Two years ago, Allison Parrish produced a diary of an expedition through “fantastical places that do not exist.” The twist? The diary was generated by a computer program, which extracted more than 5,700 sentences drawn from Project Gutenberg and later recombined at random by “switching out grammatical constituents.” An extract of the finished work, interspersed with Parrish’s nonfiction essay, can be read here.
Allison Parrish’s Generated Novel
A Hunger Games Odyssey
The team behind the film adaptations of the Hunger Games trilogy have chosen their next project, and it’s not another hip YA series. Instead they’re going back to the classics and adapting, what else?, The Odyssey.
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So Much Drool
Sorry for the mess but we’re still drooling over these photos of A Brief History of Seven Killings author Marlon James‘s Minneapolis loft. Slightly less glamorous but (we think) of equal literary importance, these pictures of our own writing spaces.
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Keith Gessen Arrested
n+1 co-editor Keith Gessen was arrested in the midst of today’s Occupy Wall Street demonstrations. This video depicts part of the scene; he is the first seated man to be pulled away by police. This video depicts him making a statement (in handcuffs) at the 5:05 mark. (via)
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Good Omen
It’s been 23 years since Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman wrote Good Omens together, but a new collaboration is in the works. Director Dirk Maggs revealed to RadioTimes.com that he’s working with Gaiman on a Pratchett project for BBC Radio. Previously, Maggs teamed up with Gaiman on the excellent Neverwhere radio adaptation. More good news for Pratchett fans: he just signed a 10-book deal with Doubleday and Anchor Books.
Clinton’s Appetite for Diet Books
Bill Clinton, at 65, has become the Blurber-in-Chief, an activist health convert who has enthusiastically endorsed three diet books: Eddie Shapes Up by Ed Koch, Think and Grow Thin by weight-loss coach Charles D’Angelo, and The Blood Sugar Solution: The UltraHealthy Program for Losing Weight, Preventing Disease, and Feeling Great Now, a new book by Dr. Mark Hyman. No more “Fat Elvis” jokes for Bill.
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A Proper Analysis
“All this is by way of saying that in the United States we haven’t got any actual royals, and yet almost the very first stories we hear are about princes and princesses, kings and queens. When a little American kid first learns that there is such a thing as real, live princes and princesses, who live in actual palaces, this is liable to come as a terrific shock, though in general a pleasing one. One would like it to be true; it’s a very nice idea, that there is such a thing as an incorruptible person for whom everything will — everything must — come right in the end.” Maria Bustillos on America’s fascination with royalty.
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