I’m still on vacation. But here are some links:
1. The image above is from a teaser promo for a new movie based on Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis. I don’t know what to think. You be the judge.
2. It was fifty years ago that Ernest Hemingway took his own life. David Ulin has some thoughts about Hemingway’s impact (and lack of impact) today. Also, the FBI really was spying on him.
3. Words Without Borders’ July issue is about The Arab Spring.
4. In the New York Review of Books, Geoffrey O’Brien considers Terence Malick’s new film The Tree of Life in light of the philosophical writings of William James.
5. Cormac McCarthy: Are We There Yet?. Fyodor Dostoevsky: Rent Was Too Damn High. John Knowles: I Hate You, I Love You, No Homo. A website called Better Book Titles was funny the first time I told you about it last year, and it’s still funny today.
6. The telephone logs of Robert Creeley, always a digital culture pioneer, as found art.
7. Remember when I published my memoir of the Silicon Alley boom and crash, one chapter per week, in 2009? Brad Lisi of the Nervous Breakdown is now beginning a similar weekly memoir experiment, consisting of curated cut-ups from his younger writings. It’s tentavely (very tentatively) titled “Possible Title”. I don’t know if Listi’s experiment s in any way inspired by mine, but I’m glad he’s doing it, and I’ll be reading it. I hope more writers and bloggers will try similar things. I remain convinced that everybody has a good memoir inside them, if they’d only take the trouble to write it. Everybody.
8. Novelist Colson Whitehead will be playing in the World Series of Poker.
9. The truly great guitarist/songwriter Trey Anastasio of Phish may be starting to get the intellectual respect he deserves. An extensive interview with Ross Simonini in The Believer.
10. Some folks are kickstarting a movie about Nelson Algren.
11. HTML Giant: What are your favorite tricks in literature?
12. Art About Books.
13. More art: very appealing covers of Jazz-era Chicago Magazine, which never equalled The New Yorker in reach or reputation, but sure tried, and now seems like a bizarro version of it.
14. A strange published anecdote about a teenage prank committed by Ann Beattie may not be as interesting as the negative reaction it’s getting.
4 Responses
That Trey Anastasio interview
That Trey Anastasio interview is top notch! I’m really glad you brought my attention to it.
Thanks Levi,
I always like
Thanks Levi,
I always like these potpourris. I always learn or find something in them or after following links.
This time when I followed the link about renamed books I discovered Jennifer Egan. Her book Visit from the Goon Squad was re-named: Aging Punks Eventually Buy Smart-Phones.
I hadn’t ever heard of her before, nor the book. I find out it won the Pulitzer Prize and that you’ve actually written a bit about it and another prize it won and Egan’s name has been mentioned here a number of times over the years. Shows how much I pay attention.
I was able to read one chapter from the book at the New Yorker site. It was about bands playing and people hanging out at the clubs and places I also did at the same time period back in San Francisco. Made me wonder if I even knew her casually (probably not). I’m always intrigued by literature like that — and more seems to come every day — where it is essentially about my, or the types of, experiences and the people I knew. I definitely want to read a book that name drops people I was friends with.
And this topic is apparently good enough to garner major awards like the Pulitzer Prize! I’m just amazed at this.
I liked her chapter (with some criticisms regarding historical accuracy). So I now will read the whole book.
So this is one example of how your collections of links always bear fruit.
And the picture at top, um, when the page loads and only the top part is visible before scrolling down, it can look like something else other than what it actually is.
TKG, I know what you mean
TKG, I know what you mean about connections. I’m always finding links and references that lead to other things that connect with either something I’m doing, or reading about, or interested in. Sometimes it’s downright uncanny.
I hope a movie gets made
I hope a movie gets made about Nelson Algren. I had forgotten that he won the first National Book Award.
Cool stuff.