John Irving, The Art of Fiction No. 93 I’m not a twentieth-century novelist, I’m not modern, and certainly not postmodern. I follow the form of the nineteenth-century novel; that was the century that produced the models of the form. I’m old-fashioned, a storyteller. I’m not an analyst and I’m not an intellectual. WHICH BOOKS DO […]
Internet reading that caught my eye over the past week. Megan Abbott’s Bloodthirsty Murderesses The thriller writer probes the psychological underpinnings of female rage. Because, Abbott says, “girls are darker than boys.” New Black Gothic Sheri-Marie Harrison, associate professor of English at the University of Missouri, explains what she calls the new black Gothic in
These are the stories from the internet that piqued my interest over the last week. Why We Don’t Read, Revisited Caleb Crain, in a follow-up to a decade-old report on Americans’ reading habits, reports that the time Americans spend reading continues to decline. “Television, rather than the Internet, likely remains the primary force distracting Americans
Dystopian dreams: how feminist science fiction predicted the future Innovative narrative game Dialogue: A Writer’s Story out now Studio co-founder and designer of Dialogue, Dustin Connor, added: “Conversation can be different depending on the context and participants, and we wanted to craft different visuals and mechanics for different conversations to reflect that. Some are timed
What Makes a Person: The Seven Layers of Identity in Literature and Life Why ‘The Outsiders’ Lives On: A Teenage Novel Turns 50 A FEW WORDS ABOUT THAT TEN-MILLION-DOLLAR SERIAL COMMA Critical thinking instruction in humanities reduces belief in pseudoscience New Crop of Young Adult Novels Explores Race and Police Brutality
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All the buzz this week has been related to the U.S. inauguration. Knitting protesters grab back at Trump with pink cat hats The day after Donald Trump is inaugurated president, the signature fashion statement of women marching in protest will be this: a handmade pink “pussy hat” with cat ears tipped directly at Trump and
He Fixes Cracked Spines, Without an Understudy A wonderful story about Donald Vass, who cares for damanged books for the King County Public Library system near Seattle, WA. At age 57, Voss is approaching retirement age, but there’s no one to take his place. NOT MY SHERLOCK There was a lot of discussion on my
Video Games Are Changing the Hero Videogame heroes take up a larger amount of people’s imaginations today than they ever have before. In the cultural economy they are as big a force as the heroes in books and movies. But as relatively new as videogame heroes are, some still question their ability to impact us
15 Incredible Movies That Started As Books How many of these have you heard of or seen? I’ve heard of nine but have only seen five. On the Merits of Annotating There’s no doubt than annotating books makes us active readers. Here’s how Anthony DeFeo writes his notes in the margin: As I read, I
Here are some of the articles from around the web that I’ve been looking at recently. Protecting Your Digital Life in 7 Easy Steps Some suggestions for how to make your personal data”more difficult for attackers to obtain.” Excavations at Shakespeare’s Curtain Theatre Reveal Elizabethan Secrets Fascinating discoveries from excavation of the Curtain Theatre, a
