“Recent research has shown that messy, dark, noisy, booze-filled environments like the one Fitzgerald cultivated at La Paix can, in fact, help stimulate creativity.” The Atlantic reports on the importance of environment for creativite work and / or gives you an excuse to live like Fitzgerald.
Living like Fitzgerald
Smile More
Recommended (Frustrating) Reading: “Men Explain Submissions To Me,” an eye-opening new piece from Sarah Blake at The Rumpus.
No Matter How Small
Over at The Atlantic, Lydia Millet argues for the power and legitimacy of The Lorax’s moral message. Millet believes that the heavy-handedness of activist-minded fiction like The Lorax is powerful partly due to “its shamelessness. It pulls no punches; it wears its teacher heart on its sleeve.”
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“Tongue-in-Cheek Tocqueville”
“‘So your idea is to drive across America and write about it without talking to a single American?’ ‘Yes.'” Karl Ove Knausgaard travels North America as “a tongue-in-cheek Tocqueville” for the New York Times Magazine. Pair with his piece for The Millions, “The View from My Window is a Constant Reminder,” and with Jonathan Callahan‘s reading of Knausgaard’s My Struggle.
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The Modern Bretteurs
A Russian man was shot last week over an argument about 18th century German philosopher Immanuel Kant. Perhaps this means I need to update my article about the history of the Russian duel.
The (Literary) Gen-X Midlife Crisis
At the Daily Beast, Taylor Antrim analyzes Bret Easton Ellis, Jennifer Egan and the Gen-X midlife crisis: “Sad white guys! The culture’s lousy with them…”
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On Sailing the Sea of Story
Recommended Listening: Ursula K. Le Guin talks with host David Naimon about her classic book Steering the Craft and argues that issues of class, race, gender, and morality cannot be separate from grammar. Pair with Paul Morton’s Millions interview with the author.
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