The good folks at Dorothy labored over a tremendous “Book Map” depicting the settings of some 600 literary works based in London. The books, poems, and essays selected for the map run the gamut from T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land” to J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series.
The London “Book Map” Has It All
To MFA or Not to MFA
The MFA rankings kerfuffle gets a contribution from Slate writer Scott Kenemore (which Roxane Gay promptly eviscerates), but this post appears to be the most level-headed assessment yet. (Last link via Hobart)
●
●
….and the joke may just be on you.
Aaron Wiener for Slate on attending a 24-hour long play in Berlin based on David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest. And we thought three to four hours of DFW was a marathon.
Modernist Myth Making
A look at how H. D.'s interpretation of Helen of Troy differs from the traditional.
●
●
From Lincoln to Napoleon
Steven Spielberg is working with Stanley Kubrick’s family to adapt a long-abandoned biopic screenplay about “the life of Napoleon” for a TV miniseries. Spielberg last adapted work from the late filmmaker in 2001’s A.I.: Artificial Intelligence.
Lady Boxers at the LRB
If you didn't like Elif Batuman's gut-punch to MFA writing ("Get A Real Degree") in this issue of the London Review of Books, might I suggest Jenny Diski's cudgeling of self-help lit in the LRB's Diary essay?
●
●
A Day of Feast Among Years of Famine
In the spirit of giving thanks, our own Bill Morris recaps a memory for which he is especially grateful: watching the Detroit Lions kick the ever-loving steam out of their arch rival Green Bay Packers.
●
●
Decenter and Frisk
According to Gilles Deleuze, "the lives of philosophers are rarely interesting." This may have come as a surprise to Jacques Derrida, who once spent a couple days in jail after cops in the Prague airport tried to frame him for smuggling weed. (This incident gets ample coverage in a new biography of the scholar).
●
●