)
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