The 100th anniversary of the publication of James Joyce’s Dubliners occurs this month, and the occasion is being celebrated with the launch of Dubliners 100, a “reimagining and rewriting of the 15 original stories by a range of well-established and promising writers.” Among the modern writers lending their talents to the homage is Paul Murray (Skippy Dies), Donal Ryan (The Spinning Heart), and Pat McCabe (Butcher Boy).
Dubliners 100
Bread, Bread, Bread
From “Insufficient Milk And Restraint” to “Eating Berries While Pretending To Be A Monk To Make Hunger And Desperation Feel Like A Game,” here is every meal from Jane Eyre ranked in terms of severity.
Robot Virginia Woolf?
You must obey (and read) your robot overlords! As if winning a literary award wasn’t already hard enough, a story co-authored by computers just made it through at least one round of judging at the Nikkei Hoshi Shinichi Literary Award competition in Japan. But don’t worry, you haven’t lost your job quite yet–the good news is that the programs still have “some problems … such as character descriptions.”
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Best Illustrated Children’s Books
Look, we know it’s nice to read highbrow literary fiction all the time, but sometimes you need a break. Luckily, here is a helpful list of the best illustrated children’s books of 2016 from the folks over at The New York Times.
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“Fat guy. They knew.”
Recommended Reading: Ray Shea’s essay at Hobart “Fat Guy.” “I want to say that I shrunk into my shoes and disappeared, but when somebody throws ‘fat guy’ at you, you don’t shrink, you grow. You bloat.”
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Google Poetics
“There is, however, more to these poems than just the occasional chuckle. The Google autocomplete suggestions are based on previous searches by actual people all around the world. In the cold blue glow of their computer screens, they ask ‘why am I alone’ and ‘why do fat girls have high standards’. They wonder how to roll a joint and whether it is too early to say ‘I love you’. They seek information on ninjas, cannibals, and Rihanna, and sometimes they just ask ‘am I better off dead?’”
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A Poem From Us
“A Poem From Us” features regular people reading their favorite poems. According to the project’s founder, Felix Jung, its goal is to “use technology to help folks share their love of poetry with others.” That’s something we can all get behind, isn’t it? You can participate in two ways: record a video of yourself recording your favorite poem, or request a set of free promotional stickers for the project.
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Tuesday Links: Saunders Blogs; Quarterly Conversation; New Yorker Festival
George Saunders is taking up residence at the Powell’s Blog this week as he embarks on a book tour promoting his latest (released today), The Braindead Megaphone. To my knowledge, it is Saunders’ first foray into blogging, a format we discussed nearly two years ago (scroll down). His concern: “I worry about how much I would have to pay myself to keep my blog supplied with content. My fear is that, knowing I was working for myself, I would start cheating myself, only submitting my worst pieces, then get into a labor dispute with myself and never speak to me again.” Hopefully, his fears aren’t realized.A new issue of Scott Esposito’s terrific Quarterly Conversation has arrived. It features, among several notable contributors, Garth, who “sorts out literary feuds, dissects James Wood’s essay against Don DeLillo’s 832-page opus Underworld, and argues that this book actually evolves the novel forward.”Emdashes has the schedule for this year’s New Yorker Festival. It looks fantastic as usual. I should really go sometime.
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