Selling the Collective: On Kevin Killian's "Selected Amazon Reviews"
(clereviewofbooks.com)
I texted a friend about an upcoming collection of Amazon reviews by the writer Kevin Killian. He texted back that he thinks a lot about all the great writing that has disappeared over the years—from early Usenet, billboards, MySpace, and weblogs—into the ether.
I texted a friend about an upcoming collection of Amazon reviews by the writer Kevin Killian. He texted back that he thinks a lot about all the great writing that has disappeared over the years—from early Usenet, billboards, MySpace, and weblogs—into the ether.
Literate programming: Knuth is doing it wrong (2014)
(akkartik.name)
Literate programming advocates this: Order your code for others to read, not for the compiler. Beautifully typeset your code so one can curl up in bed to read it like a novel. Keep documentation in sync with code. What's not to like about this vision? I have two beefs with it: the ends are insufficiently ambitious by focusing on a passive representation; and the means were insufficiently polished, by over-emphasizing typesetting at the cost of prose quality.
Literate programming advocates this: Order your code for others to read, not for the compiler. Beautifully typeset your code so one can curl up in bed to read it like a novel. Keep documentation in sync with code. What's not to like about this vision? I have two beefs with it: the ends are insufficiently ambitious by focusing on a passive representation; and the means were insufficiently polished, by over-emphasizing typesetting at the cost of prose quality.
The Chaos (1922)
(idallen.com)
A number of readers have been urging republication of The Chaos, the well-known versified catalogue of English spelling irregularities.
A number of readers have been urging republication of The Chaos, the well-known versified catalogue of English spelling irregularities.
Visualizing Joyce's Ulysses: "Sirens" as a Graphic Score
(emilyfuhrman.co)
In reference to schemas for Ulysses, Joyce describes the compositional technique behind the “Sirens” episode as a “fugue with all musical notations,”[1] and as including the “eight regular parts of a fuga per canonem.”[2] While the structure of the episode remains unresolved, this project is an attempt to track and classify all of the sounds that comprise it, and depict them as a graphic score.
In reference to schemas for Ulysses, Joyce describes the compositional technique behind the “Sirens” episode as a “fugue with all musical notations,”[1] and as including the “eight regular parts of a fuga per canonem.”[2] While the structure of the episode remains unresolved, this project is an attempt to track and classify all of the sounds that comprise it, and depict them as a graphic score.
The Complete Text of "All Watched over by Machines of Loving Grace"
(jgc.org)
Richard Brautigan's poem "All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace" is somewhat well known in tech. circles but I couldn't find a complete PDF of the original 1967 publication of it (and other poems) online.
Richard Brautigan's poem "All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace" is somewhat well known in tech. circles but I couldn't find a complete PDF of the original 1967 publication of it (and other poems) online.
A Supermarket in California (1955)
(poetryfoundation.org)
What thoughts I have of you tonight, Walt Whitman, for I walked down the sidestreets under the trees with a headache self-conscious looking at the full moon.
What thoughts I have of you tonight, Walt Whitman, for I walked down the sidestreets under the trees with a headache self-conscious looking at the full moon.
The Heroic Industry of the Brothers Grimm
(hudsonreview.com)
In an 1846 letter to the Athenaeum, English writer William Thoms coined a term, “folklore.”
In an 1846 letter to the Athenaeum, English writer William Thoms coined a term, “folklore.”
David Lodge, British novelist who satirized academic life, has died
(nytimes.com)
David Lodge, the erudite author of academic comedy and a wide-ranging literary critic, died on Wednesday in Birmingham, England. He was 89.
David Lodge, the erudite author of academic comedy and a wide-ranging literary critic, died on Wednesday in Birmingham, England. He was 89.
In search of a new 20th-century canon
(newstatesman.com)
In Stranger Than Fiction, the American editor Edwin Frank seeks to tell the story of the modern novel through an eccentric, provoking list of 32 books.
