On July 8th 1618, Ben Jonson set out walking from London. Over the next few months, he traveled 400 miles on foot until he reached Edinburgh on September 5th. To commemorate the epic voyage, a team of researchers is re-enacting the walk online by updating a dedicated blog, Twitter page, and Facebook profile with a series of posts corresponding to dates, locations and occurrences Jonson experienced along the way. All this sounds grand enough, but I’ll be really impressed when somebody truly re-enacts Jonson’s mock-epic poem about paddling London’s disgusting Fleet Ditch: “On The Famous Voyage.”
Ben Jonson’s Virtual Journey
Fin
Shakespeare is required reading for the would-be literary scholar, yet with so many articles, books and monographs on the Bard in circulation, it might be time to ask: have English professors finally said all there is to say?
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Trashy reads
This blog post from the NYT Magazine’s culture editor Adam Sternbergh rounds up some some well known lit lovers’ suggestions for some of those of you looking for some “red hot summer trash” to add to your reading list. Maud Newton and our own Garth Risk Hallberg both recommended Lonesome Dove, so that’s going on my reading list for sure.
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Tilt-Shift Carnival
Jarbas Agnelli’s tilt-shifted images from Rio’s 2011 Carnival make the entire Brazilian city look like a bunch of animated, playful bath toys. I mean that in the most beautiful way possible.
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The Body in the Library
At The Atlantic, Sara Polsky wonders if library cards are dying and discusses their history and evolution. Pair with this Millions essay on private libraries and what books reveal about their readers.
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Believe Me
There’s a certain narrative voice with an unspoken aim to exonerate the speaker from wrongdoing. It occurs in novels, though it’s most common in monologues, especially those which take up the entirety of a play. At Bookforum, Lurid and Cute author Adam Thirlwell lists a number of examples, including Hunger by Knut Hamsun and Wars I Have Seen by Gertrude Stein.
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