“What matters is you, all alone at your desk at five in the morning.” We’ve come a long way from Dear Abby and Ann Landers, says Megan Marz in an essay for The Point, in which she looks at a younger generation of columnists that includes Cheryl Strayed, Heather Havrilesky, and Kristen Dombek. And speaking of advice! Have you checked out our new writing-advice counselors Swarm and Spark? No? Well then hie yourself to their column already!
How Should An Advice Columnist Be
The (Literary) Gen-X Midlife Crisis
At the Daily Beast, Taylor Antrim analyzes Bret Easton Ellis, Jennifer Egan and the Gen-X midlife crisis: “Sad white guys! The culture’s lousy with them…”
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The School of Life
“There is something ersatz, if not quite fraudulent, about [Alain] de Botton’s entire intellectual enterprise.” At The Los Angeles Review of Books, Lisa Levy throws down the gauntlet.
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The Maya School Needs Help
Last year, Netherland author Joseph O’Neill helped open the Maya School, a school for Syrian refugee children in Turkey. Now he’s asking for donations of additional funds to keep the school operational. “We have set up a transparent and cost-effective partnership with Turkish counterparts of great integrity and knowhow,” O’Neill writes. “Of the $16,000 we raised last year, $3000 still remains. That tells you how far your dollars will go.”
Meet Ant-Roach
Meet Ant-Roach, an inflatable clackety six-legged robot with a protruding proboscis whose goal is to demonstrate the high strength-to-weight ratios of inflatable platforms. Can we say kid’s birthday parties?
Big Brother
“‘Moby Dick is one of my favorite books, but let’s face it — it’s a hot mess,’ says Evison. ‘If I had software that said, ‘Look, maybe this four-page essay on scrimshaw isn’t gonna fly with your 28 to 40 male [demographic],’ what would we have lost with that? Sometimes, you know, it’s just got to be a little bit of a dictatorship.'” When e-readers and marketing tactics collide.
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