Recommended Reading: A short story collection by an anonymous North Korean author was smuggled out of the country and will be published in English next year.
Dispatch from North Korea
Amis Scoffs at Literary Prizes
Martin Amis told the Hay Festival in Wales that only unenjoyable books win prizes, but the Telegraph’s lede implies sour grapes.
●
●
Nerdist Wilco
A Nerdist podcast featuring Wil Wheaton and Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy in which Tweedy discusses his path to becoming a musician, how his kids like having “a rockstar for a dad,” and lets listeners in on their sound check at The Wiltern? Well, there goes your Monday afternoon.
The Softer Side of HAL
No matter how you feel about poetry readings, you should take a look at this video, which excerpts the Stanford Computer Science Department’s first-ever Code Poetry Slam.
An Opium Eater, Reconsidered
At The Washington Post, Michael Dirda on the dissolute genius Thomas De Quincey (opium addict, original chronicler of addiction, master of the macabre, prolific C19th essayist).
●
●
But Who Hates On The Haters?
Jonathan Franzen’s Kraus Project should be “a match made in heaven,” writes Jacob Mikanowski, because of how it pairs together “the old hater [Karl Kraus] and the new [Franzen], the Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid of cultural criticism drawn together across the gulf of a century to take on all comers.” Alas, the end result is instead a “strange and rather discordant experience, like receiving a deep tissue massage while being spat on from a great height.” (Bonus: One of the best London Review of Books openers of all time.)
In Today’s Terms
Recommended Reading: On queer terminology and writing queer history.
●
●
Everyone has his problems
With a deep look at the history of pronouns and a close reading of the lake has no saint, Dana Levin provides a thoughtful look at the everyday problems caused by “he,” “she,” and “they”.
●
●