Before Donal Ryan made the Man Booker Prize Longlist, his debut novel, The Spinning Heart, was rejected 47 times until an intern plucked it out of the slush pile. We bet those 47 publishers are smacking themselves on the forehead right now. Pair with: Research has shown that rejection is like physical pain.
Giving J.K. Rowling a Run for Her Rejections
The Stanford Letters
“I’m annoyed that so many young rapists lack interest in their own motivations, or are led to believe that an absence of real psychic motive will make the crime merely an act, when really it’s the uninterested mereness of the act that makes it feel, to some victims, so criminal.” Sarah Nicole Prickett compares the many letters released following Brock Turner’s trial at n+1.
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Emily Pullen on e-readers
Bookseller and blogger Emily Pullen discusses the e-reading experience in this morning’s Shelf Awareness: “I have noticed that when I read on the device, my attention span is somewhat short. I rarely read for more than an hour–usually about 20 minutes. It’s not because it is uncomfortable for my eyes or my hands. Instead I just don’t get as immersed.”
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“In 1941, sadness is at its peak”
Here’s a novel idea: using literature to map out the emotions of a time period. (1940s? Sad. 1920s? Happy. 2010s? …Don’t ask.)
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Denis Johnson: 1949-2017
“My ear for the diction and rhythms of poetry was trained by — in chronological order — Dr. Seuss, Dylan Thomas, Walt Whitman, the guitar solos of Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix, and T.S. Eliot.” Author Denis Johnson has died at age 67, reports The Washington Post. Our own Sonya Chung recommended Johnson’s celebrated short story collection Jesus’ Son to a friend some years back, saying “I know it will knock him out. It does (of course).”
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There’s Blog in my Magazine. No, There’s Magazine in my Blog.
Which are you currently reading: a magazine that looks like a blog, or a blog that looks like a magazine? It’s getting harder and harder to tell, says Slate‘s Farhad Manjoo.
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First Look at Gone Girl
Amy barely speaks in the trailer for Gone Girl, but she is present in almost every frame. The first look at David Fincher’s adaptation features a creepy cover of “She” and a harried Ben Affleck as he goes from bereaved husband to suspect. The film will be in theaters on October 3, but until then, read our conversation about Gillian Flynn.
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Steve Almond on Editors, Ambition, and Angry Dependence
Steve Almond at The Rumpus provides a “meditation on editors, ambition, and angry dependence” in reaction to the media’s coverage of the suicide of Kevin Morrissey, managing editor of The Virginia Quarterly Review.
When will it be available in the USA?
> We bet those 47 publishers are smacking themselves on the forehead right now.
I bet they’re not.
So long as people get to keep their jobs they don’t care. They’d rather play it safe and reject something good than publish something that’s risky. Playing it safe is what publishing (and literally everything else in America) is all about these days. Unless you’re an internet kid who invents something like a cell phone that can emit the smell of farts at the push of a bottom. Then you’ll have fifty VCs banging on your door.