“Genius” is a loaded term. Its application usually says more about the person making the judgment than it does about the genius in question. In The Guardian, Sophie Hannah argues that the term isn’t used enough to describe one writer in particular: Agatha Christie. You could also read Daniel Friedman on the terrible secret of all crime fiction.
Dial G
Lemuel Gulliver Redux
Eighteenth century literature lives: This Christmas, Jack Black will play Gulliver in an adaption of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. See the preview here.
Part 3 of Murakami’s 1Q84 coming soon in Japan
Part Three of Haruki Murakami's massive new novel 1Q84 will be released in April. The novel is expected to be released in English by Random House in Fall 2011. Check out our previous reporting on Murakami's latest here.
Some Notes on Sexism and Reviews
Breaking Up with God author Sarah Sentilles responds to some of her memoir’s critics. “Reviewers' words about my book,” she writes, “demonstrate how sexism shapes responses to women's writing, in particular women's writing about God.”
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A digressive and beautifully written announcement.
"Maybe everything is an organized mess at high speed": in one of the more deeply buried leads in history, Brad Listi announces The Nervous Breakdown's new publishing imprint. And yes, I could just send you to the official press release, but I loved this piece.
Visionary
At the Times Literary Supplement, Raymond Tallis reviews Hallucinations, a new book by Oliver Sacks that defines “sensational consciousness.”
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A New Robert Galbraith Novel
You may have heard that J.K. Rowling published a crime novel last year under the pen name Robert Galbraith. According to her alter ego’s website, Rowling will publish another novel as Galbraith, one featuring (again) the private investigator Cormoran Strike. (If you missed it, you should definitely read Elizabeth Minkel’s recent piece on Ron/Hermione and authorial regrets.)