Recommended Reading: Tony Kushner’s recent speech at the Whiting Writers’ Awards.
Failing Upwards
Product Placement in 19th Century British Novels
A recent survey of 19th century British literature uncovered advertising subtly placed within classic texts by authors like Dickens, Austen, and Thackeray. From Vanity Fair, for example: “‘My sisters say she has diamonds as big as pigeons' eggs,’ George said, laughing. ‘How they must set off her complexion! Surely she avails herself of Madame A.T. Rowley's Toilet Mask (or Face Gloves)...’” (via Book Bench)
●
●
Literary One-Hit Wonders
Second Act lists the renowned literary one-hit wonders, including John Kennedy Toole, Sylvia Plath and Ralph Ellison. (via AuthorScoop)
●
●
What’s the Value of NaNoWriMo?
●
●
Why So Socialist?
Have you seen the infamous image of Obama in Heath Ledger-style Joker makeup? (Image care of Bedlam Magazine). See the artist, unmasked, at the L.A. Times.
Offshoots
Recommended Reading: Our own Elizabeth Minkel on Sherlock and fan fiction. You can also read another essay of hers on fan fiction here at The Millions.
From Flop to Top
Patrick deWitt, author of The Sisters Brothers (which our own Mark O'Connell reviewed last October), expected Harry Mathews' novel The Journalist to be a "terrible flop," but soon found it was "every bit as great as Mathews' more celebrated novels."
●
●
Did You Hear?
Gossip is often seen as inherently frivolous and trashy, which is why it’s odd that a poet would use it as the subject of his or her work. On The Poetry Foundation’s blog, Austin Allen writes about George Green’s collection Lord Byron’s Foot, in which, as Allen puts it, “the dish spares no one.” (h/t Arts and Letters Daily)
●
●