Apparently the confessional poets hated being known as confessional poets. Writers like John Berryman and W.D. Snodgrass responded badly when given the label. How do we understand their shared revulsion to the term? At The Paris Review Daily, an argument that we can find the answer in an unlikely place: The Twilight Zone.
You/Are Entering
How ethical are cocoa puffs?
There's a new Ethicist in town. Chuck Klosterman is taking over the NYT advice column, and I'm thinking, gee, I wonder what the author of Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs knows about ethics. His first column seems pretty legit, but I can't wait for him to introduce time-travel [pdf] and other hypotheticals.
“I see how we are all the same”
Recommended Reading: An excerpt from White Girls by Hilton Als, which will be published this November.
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The iTypewriter
Do you use a typewriter to tell the world you are serious scribe in the old-school mold, but do you also secretly adore the comforting glow, futuristic lines, and easy diversions of your iPad? Finally, USB Typewriter lets you have it all.
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Penguin Postcards
If we were to buy ourselves a gift this year, it would be Penguin's "One Hundred Book Covers in One Box" postcard set.
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Invisible Together
"It was a remarkable scene, to witness young people collectively shatter one another’s sense of social isolation." Clint Smith for The New Yorker's Page-Turner blog about teaching Invisible Man to a high school class full of undocumented immigrants.
The 2017 Whiting Award Winners
The 2017 Whiting Award winners were announced tonight at a ceremony in Manhattan, and this year’s list of ten honorees includes Francisco Cantú (The Line Becomes a River), Simone Wright (Of Being Dispersed), Phillip B. Williams (Thief in the Interior), Kaitlyn Greenidge (We Love You, Charlie Freeman), Tony Tulathimutte (Private Citizens), Jen Beagin (Pretend I’m Dead), and Lisa Halliday (Asymmetry) as well as playwrights Clarence Coo, James Ijames, and Clare Barron. The award, which recognizes early-career writers of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama, comes with a $50,000 prize. Excerpts from each writer’s work can be read at The Paris Review.
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Hitler at Home
Read about Hitler’s vacation homes and how they shaped his image via propaganda in an excerpt from Hitler at Home by Despina Stratigakos at The New Republic. We reviewed Ben Urwand’s book The Collaboration: Hollywood’s Pact with Hitler, which discusses other propaganda surrounding the Nazi regime.