Are we now living in a golden age of the uncanny? The Millions contributor Porochista Khakpour suspects that we are, and she also suspects that our historical moment, populated as it is with alienating developments and surreal art, is key to understanding the work of Helen Oyeyemi. In the Times, Khakpour reviews Oyeyemi’s new novel. (You could also read both writers’ Year in Reading pieces.)
Time Out of Mind
Memories of Books
Writer Philip Graham reflected on reading after cataract surgery made reading (temporarily) impossible.
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What’s Important
The Los Angeles Review of Books looks at a new history of K Records, the influential Olympia, WA-label that gave us Beat Happening, Modest Mouse, and Kurt Cobain’s arm tattoo.
Touré Calls The Help Loathsome
Touré says watching The Help was like visual waterboarding.
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Werewolves Etc.
Dirty or Poignant?
At The Rumpus, a new piece by Emily Rapp, who details the effect her son’s terminal illness had on her relationships with others.
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Nimble Publishing
VQR has published an essay by Chris Fischbach of Coffee House Press that provides an overview of some of the innovative small presses at work today. Fischbach specifically mentions Tin House, Melville House and Two Dollar Radio as “nimble” publishing houses that “can try things big publishers might not find worthwhile or consistent with the aims of a traditional publishing program,” such as producing micro-budget films or illustrated versions of classic works of literature.
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Not Just the Mind’s Eye
A new Tumblr, The Composites, takes descriptions of characters from novels and feeds them through police composite sketch software to produce images of their “faces.” Creepy and cool. (via kottke)
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Lonely Writers
Recommended Reading: Michele Filgate on the loneliest artists of all: writers. Pair with Angela Qian’s piece on a lonely writer, Olivia Laing.