Discovery of the Week: Fairy tales are older than previously thought. Researchers have traced stories back to prehistoric and bronze age times. For example, Beauty and the Beast and Rumplestiltskin “can be securely traced back to the emergence of the major western Indo-European subfamilies as distinct lineages between 2,500 and 6,000 years ago.” Kirsty Logan writes about the problem with fairy tales.
Prehistoric Fairy Tales
The IMPAC Dublin Longlist
As of this morning, the 2014 IMPAC Dublin longlist is out, and the titles that made the final cut are an eclectic assortment. The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín (which we reviewed) made the cut, as did The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson (which won the Pulitzer earlier this year) and Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel (which won the Booker Prize).
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“Your brain on metaphors”
"What’s emerging from these studies isn’t just a theory of language or of metaphor. It’s a nascent theory of consciousness." Michael Chorost writes about the importance of metaphors in literature and the brain.
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“Hana caraka / data sawala”
Fun Fact: the Javanese alphabet, read sequentially, comprises a pretty beautiful poem. What's your language's alphabet done lately?
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Night Shade Books Gets Shady
A publishing flap in three parts, with colons. 1: Publisher's Weekly details unsettling allegations about Night Shade Books -- an unwillingness to answer calls from writers or their agents, stolen digital rights, and missing royalty statements. 2: Night Shade issues an apology. 3: A wronged writer responds.
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