In Stranger Than Fiction, the American editor Edwin Frank seeks to tell the story of the modern novel through an eccentric, provoking list of 32 books.
Killing Orson Welles at Midnight (2011)
(nybooks.com)
It’s two in the afternoon. No one is groaning; no one turns over in bed or hits an alarm clock—it’s much too late for that. Love set you going like a fat gold watch.… But by two o’clock the morning song is just a memory. We are no longer speculating as to what set us going, we just know we are going. We are less sentimental in the afternoon. We watch the minute hand go round: 2:01 becoming 2:02 becoming 2:03.
It’s two in the afternoon. No one is groaning; no one turns over in bed or hits an alarm clock—it’s much too late for that. Love set you going like a fat gold watch.… But by two o’clock the morning song is just a memory. We are no longer speculating as to what set us going, we just know we are going. We are less sentimental in the afternoon. We watch the minute hand go round: 2:01 becoming 2:02 becoming 2:03.
What Is To Be Done? The book that helped spark the Russian Revolution
(onepercentrule.substack.com)
"No work in modern literature, with the possible exception of Uncle Tom's Cabin, can compete with What Is to Be Done? in its effect on human lives and its power to make history”. ~ Joseph Frank, The Southern Review
"No work in modern literature, with the possible exception of Uncle Tom's Cabin, can compete with What Is to Be Done? in its effect on human lives and its power to make history”. ~ Joseph Frank, The Southern Review
A Private Life – Nikolai Tolstoy Remembers Patrick O'Brian
(unseenhistories.com)
A Very Private Life – Nikolai Tolstoy Remembers Patrick O’Brian
A Very Private Life – Nikolai Tolstoy Remembers Patrick O’Brian
A Legendary Exposé of the Brutality of the Soviet Union
(smithsonianmag.com)
Published on this day in 1973, “The Gulag Archipelago” drew on Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s experiences as a political dissident in a prison camp, but it left him deported and stateless for the next two decades
Published on this day in 1973, “The Gulag Archipelago” drew on Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s experiences as a political dissident in a prison camp, but it left him deported and stateless for the next two decades
Populism and the World of Oz (2016)
(americanhistory.si.edu)
In 1964 Henry Littlefield, a Columbia University-trained historian, wrote a breakthrough article in the scholarly American Quarterly titled “The Wizard of Oz: Parable on Populism.”
In 1964 Henry Littlefield, a Columbia University-trained historian, wrote a breakthrough article in the scholarly American Quarterly titled “The Wizard of Oz: Parable on Populism.”
Big five publishers have abandoned literary fiction, putting it on life support
(persuasion.community)
Literary fiction is dead. Or, so we’ve been told. Perhaps we can agree it lies bleeding.
Literary fiction is dead. Or, so we’ve been told. Perhaps we can agree it lies bleeding.
Best Books of the 21st Century
(nytimes.com)
As voted on by 503 novelists, nonfiction writers, poets, critics and other book lovers — with a little help from the staff of The New York Times Book Review.
As voted on by 503 novelists, nonfiction writers, poets, critics and other book lovers — with a little help from the staff of The New York Times Book Review.
Geoengineering (Wrong 2)
(nealstephenson.substack.com)
Because of my book Termination Shock I am occasionally contacted by journalists writing stories about the idea of geoengineering—specifically Solar Radiation Management (SRM), a proposed way of temporarily cooling down the earth by putting aerosols into the stratosphere. These will reflect a small fraction of the sun’s light back into space before it can warm things up down here.
Because of my book Termination Shock I am occasionally contacted by journalists writing stories about the idea of geoengineering—specifically Solar Radiation Management (SRM), a proposed way of temporarily cooling down the earth by putting aerosols into the stratosphere. These will reflect a small fraction of the sun’s light back into space before it can warm things up down here.
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening (1923)
(poets.org)
Whose woods these are I think I know.His house is in the village though;He will not see me stopping hereTo watch his woods fill up with snow.
