A new Hemingway App promises to trim the fat from your writing in a way that the Great Bearded One would’ve approved. The app uses various color codes to highlight writing written in the passive voice, writing that’s too hard to read, and also unnecessary adverbs or complex phrases. Sounds interesting enough, no? Well, the problem is that someone ran the Hemingway App on some actual Ernest Hemingway writing, and it turns out that Papa himself didn’t even write to the app’s standard.
For Sale: Hemingway App, Doesn’t Work.
Steve Jobs Goes Graphic
Late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs has been immortalized in books, documentaries, and TV specials, with rumors that his story might eventually make its way to the big screen. Now you can add graphic novel to that list; on Tuesday PC Magazine noted the release of The Zen of Steve Jobs.
The Bard of Florida
After passing through the House, a new bill establishing a four-year term limit for the state’s Poet Laureates is set to reach the Florida governor’s desk in the near future. The Sunshine State has been without a Poet Laureate since Edmund Skellings died in 2012.
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.
Tuesday Links
The LBC has named its next pick. It’s a fantastic, epic, funny book. Visit the blog for all the details.Forbes rounds up the most expensive books sold at auction in 2006. The top ten include five atlases, but according to the slide show that accompanies the story, a Shakespeare First Folio brought in the most: $5.1 million.Darby’s blog turns two and he cleverly uses this fact as an excuse to link to some Swedish librarians.”Which f**king road would you live on?“So sad. A spelling bee training book with typos.
●
●
2 comments:
Add Your Comment: Cancel reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
A Presidential Conversation Continued
We highlighted the first installment of President Obama’s conversation with Marilynne Robinson, published in The New York Review of Books. Part II is now here. We have a few pieces on Robinson to pair with it.
●
●
On Internet Fiction
Jacob Silverman reviews two new novels – Note to Self and The More You Ignore Me – that “take on one incarnation of the Internet: the Internet as pathology” but ultimately fail to succeed “in exploring or critiquing digital life with any authority.” He notes that “like any technology, [the Internet] has to be shaped for the purposes of literature.”
●
●
Nothing Is Tolerable
“It’s corrosive going down, you wonder if he had to add quite so much vinegar and horseradish, but afterward the effect is invigorating.” Aaron Thier at The Nation reviews Rafael Chirbes’ newest novel, On The Edge. The book admittedly gives no pleasure, yet is nonetheless worth reading as it operates like more of a “psychological health tonic,” instead.
●
●
On Velvet
Recommended Listening: Mary Gaitskill talks about her new book The Mare with host David Naimon. Pair with Chelsea Voulgares’s Millions interview with the author.
●
●
Hemingway broke most literary traditions and became as it were the new world erudition replacing the lyrical and classical style of Proust, Waugh etc. His masculine facade reflected perhaps the pioneer spirit of America the culmination of which was the rescue of old Europe from fascism – any writer artist etc, will tell you to study the masters by all means but only in order to find your unique and personal voice.
Has anyone tried this with an Obama speech or SOTU address?