Octavia Butler did everything she set herself to do in this ambitious to-do list—courtesy of the Butler Archive at the Huntington Library in San Marino.
Ready, Set, Goals
Poetry of Displacement
Recommended Reading: Mai Der Vang's striking poem about displacement “Light From a Burning Citadel” at The Missouri Review. "Once this highland was our birthplace. Once we were children of kings."
●
●
Talking with Matthew Weiner
Just in time for the new season of Mad Men, The Paris Review unlocked their interview with Matthew Weiner from the new issue. The showrunner talks, among other things, about his father's love of Swann's Way and his own adolescent love of Winesburg, Ohio. You could also take a look at our own Hannah Gersen's list of books to read when the season winds down.
●
●
Grid World
“He is for the most part interested in documenting the sources of our unusual suffering, those initial shocks that brought about the trauma in the first place. Nothing ‘languishes listlessly’ in his music; all those slowly orbiting fragments are drawn back together in furious rotation, sucked inexorably in, towards a volatile core. The mood never stabilizes; madness reigns supreme.” This piece by Tom Regel at The Rumpus on realism in the work of DJ/Producer Flying Lotus is both thorough and convincing.
●
●
The Rooster Longlist
For the first time in the history of The Morning News' Tournament of Books, the longlist of all the titles under consideration has been published. From these titles, 16 will emerge for the literary throwdown in March.
What’s in a Name?
Why would anyone write a book anonymously? Maria Bustillos ponders anonymity at The New Yorker. "Anonymous is more than a pseudonym. It is a stark declaration of intent: a wall explicitly thrown up, not only between writer and reader, but between the writer’s work and his life."
●
●
Goon Squad to the Small Screen?
Well, this is interesting. HBO is looking at turning Jennifer Egan's Pulitzer-winning A Visit from the Goon Squad into a TV series.
●
●