These Lacanian jokes will have you looking in the mirror and contemplating your existence.
The Mirror Stage
Practical Classics (Even When You Hate Them)
Year in Reading contributor Kevin Smokler’s new essay collection, Practical Classics, explores the benefits of revisiting the first books you read (even if you hated them). In fact, the difficult and excruciating books have a particular value. “Books aren’t all supposed to be our best friends,” says Smokler in a new Rumpus interview. “Sometimes they’re supposed to be that difficult friend who encourages us to do things that we don’t feel are rational or grown-up.”
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Big Bird Is Still Employed
Still mourning the end of 2012 Election jokes? The Poetry Foundation is here to help with “Binders Full of Poems by Women.”
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Talking Seveneves
Recommended listening: David Naimon talks with Neal Stephenson about his new novel, Seveneves. Pair with Chris Barsanti‘s Millions review.
‘Goodnight Moon’ Revisited
Brian Goedde takes a closer look at the characters within Margaret Wise Brown's classic Goodnight Moon, particularly the bunny at the center of the tale.
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“I decided to stage an event: Robot Wars.”
Recommended Reading: Got a ton of spare time and a nostalgic interest in killer, mechanized war machines? Cool. Me too. Here’s an oral history of Battlebots.
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City on a Hill
As the lone mental hospital in The Magic Mountain referred to by its real name, the Hotel Schatzalp is a holy site for many Thomas Mann scholars and fans. At Page-Turner, Sally McGrane writes about the modern hotel, which employs a staff trained to deal with the occasional “literary fanatic.” (It also might be a good time to read Matthew Gallaway on Death in Venice.)
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