Fifty years ago, Frank O’Hara released Lunch Poems, a collection of remarkably informal poetry that rebuked the more academic verse of his day. As a tribute, Dwight Garner writes about the importance of the book in the Times, arguing that O’Hara’s grasp of the zeitgeist is the reason he appeared on Mad Men. For more on the poet’s legacy, take a look at Christopher Richards on O’Hara’s lessons for being gay.
A Side of Poetry
Littérature Québécois
Translator Peter McCambridge has recently launched Québec Reads, a webzine focused on reviews and excerpts of contemporary Québec fiction. (Bonus: our own Michael Bourne provides a “Beginner’s Guide to Canadian Lit.”)
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Bookshelves Ten Feet High
Chances are you've bragged about the size of your library. The number of books you own is a point of pride for many readers. But at what point does collecting books -- which few people would say is a bad thing-- turn into a problem? At what point, in other words, does it become hoarding? Pair with: Rebecca Rego-Barry on hunting for rare books at college library book sales.
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On Remembering and Forgetting
“We have all heard the claim, ‘the victors write the textbooks.’ Among the many ways to unpack the phrase is this: that once upon a time history was bound to and relied on communally agreed upon facts. That is to say, there was not a culture of record the way there is now. There were not cameras and photographs capturing all human movement or digital archives where information was stored in 'clouds.' While our methods for remembering have evolved, the ethical question at the heart of recollection remains: how do we tell about the past and who gets to tell it?” Lindsey Drager writes for the Michigan Quarterly Review about memory and storytelling.
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DFW’s Nonfiction
Leveling the kind of accusation that perhaps only such an esteemed writer can, Jonathan Franzen intimates that David Foster Wallace's nonfiction (such as "Shipping Out") wasn't exactly honest.
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Carla F. Cohen
Carla F. Cohen, co-owner and founder of legendary Washington, D.C. bookstore Politics & Prose, died this morning.
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Graffiti Street
"'Tuya' means 'graffiti' in Chinese—the name is recent—and this street, three-quarters of a mile long, may be the longest stretch of public art in the world. It’s also a government-sanctioned 'art district,' centered around the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, which was established in 1940...I noticed that every artist I spoke to referred to 2005 as the year everything changed. 2005 was the year the government became interested in art." Art in Chongqing.
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United Slang of America
(Interactive) Infographic of the Week: Slate’s United Slang of America. Click each state to find out more about the state-specific slang. You could also read our own Michael Bourne’s piece on, like, why the word like is really cool!
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