Hacker News with Generative AI: Literature

Done in by Time (thelampmagazine.com)
Unlike science, the history of art is not a story of progress. Instead, art—all the arts: literature, music, painting, and sculpture—has high and low periods of varying lengths. Just now, for example, in the realm of high art, we are going through a low period. If you doubt this, ask yourself the work of which contemporary novelist, poet, composer, or painter you are eagerly awaiting. I’ll pause here a moment while you fail to find any.
Art, Literature, Music, Painting, Sculpture
25 points by lermontov 14 hours ago | 12 comments
Mary MacLane, the Wild Woman from Butte (publicdomainreview.org)
A century before publishers started marketing novels as “essential sad girl literature” and newspapers ran headlines about the “cult of the literary sad woman”, Mary MacLane confessed all, at the age of nineteen, and became the enfant terrible of American letters, seemingly overnight.
Literature, Biography, History, Women's Writing
39 points by samclemens 1 day ago | 5 comments
"Poetry City": Iowa City, Iowa (publicbooks.org)
Iowa City is the place where contemporary English literature matters more than anywhere else on earth.
Literature, Iowa, Cities
52 points by samclemens 1 day ago | 26 comments
You are the heir to something greater than Empire (noahpinion.blog)
“The blood of Numenor is all but spent, its pride and dignity forgotten” — Elrond
Fantasy, Literature, History
6 points by codingmoh 2 days ago | 1 comments
Henry James was not at home in America (newrepublic.com)
Contra Thomas Wolfe, you actually can go home again—but once you see how much it’s changed, you may want to leave just as quickly.
Literature, America, Culture, Travel
18 points by benbreen 2 days ago | 14 comments
Sarah Wynn-Williams's 'Careless People' (pluralistic.net)
Art, Literature, Books
11 points by Tomte 3 days ago | 1 comments
An Utterly Incomplete Look at Research from 1825 (bcmullins.github.io)
This series looks at research from years past. I survey a handful of books and articles in a particular year from math, economics, philosophy, international relations, and other interesting topics. This project was inspired by my retrospective on Foreign Affairs' first issue from September 1922.
Research, History, Academia, 19th Century, Literature
34 points by wannabebarista 4 days ago | 2 comments
The Value of Differences: Jennifer Lindsay on Noticing Translation (sydneyreviewofbooks.com)
International literary prizes and book reviews are increasingly acknowledging the importance of translated work. However, as Jennifer Lindsay argues, while translators themselves are receiving acclaim, their art remains largely underappreciated.
Translation, Literature, Publishing, Awards
31 points by Thevet 5 days ago | 26 comments
Banned Books List 2025 (pen.org)
What books are banned in 2025? Thousands of titles have been removed from public schools across the country.
Book Censorship, Education, Literature, Society
12 points by jruohonen 7 days ago | 7 comments
No Robot Like Robot (2018) (slate.com)
An A.I. programmer responds to Annalee Newitz’s “When Robot and Crow Saved East St. Louis.”
Artificial Intelligence, Science Fiction, Literature
11 points by Anon84 8 days ago | 0 comments
Mario Vargas Llosa has died (nytimes.com)
The Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa was the world’s savviest and most accomplished political novelist.
Literature, Obituary, Politics
212 points by funkaster 12 days ago | 80 comments
Mario Vargas Llosa, Nobel-Winning Peruvian Novelist, Dies at 89 (nytimes.com)
Mario Vargas Llosa, the Peruvian novelist who combined gritty realism with playful erotica and depictions of the struggle for individual liberty in Latin America, while also writing essays that made him one of the most influential political commentators in the Spanish-speaking world, died on Sunday in Lima. He was 89.
Literature, Peru, Nobel Prize, Obituaries
12 points by wslh 12 days ago | 1 comments
100th Anniversary of the Great Gatsby: The Chicago Connection (chicagotribune.com)
This week marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby.” It was destined to be the definitive literary monument of the Roaring ’20s, a decade of fortunes made and lost on Wall Street.
Literature, History, 1920s, Chicago
18 points by elorm 13 days ago | 4 comments
The Essential Reading List for TTRPGs (thealexandrian.net)
“If you were teaching a intro-level college class on roleplaying game design, what would be the reading list?”
Role-Playing Games, Gaming, Design, Education, Literature
16 points by BerislavLopac 13 days ago | 4 comments
Emily Dickinson's Playful Letterlocking (mitpress.mit.edu)
Among the extraordinary literary output of Emily Dickinson are her “envelope poems,” short bursts of verse recorded on fragments of envelopes much like the ones we still use today.
