“Notice how Malbecco, as Gelosy, lives outside of time, a death-in-life: he can ‘never dye, but dying lives.’ In other words, embrace a quality entirely—even, I would argue, a less pejorative quality, like hustle—and it overmasters you. You’re doomed.” Rowan Ricardo Phillips, basketball columnist for The Paris Review, on Edmund Spenser, hustle, and the New York Knicks.
Hustle and Flow
Computer Fables
According to The Guardian, "researchers in Australia have developed a computer program which writes its own fables, complete with moral." No word yet on whether they're any good.
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Blogtirement
David Simon is blogging again.
Animals!
Today in things you might like to read about animals: Some birds, apparently, not only mourn their dead but even hold funeral services. And while it's widely known that the internet is made of cats, Wired dug a little deeper and tried to uncover the root of our collective feline fixation.
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Sandusky on Amazon
The latest entity to get sucked into the Jerry Sandusky pedophile scandal that’s engulfed Penn State? Amazon. Users are leaving angry comments on the site’s comment boards about Touched: The Jerry Sandusky Story, Sandusky’s unfortunately titled 2001 biography.
Tuesday New Release Day: McSweeney’s, Ross, Brown
We're surprised McSweeney's didn't think of this sooner: A handsome large-format volume called Art of McSweeney's; Chris Ware and many more. There's also a debut that's been getting some notice, Mr. Peanut by Adam Ross. And finally, sometime Millions interviewee and interviewer Nic Brown has a new novel out: Doubles.
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Hitchens on Cancer
Christopher Hitchens in Vanity Fair on his cancer diagnosis: "To the dumb question 'Why me?' the cosmos barely bothers to return the reply: Why not?"
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Egan for President
“The power and meaning of the written word are central to the complexities we face today—both as a nation, and globally. To my mind, freedom of expression is a basic human right." Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jennifer Egan has been named the new president of PEN America. Pair with: our own Edan Lepucki's 2010 profile of Egan.
Back Home
Sometimes, a writer needs to live in the setting of his or her fiction, as was the case with William Faulkner, who famously took a train from Hollywood to Mississippi solely to break through his writer's block. Other times, they need to move away to find the inspiration to write about their home. In The Globe and Mail, Marsha Lederman writes about Emma Hooper, who credits her move to England with helping her write a novel set in her native Saskatchewan.