Whose woods these are I think I know.His house is in the village though;He will not see me stopping hereTo watch his woods fill up with snow.
The essays of Michel de Montaigne online
(hyperessays.net)
HyperEssays is a project to create a modern and accessible online edition of the Essays of Michel de Montaigne.
HyperEssays is a project to create a modern and accessible online edition of the Essays of Michel de Montaigne.
Magical Thinking: Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward (2011)
(laphamsquarterly.org)
Fiction rarely influences politics anymore, either because fewer people read it or because it has fewer things to say. Yet novels have affected America in large and unsubtle ways: Uncle Tom’s Cabin and The Jungle shaped the contours of the national current no less profoundly than our periodic wars and bank panics.
Fiction rarely influences politics anymore, either because fewer people read it or because it has fewer things to say. Yet novels have affected America in large and unsubtle ways: Uncle Tom’s Cabin and The Jungle shaped the contours of the national current no less profoundly than our periodic wars and bank panics.
Consider the Shipwreck: Ten Books on Maritime Disasters and Ecological Collapse
(lithub.com)
I am a nature writer during ecocollapse. I have an incurable genetic kidney disease, polycystic kidney disease (PKD), inherited from my father, that has tracked down our family for more than one hundred and fifty years, and killed most of us before we reached fifty. After facing those twin tragedies, you’d think I’d be reading cat mysteries, romances, books about gardening. Instead, I find myself in indie bookstores looking for books about shipwrecks.
I am a nature writer during ecocollapse. I have an incurable genetic kidney disease, polycystic kidney disease (PKD), inherited from my father, that has tracked down our family for more than one hundred and fifty years, and killed most of us before we reached fifty. After facing those twin tragedies, you’d think I’d be reading cat mysteries, romances, books about gardening. Instead, I find myself in indie bookstores looking for books about shipwrecks.
Popeye and Tintin enter the public domain in 2025 along with Faulkner, Hemingway
(apnews.com)
Popeye can punch without permission and Tintin can roam freely starting in 2025. The two classic comic characters who first appeared in 1929 are among the intellectual properties becoming public domain in the United States on Jan. 1.
Popeye can punch without permission and Tintin can roam freely starting in 2025. The two classic comic characters who first appeared in 1929 are among the intellectual properties becoming public domain in the United States on Jan. 1.
Infectious diseases in Victorian novels highlight public health fragility now
(theconversation.com)
Modern medicine has enabled citizens of wealthy, industrialized nations to forget that children once routinely died in shocking numbers. Teaching 19th-century English literature, I regularly encounter gutting depictions of losing a child, and I am reminded that not knowing the emotional cost of widespread child mortality is a luxury.
Modern medicine has enabled citizens of wealthy, industrialized nations to forget that children once routinely died in shocking numbers. Teaching 19th-century English literature, I regularly encounter gutting depictions of losing a child, and I am reminded that not knowing the emotional cost of widespread child mortality is a luxury.
Stranger Than Fiction: Lives of the Twentieth-Century Novel
(thebaffler.com)
Did the novels of the twentieth century accomplish anything? Edwin Frank, who is known for his love of the genre, is convinced they did. In his stylish, selective survey Stranger Than Fiction: Lives of the Twentieth-Century Novel, he focuses on the genre’s formal innovations, which take readers’ minds off their somewhat vulgar appetite for suspenseful plot and relatable character and teach them to be satisfied, instead, with something like a diet of single sentences, exquisitely prepared.
Did the novels of the twentieth century accomplish anything? Edwin Frank, who is known for his love of the genre, is convinced they did. In his stylish, selective survey Stranger Than Fiction: Lives of the Twentieth-Century Novel, he focuses on the genre’s formal innovations, which take readers’ minds off their somewhat vulgar appetite for suspenseful plot and relatable character and teach them to be satisfied, instead, with something like a diet of single sentences, exquisitely prepared.