“What we call them is entirely irrelevant: emigrants, migrants, refugees, exiles—we all know to whom we refer. Refugeedom is our common cultural meme. It is the story with which Christian civilization begins. We bear the imprint of the furious index finger God used to banish Adam and Eve from Eden.” Dubravka Ugrešić writes about displacement and the refugee crisis for the Literary Hub. Pair with Arnon Grunberg’s Millions essay on Ugrešić’s legacy.
The Book of Exodus
Twitter: like a teenager high on Valium
This week, David Mitchell (author of Cloud Atlas and the forthcoming The Bone Clocks) is releasing a new short story over 280 tweets (which you can read here). Form follows content, he explains, since his narrator is a teenager high on his mother’s Valium. Mitchell joins good company: Teju Cole, Junot Diaz, and other notables have tried their hand with this strange new form. Pair with: a stroll down memory lane with some beloved authors’ very first tweets and their best.
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Terrific Ham
“Terrific ham. The best. Terrific eggs. Were they green? Who knows? So many years.” In case you missed it, the best tweets from yesterday’s #TrumpBookReport trend. Pair with our own Claire Cameron‘s translation of Lauren Groff‘s Fates and Furies for Twitter.
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Carving Out a Legacy
Recommended Reading: On Raymond Carver’s birthday, his brother James stopped by Electric Literature to share his memories of what it was like growing up with the man behind such works as Will You Please Be Quiet, Please and What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.
Who You Gonna Call?
After the death of Harold Ramis, it seems only fitting to read Esquire’s oral history of Ghostbusters. Dan Aykroyd initially wanted it to be an intergalactic drama, yet he and others were happy with how it turned out. “People in the paranormal field loved it. It gave focus to their work,” Aykroyd said.
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Steve Jobs
With his black turtleneck, wire-rimmed glasses and conspiratorial grin, Steve Jobs was arguably the best ambassador ever between androids and humans.