Admit it: you never finished Finnegans Wake, did you?
Unread Classics
Best Screams
Peruse the complete ballots for Leroy Stevens’ “Favorite Recorded Scream” project. “Won’t Get Fooled Again?” Oh, yes, it’s in there.
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March
“When I was 16 years old, some of my brothers and sisters and cousins [were] going down to the public library trying to get public library cards, and we were told the library was for whites only, not for coloreds. To come here and receive this award this honor is too much. Thank you.” Representative John Lewis upon receiving the National Book Award for volume three of his graphic memoir March, which documents Lewis’s role in the civil rights movement.
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Hedges’ The Heights
Peter Hedges, author of the novel and screenplay for What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?, as well as Dan in Real Life, and Pieces of April, is set to adapt and direct his latest novel, The Heights. Set in Brooklyn Heights amid its wealthy, over-zealous, stay-at-home mommy set, the novel follows a happy, slightly down-at-the-heel couple as their marriage is tested by the arrival of another woman. (All of the wit of Tom Perrotta’s Little Children, but not quite so dark and cynical.)
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Writing Sarcastically
Sarcasm makes the Internet go round. No, seriously, it basically does, and over at The Toast a linguist examines some of the strategies writers have developed, or are trying to develop, to communicate that sarcasm through writing, without the benefit of an eye-roll and a different tone of voice.
Everything I Despise
Can you tell the difference between complaints by Jonathan Franzen and YouTube comments about the evils of saggy pants?
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“It is the last hour of the city watch.”
In an act of grand generosity, Ilya Bernstein has made his translation of Osip Mandelstam’s poetry available for free via Google Books. (h/t Keith Gessen)
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How Can You Support The Millions?
Enjoying this year’s Year in Reading series? Learn about five easy (even free) ways you can support The Millions this holiday season and make special features like the Year in Reading possible.
I remember several years ago when the Modern Library named “Ulysses” the greatest novel of the 20th Century, several commentators wrote indignant responses which seemed to say indirectly “If it’s so great, how come I’VE never read it.” I tend to suspect a similar motive when I see headlines like this.
Finished it? Heck, I’ve never even started it.
Yep, never even dared to start it.