“There is something ersatz, if not quite fraudulent, about [Alain] de Botton’s entire intellectual enterprise.” At The Los Angeles Review of Books, Lisa Levy throws down the gauntlet.
The School of Life
J.G. Ballard Geocoded
The comprehensive list of locations in J.G. Ballard's fiction has been geocoded. Click on a location to view the relevant text, such as Memories of the Space Age in Vancouver or Rushing to Paradise in Malawi.
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Like Teacher
In The Guardian, Year in Reading alum Joshua Ferris writes a tribute to the novelist Jim Shepard, who taught him at UC Irvine when Ferris was a student there in the early aughts. Ferris makes a case that Shepard single-handedly settles a modern debate: “A lot of critics dislike the professionalisation of creative writing. They have never had Shepard in a workshop.”
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Reading by Halves
Over at Electric Literature, Lincoln Michel wonders "What's Wrong with Only Reading Half a Book?" Pair with our own Sonya Chung's essay on her list of unfinished reads and the art of "breaking up with books."
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Poussey Lives
Exciting news, Orange Is The New Black fans! Samira Wiley will be co-starring in the Hulu adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale.
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Ask Us Anything: Swarm & Spark
Swarm and Spark, a new column at The Millions, invites you to write with your questions about publishing, the literary life, or writing. The column is written by two anonymous figures: a NYC editor with years in the industry and an MFA professor at a long-established program. Ask anything that has plagued, confounded, pleased or troubled you about your life in and around literature and you may be answered, always with respect: your question will be treated as anonymous as well. Send your true confessions, complaints and queries to [email protected].
George Plimpton’s Video Falconry
Heavy Feather Review’s Call for Submissions
As they begin preparation work on “Vacancies,” a special double-issue of their magazine, the folks at Heavy Feather Review have issued a call for writing that explores “the dimly lit corners of the unoccupied, unassuming, or idle.” For inspiration, look toward Philip Levine’s poem, “An Abandoned Factory, Detroit.”
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“There is something ersatz, if not quite fraudulent, about [Alain] de Botton’s entire intellectual enterprise.” At The Los Angeles Review of Books, Lisa Levy throws down the gauntlet.
I’ve been checking out Mr. de Botton’s books since 1998. Ersatz? Hoooey. Fraudulent? How dare you!
I find his mind limpid, curious, original, and congenitally non-elitist (and that’s coming from a blue collar gal). Loved his book on travel. Who else had the concept of “traveling” around the four corners of your own bedroom, and had the openness to “see” so much there? Who else set up his work desk smack in the middle of a busy airport terminal to chat and converse with the teeming crowd?
In addition, I think de Botton has a special talent for distilling complex ideas into a deceptively simple form. Not as easy as it looks.
Finally, if there’s any harm in folks gathering together at a London storefront after work to discuss Love, Travel, Sex, and everything else rather than sit brain-dead before the telly, I’ll never be the one to see it.
A sour and axe-grindish article, Los Angeles Review of Books!
Sincerely,
Maureen Murphy
(“Moe Murph”)