Ben Lerner and Cody Delistraty discuss why so many people (rightfully) hate poetry. Pair with this Millions piece on poetry for people who hate poetry.
Poetry Haters
“Do not open until war is over.”
“What he discovered was a box filled with disguised anti-Nazi tracts hidden in packets of tea and shampoo and concealed in miniature books both popular and scholarly.”
“A testament to the ‘borderless world'”
Year In Reading contributor Scott Esposito interviewed László Krasznahorkai’s translator Ottilie Mulzet. Among the topics they discuss is Seiobo There Below, Krasznahorkai’s most recent novel. It will be published this spring.
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Auditors Welcome
Historians N. D. B. Connolly and Keisha N. Blain have done us all a serious solid by assembling a syllabus of readings around "what many simply call 'Trumpism': personal and political gain marred by intolerance, derived from wealth, and rooted in the history of segregation, sexism, and exploitation." The self-directed course contains readings from more than 100 scholars – including Audre Lorde, Aziz Ansari, and Ta-Nehisi Coates – and aims to "introduce observers to the past and present conditions that allowed Trump to seize electoral control of a major American political party."
Tar Pit Blues
Recommended Reading: Alexander Aciman on Canto 22 of Dante’s Inferno. (His essay is part of a series I’ve written about before.)
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n+1: The Singles
Millions fave n+1 has begun putting out a series of mini-ebooks via Kindle Singles. Three are available thus far: "Octomom and the Politics of Babies" by Mark Grief, "Gatsby in New Delhi" by Siddhartha Deb, and "Argentinidad" by Benjamin Kunkel.