“Have you guessed who I am? Sometimes I think you have.” Is this Dr. Seuss or Bret Easton Ellis? The Awl has a quiz to see whether you can differentiate between sociopaths and the Cat in the Hat.
How Patrick Bateman Stole Christmas
Envy
Robert Birnbaum asked seven indie publishers to say which titles they wish they’d published in 2009. The last sentence of the piece (from Dalkey Archive’s Martin Riker) is particularly great.
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Like a Nun in a Motorcar
“Raymond Chandler did not invent the private eye — Dashiell Hammett and a few others got there first. But his vision is the one that caught the public eye and stuck most indelibly in the imagination, like — in one of his aromatic metaphors — ‘a tarantula on a slice of angel food.’” On a new biography of the man behind Phillip Marlowe.
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A Filmmaker’s Compendium
Recommended Viewing: A complete collection of Wes Anderson video essays. If it’s Anderson you’re after, here’s a piece of short fiction he wrote during his time in college.
The Pleasure of Eavesdropping
Recommended Listening: Poet Rachel Zucker has just launched Commonplace, a bi-monthly podcast featuring conversations with poets (and other people) about quotidian objects, experiences, anecdotes, advice, and obsessions.
The Price of Diversity
What is the price of diversity? Colleen Muir asks this question at The Rumpus in relation to the hefty cost of writers’ conferences. A piece of her essay: “I’m not claiming that Breadloaf [sic] lacks for talent, or that its writers don’t have interesting things to say. But it certainly lacks for diversity in at least one significant way, because most attendees share a privileged experience of the world.” Pair with Gail Gauthier’s essay on working in the kitchen crew at Bread Loaf.