Hollywood is romanticizing the Beat Generation in its recent adaptations of On the Road (trailer here), Big Sur (trailer here), and Kill Your Darlings, and you can blame Millennials. “In casting the authors as eternally and fundamentally adolescent, the recent revival tones down their behavior—both revolutionary and repulsive—as a sort of passing teenage phase,” Jordan Larson argues for The Atlantic.
Off Beat
Which is Which
“Two writers guard an archive. One writes Fiction; the other writes Fact. To get past them, you have to figure out which is which.” Recommended reading: The New Yoker‘s Jill Lepore attempts to trace the “long-lost story of the longest book ever written,” Joe Gould‘s The Oral History of Our Time.
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New Blog Highlights Writers of Color
Are you a journalist of color? Aminatou Sow and Jamelle Bouie started a new Tumblr Journos of Color that showcases articles by writers of color and accepts submissions.
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Daenerys = Cleopatra?
This week in book-related infographics: a look at the real history behind Game of Thrones, from the Anglo-Saxon conflict to Cleopatra.
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The Room Moves Without Moving
The music video for “Sweater” by Belgian indie outfit Willow relies on an impressive balance of timing, treadmill coordination, projection, and camera-work. A lot of ground is covered in a single room. It’s positively crazy. You might even say it’s virtual insanity. (Sorry I’m not sorry.)
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How Can I Help
“Often the people who turn most passionately to data and reason are those who feel most overwhelmed and controlled by irrational impulses.” New fiction by Rivka Galchen over at The New Yorker! Pair with our review of her most recent book, Little Labors.
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Mass-Market Edition is Dead
Harper Lee’s estate will no longer allow publication of the mass-market paperback edition of To Kill a Mockingbird, which was popular with schools. Over at The New Republic, Alex Shephard writes that “Without a mass-market option, schools will likely be forced to pay higher prices for bulk orders of the trade paperback edition—and given the perilous state of many school budgets, that could very easily lead to it being assigned in fewer schools.” For more about the author’s legacy, read Robert Rea’s Millions essay on his travels to her home.
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Bolaño At the Movies
Writing for Slant, Bill Weber reviews Il Futuro, a film is based on an as-yet-untranslated novella by Roberto Bolaño. Previously, JW McCormack expounded on the prospect of adapting the Chilean author’s masterpiece, 2666, into a motion picture.
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