How Gruesome Penny Dreadfuls Got Victorian Children Reading
“Despite causing a moral panic, these salacious tales helped boost literacy in Victorian England.”
Even if you don’t read the article, take a gander at the illustrations.
I’m Glad I Don’t Picture Anything When I Read
Here’s an article on aphantasia or “mind blindness.” It attracted my attention because, when I read, I often picture the landscape or immediate scene that’s described, but I don’t picture people—at least not their faces. One discussion topic that often comes up on literary blogs is “who do you picture playing this role in the movie?” and I never have an answer. When I see a movie adapted from a book I get a feeling of whether a particular actor was well cast for the part, but I wouldn’t have imagined that actor—or any other—in the part beforehand. I also have a very good “mind’s eye” for remembering things I’ve actually seen but not for simply imagining an apple.
How about you? Do you picture fictional characters while reading?
Why is Baseball the Most Literary of Sports?
Baseball has been known as America’s “national pastime” since the 1850s. While the sport may have been surpassed by football in the TV ratings, there’s still something about wooden bats, leather gloves, and grass-and-dirt diamonds that feels distinctly American. And distinctly literary.
Lincoln Michel looks at baseball’s “tremendous literary history.”
What Happens When Everyone Is Writing the Same Book You Are?
This is kind of an odd story, in which Olivia Parker relates finding that lots of other people were researching the same historical incident that she has an oblique family relation to.
Why every generation re-discovers Stephen King
We’re in the middle of a King revival in movies and TV. The gold rush for marketable intellectual property has made Hollywood return to the immensely popular author’s work in a spectacular way. While King’s books have always had a reasonably steady on-screen presence over the years, the King explosion over the last four years has been remarkable.
Joshua Rivera examines the current King revival.
Justice Department Sues to Block Penguin Random House Acquisition of S&S
Publishers Weekly takes a look at the current lawsuit.
© 2021 by Mary Daniels Brown
