Tuesday, June 29, 2004

lacking Latin title: Go on, try them

Swink (which Gwenda will no doubt tell us is pretty good, I not having read it yet) editor says she wants the different, the embarrassing (does that include bad spelling?) and the surreal. Anyone know anyone who writes like that?

Tuesday, June 15, 2004

"Bear Naked Ladies"?

(Mea culpa, tabula rasa.)

D.C.'s pandas are being defaced.

Freedom -- a bronze-painted, teddy bear version of the statue atop the Capitol -- lost the eagle, Native American headdress and 13 stars that adorned her helmet, as well as the stars from her shield. Two colorful, prehistoric-looking birds were stolen from atop Cro-Magnon Panda. Ti-Bet Your Life, a Groucho Marx look-alike, was robbed of a pair of eyeglasses and the back part of a jacket.

I am picturing someone in a very strange outfit.

Sunday, June 13, 2004

different tempests, same teapot

I ignored as much as I could, comforted by the fact that not only did they not Get It, they actively made statements that were just insupportable by the text no matter how you shade it (Allegra hates her father? Puleeze). But basically, I concur with Alan and Kristin -- you're nobody until somebody hates your work. It's hard to take Slate seriously when they do things like give the surely sucking eggs Stepford Wives a good review.

Some brilliant things in the comments though. Like this gem (thank you KDL):

The invisibility of males in The Jane Austin Book Club is symptomatic of much bigger cultural and political problem. Have you heard of the rapidly growing movement, Fathers 4 Justice? See http://www.fathers-4-justice.org/ Do men's issues mean to you just having coverage of college football? Get an education -- see www.mensactivism.org Or just continue the voyeristic fascination with vagina monologues that The Jane Austin Book club represents.

But on to more serious arguments...

Sarah Weinman actually has a really interesting post about how hype may hurt the actual reading experience of books and how books that get lots of positive press and buzz also, without fail, end up experiencing at least some degree of backlash. (Witness The Lovely Bones.)

Friday, June 11, 2004

For Boots or Not

I'm not sure if this is good With Boots materials or not but here goes. The Google blog this week gives the lowdown on the holiday and other event googles. When they appear, they never fail to provide a little light in my day.

Did anyone else read the Slate interchange on Karen's book? Alan and I were just discussing them and decided that you've really made it once people spend so much energy arguing the negatives of a book.