Last Friday, the writer Emily Rapp’s three-year-old son Ronan passed away from Tay-Sachs disease. Because Emily is part of the greater Rumpus family, the site is honoring Ronan’s memory by publishing a tribute by her friend Jennifer Pastiloff. They’re also encouraging people to help fight Tay-Sachs disease here.
Remembering Ronan
Genre: A Map
This week in book-related internet graphics: Penguin has created an interactive map of literary genres, complete with some very creatively shaped "countries". As Electric Literature points out, "the fact that the map is aimed at current self-publishing authors explains why YA is it’s own continent while genres like Gothic fiction don’t exist."
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Unofficial
For Perry Link, it was embarrassing to read Eileen Chang for the first time, because her work revealed things about China it took him too long to learn on his own. In The New York Review of Books, he writes about how Naked Earth, which the magazine's publishing arm is republishing in June, cut through the jargon of Chairman Mao’s regime. FYI, Jamie Fisher wrote an essay on the book for The Millions.
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What Does The Shining Mean?
Mark Jacobson wades through the history and fan theories concerning Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining in an effort to uncover the film’s true meaning. For what it’s worth, this explanation of the flick has always hurt my head the most.
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sail I said sail I will Sail
In an opinion piece for the Irish Times, Julian Gough asserts that the Irish Naval Service’s decision to name two ships after famous writers is a problem because “the State hasn’t yet earned the right to be associated with Beckett and Joyce.”
I Feel a Pang
"There was a plan a few years ago, during the crisis of unaccompanied minors arriving on our southern border, to send a copy of The Beast, Óscar Martínez’s extraordinary account of Central American migration to the U.S., to every member of Congress. How many of them read it? And how many of those who read it changed their position? Did any anti-immigrant populist show an ounce of humanity or generosity as a result?" Daniel Alarcón, author of At Night We Walk In Circles, on recommending a book to the president.
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Harper Lee’s Sister Tells Some Stories
Harper Lee's sister, Alice Finch Lee, gives some insights about the reclusive To Kill a Mockingbird author's life. Apparently Lee's as big a fan of the presidents as our own Janet Potter.
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