Recommended reading: Year in Reading alum Leslie Jamison writes about the pleasures and “democratic awe” of Whitman‘s Specimen Days. Pair with our own Michael Bourne‘s “Embracing the Other I Am: or, How Walt Whitman Saved My Life.”
Abundance and Awe
Take Two
Last week, to mark the release of The First Bad Man, we interviewed Miranda July here at The Millions. In Bookforum, you can read another interview with July, who talks about striving to mimic the feeling of “purposely unfinished work.”
A Finalist in Our Midst
Sometime Millions contributor Bezalel Stern has been named a finalist in this week’s New Yorker cartoon caption contest. We think he’s got a chance at winning this thing.
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Capital G
“Good TV is not merely good TV (i.e. better-than-average TV), but TV that is so good it deserves to be taken as seriously as great films and even great Literature (yes, with a capital ‘L’). As such, watching Good TV and discussing Good TV are qualitatively different than watching and talking about other kinds of TV. The emergence of Good TV is a rather big deal in the recent history of American culture. It may well be one of the top two or three cultural developments of this still-young century.” Todd Hasak-Lowy dissects the TV revolution. (Pair with: our own Michael Bourne on the new age of cable and Broadway.) (h/t The Rumpus)
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An American Poem
“I offer you a moody campaign!” Illustrator Nathan Gould revisits the 1992 presidential election, in which badass feminist (and really great writer) Eileen Myles ran as an “openly-female” write-in candidate.
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Another Type of Lyric Essay
Specter Magazine is calling for “hip-hop inspired piece[s] of Creative Non-Fiction,” and, wisely, they know that the best way to inspire participation is with a Beanie Sigal and Jay-Z track.
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