We’ve thought a lot about Leonard Cohen over the years. We’re perhaps, uh, not the only ones. Recently, Cohen’s love letters to Marianne Ihlen sold for a whopping $876,000. While Ihlen and Cohen’s love is recorded in songs like “So Long, Marianne,” these letters appear to preserve something more quotidian: the writing and publication of Cohen’s novels. Referring to his debut, The Favorite Game, Cohen wrote that the literary critics have “all screamed about the wild undisciplined dirty book, so it’s selling quite well.”
Leonard Cohen in Love
The Role of Art and Artists in Contemporary Cultural Activism
In conjunction with the new documentary film “The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975” (reviewed by our own Bill Morris last week), New York’s Third Streaming Gallery will be hosting a conversation on the role of art and artists in contemporary cultural activism. The discussion will be held tonight at 7pm, and it will include Rico Gaston, Jacqueline Hoang Nguyen, Donna Murch, and Minkah Makalani.
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The Kiddies are Alright
Celebrity watch: that guy from The Decemberists lands a children’s book deal. Waiting in the wings: A Vampire Weekend macroeconomics textbook; Dina Lohan’s‘s haiku collection; and Jeremy Irons’ zombie mashup, Bride’s Head Revivified.
Astaroth, Prince of Hell
Here’s to wishing you a spooky Halloween with this piece by Micah Nathan of The Paris Review. Nathan hearkens back to his boyhood–a much simpler time of casual demon-summoning, Satanism, and the occult. This essay by our own Anne K. Yoder will satisfy any lingering desire for the four Humors.
A Soviet Gollum
This week in beautiful books: Eugène Delacroix once illustrated Goethe’s Faust, and Goethe himself claimed the resulting lithographs “surpassed my own vision.” A full version of the work is now available online. And in a slightly more light-hearted vein, English Russia has found and scanned a delightful Soviet version of The Hobbit, complete with a Gollum straight out of Dr. Seuss.
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On Yesterday’s Earthquake
In both pizza and geological terms, the East Coast is known for its thin crust.
Dreaming and Writing
Maria Popova writes on Freud’s The Interpretations of Dreams, childhood, and the unconscious. For The Millions, Chloe Benjamin writes about fiction and dreaming.
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Does Hollywood Screw Up Science Fiction?
“Look. There are are only two truly great science fiction movies. The first is Stanley Kubrick’s 2001…The second is Blade Runner…You may disagree with this statement. You would be wrong. Let’s move on.” Damien Walter at Guardian accuses Hollywood of screwing up science fiction.
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