The Cool Kids
The Written World
The Written World is a five part radio series put together by Melyvn Bragg as part of the In Our Time BBC radio project. The programs look at the history of written word, and how it has shaped our intellectual history.
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Vindicating Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft had quite a few things to be angry about. McSweeney’s vindicates her anger. Pair with our own Anne K. Yoder’s piece on finding space to write in a relationship.
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Not Loving the List
In the Chicago Tribune, Julia Keller explains why all the year-end lists are a tiresome exercise: "What annoys and disappoints me, though, is the chilly retrospective nature of such lists. They drain all of the blood from the critic's job. They require a cold, methodical calculation of passions long past. They're about yesterday's yearning. Compiling them is a bit like trying to remember why you used to be in love with so-and-so." (Thanks, Laurie)
Incorporating Elements
"I gave up on making a happy ending in the true sense a long time ago." Japanese animator and film director Hayao Miyazaki is something of a legend. Over at The Literary Hub, Gabrielle Bellot takes a look at the expansive literary history of Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli.
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Best Photos of 2011
Reuters' best photos of 2011 are awe-inspiring.
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In the Frame
Photographers who are tired of weddings should start shooting book covers. When New Directions asked to use one of Allen Frame's photos for the cover of Robert Bolaño's Last Evenings on Earth, he gave them access to his archive instead. Today, nine Frame photos have been used on Bolaño book covers. You can view them here or at New York City's Gitterman Gallery.
Thomas Pynchon: The Comic Strip
Galley Cat highlights a 2003 comic strip, "Thomas Pynchon, Man of Mystery," that is unfortunately yet to go into syndication.