I’ve told you about The Atlantic’s By Heart series plenty of times before. This week brings us novelist Paul Lisicky taking a close look at how Flannery O’Connor’s “flawed” characters are the ones we find ourselves drawn to most.
A Good Character Is Hard To Find
Huh?
We’ve been discussing the changing nature of the English language a lot here this week (from the rise of public English to the acceptance of “like”), but if there is one thing that’s consistent in language, it’s the word “huh.” Linguists have studied 31 languages that all contain the interjection, making it one of the first universal words.
●
●
Dispatch from Kolkata
Over at Electric Literature, Megha Majumdar writes about the changing architecture in Kolkata, the quest for authenticity, and nostalgia. Pair with Olena Jennings’s Millions essay on nostalgia for a life never lived.
Let Us Praise James Agee
“Every sense cleared about three hundred percent and stood up on its hind legs waving its feelers.” Eighty years ago, James Agee got an assignment that entered him into history, though not during his lifetime. Let us now celebrate Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. See also: our essay on famous artist-writer collaborations, like Agee’s with Walker Evans.
●
●
Candlepin Bowling with Elizabeth McCracken
Elizabeth McCracken discusses her new novel, Bowlaway, with Ann Patchett in a new interview for Patchett's bookstore, Parnassus Books.
●
●
●
On Ebooks on the Cheap
Chad Post of Open Letter Books writes a compelling piece on the devaluing impact of ebook pricing, and why, despite that, Open Letter not only now offers ebooks, it put them all on sale for $4.99 for the month of June.
●
●
A Budding Fan
In 1964, A Song of Ice and Fire author George R. R. Martin wrote Marvel icon Stan Lee a fan letter.
This Week’s New Releases
A.S. Byatt’s new novel The Children’s Book has won a ton of praise overseas – it may take home the Booker tonight — and now it’s finally available in the States. Meanwhile, Michael Chabon is trying his hand at memoir with his new book, Manhood for Amateurs.
●
●