Last week, I directed you to a piece in The Atlantic by John Yorke on the substance of stories. His argument: that all stories have one thing in common–their plot. Now, Lincoln Michel at Electric Literature suggests that rather it is all story structure models that have one thing in common–and that thing is bullshit.
All Stories Are Stories
Grief and Memory
Humans have been covering paintings, windows, and mirrors after the passing of loved ones for generations. Why do we feel the need to close off our connection to the outside world when we are grieving? Colin Dickey writes about the social, literary, and religious connotations of grief and memory at Hazlitt. At The Millions, Lidia Yuknavitch writes about channeling her grief into art.
Lahiri on Salter
As part of a Paris Review series of essays celebrating James Salter, Jhumpa Lahiri writes "For over half my life, I have returned repeatedly to Light Years."
●
●
●
●
Our Unhappy Marriage Will Be Revived in Paris
"I Have Inherited The Ancestral Home, But It Is Now A Burden Rather Than A Gift, Which Reminds Me Of Another Burden…The Institution Of Marriage" and every other Modernist novel ever written, via Mallory Ortberg of The Toast.
●
●
It’s the opposite of a happy ending fairy tale. It’s just hell.
Lauren Groff interviewed over at Full Stop about her novel Arcadia, which was a Millions Staff Pick in April.