We just got a new Dr. Seuss book; now we get a full Dr. Seuss museum, and it’s probably safe to bet it won’t look like just another children’s center.
Dr. Seuss Museum
Fatherless Fiction
Recommended Reading: Nicole Krauss’s new short story, “I Am Asleep but My Heart Is Awake,” at The New Republic. “My mother had died when I was three. We had already dealt with death, in our way we’d agreed to be finished with it. Then, without warning, my father broke our agreement.”
Not With a Bang, But a False Alarm
Remember all those people who believed the world was going to end last year? Where are they now?
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The Social Function of the Novel
Recommended reading: Tim Parks asks “what is the social function of the novel?“
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The Life and Times of James Lloydovich Patterson
In 1932, several black Americans – including Langston Hughes – traveled to the Soviet Union to shoot a propaganda film about the “evils of racism in the United States.” One of those travelers, Lloyd Patterson, would never return. Instead, Patterson married an Ukrainian woman, and the pair had two children. The firstborn, Jim Patterson, was at one time the most famous black resident of the USSR – and his appearance in The Circus even drew the admiration of Joseph Stalin. After World War II, Patterson served as a Soviet naval officer aboard a submarine in the Black Sea. From there he went on to the Soviet Writers Union in 1967. If you think this sounds far-fetched, I encourage you to read more here.
Robin Coste Lewis on the Comfort of Literature
Robin Coste Lewis shares how she makes her students feel safe during uncertain times by providing refuge in art.
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