Literature, Poetry, History
27 points by bookofjoe 14 days ago | 3 comments
Silicon Valley 'nepo baby' publishes scathing first novel about growing up rich (sfstandard.com)
In his debut book, Daniel Breyer, son of billionaire VC Jim Breyer, skewers the world of wealth and privilege he grew up in.
Silicon Valley, Social Commentary, Wealth, Family, Literature
23 points by CalChris 18 days ago | 15 comments
Why Catullus continues to seduce us (newyorker.com)
Catullus was so renowned that his early death occasioned public mourning, but his work was nearly lost, with just a single manuscript surviving until the Renaissance.
Literature, Poetry, History
70 points by frereubu 19 days ago | 34 comments
Salvador Dalí's Rare 1969 Illustrations for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (themarginalian.org)
In 1865, a Victorian mathematician wrote a fairy tale that would go on to live parallel lives as one of the world’s most beloved children’s books and a modernist masterwork of philosophy that mushrooms its yield of wisdom with each reading — one of humanity’s very few works, alongside perhaps Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man, which subtly and seamlessly fuse art, science, and philosophy.
Art, Literature, History
12 points by crescit_eundo 20 days ago | 2 comments
China Miéville says we shouldn't blame science fiction for its bad readers (msn.com)
“Let’s not blame science fiction for this,” he said. “It’s not science fiction that’s causing this kind of sociopathy.”
Science Fiction, Literature, Society
5 points by walterbell 21 days ago | 1 comments
W.G. Sebald and the Politics of Melancholy (newrepublic.com)
W.G. Sebald’s premature death from a heart attack, in December 2001, at 57—months after the publication of his novel Austerlitz propelled him to the height of his literary fame—has left his readers wanting more, and ever since, his publishers have increasingly delved deeper into his oeuvre for posthumous releases.
Literature, Politics, Death, Obituary
26 points by Hooke 21 days ago | 3 comments
When Jorge Luis Borges met one of the founders of AI (resobscura.substack.com)
One reason I became a historian is the joy of encountering moments in the past that are foreign, yet also oddly familiar. These moments seem to ripple outward, lapping up against the present in unexpected ways.
Artificial Intelligence, History, Literature
167 points by benbreen 24 days ago | 61 comments
The Colors of Her Coat (astralcodexten.com)
Fiction, Literature, Personal Essays
52 points by feross 25 days ago | 49 comments
In the Matter of the Commas (theamericanscholar.org)
For the true literary stylist, this seemingly humble punctuation mark is a matter of precision, logic, individuality, and music
Grammar, Punctuation, Writing, Style, Literature
11 points by apollinaire 25 days ago | 0 comments
The Prevention of Literature (1947) (theatlantic.com)
To write in plain, vigorous language one has to think fearlessly, and if one thinks fearlessly one cannot be politically orthodox.
Literature, Politics, Censorship, Writing
9 points by petethomas 26 days ago | 2 comments
Eco Cycles or How I Feel About Technology (maksimizmaylov.com)
Umberto Eco, the author of The Name of the Rose and Foucault’s Pendulum (my personal favorite), wasn’t just a brilliant scholar—he was also a bit of a geek. He once wrote an essay comparing Macs to Catholicism and PCs to Protestantism. He thought about technology a lot.
Technology, Essays, Umberto Eco, Literature
62 points by Kvakes 26 days ago | 58 comments
China Miéville says we shouldn't blame science fiction for its bad readers (techcrunch.com)
It’s been 25 years since China Miéville stepped into the literary spotlight with his novel “Perdido Street Station.”
Science Fiction, Books, Literature, Authors
16 points by pseudolus 26 days ago | 2 comments
The Child and the Shadow (1975) [pdf] (johnirons.com)
Psychology, Literature, Books
78 points by lolinder 27 days ago | 20 comments
Jack London, Jack Johnson, and the Fight of the Century (publicdomainreview.org)
History, Literature, Boxing
9 points by samclemens 27 days ago | 1 comments
Lost manuscript of Merlin and King Arthur hidden inside another book (bbc.com)
An intriguing sequel to the tale of Merlin has sat unseen within the bindings of an Elizabethan deeds register for nearly 400 years. Researchers have finally been able to reveal it with cutting-edge techniques.
History, Literature, Archaeology, Manuscripts
11 points by rolph 32 days ago | 0 comments
Borne Back Ceaselessly into the Past: Fitzgerald, Gatsby and WWI (theworldwar.org)
“The Great Gatsby,” written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1925, offers a vivid portrayal of post-World War I America.
Literature, History
46 points by gmays 32 days ago | 16 comments