March 2011
82 posts
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Can Digital and Print Books Live in Harmony? →
The smart folks at Unplggd are taking a thoughtful look at the advantages of print and digital books in their various forms. I completely forgot about how handy it is having ebook versions of instructional books, (nerd alert) especially code and software manuals. Good point, guys.
Posted by Joana
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Nobel-Winning Scatological Humor: Volume 1.1
From Samuel Beckett’s Eleuthéria:
M. Krap: I will be frank with you. I was a writer. Mme. Meck: He is a member of the Institute! M. Krap: What did I tell you. Dr. Piouk: What genre? M. Krap: I don’t follow you. Dr. Piouk: I speak of your writings. Your preferences were for what genre? M. Krap: For the shit genre. Mme. Piouk: Really. Dr. Piouk: Poetry or prose? M. Krap: One day...
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“Mischief + Mayhem is starting a publishing... →
Mischief + Mayhem’s LES antics are covered in Jessanne Collin’s debut “Bookish” column on Thirteen.org. We’ll miss Gillian Reagan’s pieces, but clearly she’s left the site in great hands. (And we can always catch her excellent book coverage on Capital NY!)
Posted by Fern
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Literary Esoterica and the Politics of Grammar: A...
The politics of the editorial class are decidedly Straussian. In a chaotic literary world in which the life of the written word is nasty, brutish and short, it is up to the elite to uniformly promulgate the belief that there are grammatical rules. We know this to be a lie. We know that the decision to use either a comma or a semi-colon is largely a question of emphasis rather than correctness. But...
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“I have friends on antidepressants who, over the twenty days of revolution,...”
– the-monitor:
Ahdaf Soueif, foreword for “Tweets from Tahrir,” a new book of Tweets from each day of the Egyptian protests.
(via The Monitor, a Tumblr dedicated to continuing Egypt coverage post-revolution. A great follow.)
Posted by Fern
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Mondoweiss has a first look from TWEETS FROM... →
1. Click through for a chance to read all of chapter 18 (“Fury: When Protesters’ Hopes are Raised and Dashed”) which takes place on February 10th.
2. Select “Full Screen.”
3. Enjoy.
We guarantee you won’t want to click out until you’re done.
BTW: we just enabled Tumblr replies, so let us know what you think of it.
Posted by Fern
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On Poetry
So sometimes, although not necessarily often, I’m going about my day — reading manuscripts, watching professional basketball, having a beer, stuff along these lines — when someone mentions William Butler Yeats and I think to myself, “oh man, I really should read more poetry because it is great.” And then I go read some Yeats, and maybe some Auden. Afterwords I think,...
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Insulted by Authors →
Bill Ryan is systematically attending author events and asking them to insult him when they sign books rather than offering up “the quotidian ‘Lots of love’ or ‘All the best’ or even the penurious ‘For.’” We love it! Tao Lin’s is by the far the most mild mannered. No, really. If you’re looking for the good stuff, check out Amy...
Good Morning!
Posted by Graydon
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“The inequality between writer and subject… is the moral problem of journalism as...”
– Janet Malcolm (via theparisreview)
The problem with nearly everyone is that they aren’t reading Janet Malcolm more often.
Posted by Graydon
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WatchThis is my favorite thing on the Internet. (Via Best Week Ever)
Posted by Graydon
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“Writers will respond either by going viral or by going feral.”
– James Warner, The Future of Books
Posted by Joana
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ATTENTION: Girl Scout cookies are delicious. That... →
Posted by Joana
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A country road. A nose. Right under it.
A couple of weeks ago we posted this little stroke of genius because it’s funnier than anything we’ve ever come up with and Tumblr is all about piggybacking off the cleverness of others.
Recently, The Rumpus contributor Salvatore Pane went looking for the little devil who concocted this 8-bit delight, only to discover that the Waiting for Godot game’s creator also needed to...
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The Gallery of Earthalujah →
revbilly:
Pictures from Brennan Cavanaugh of last week’s The Church of Earthalujah have been added over at our gallery. Channeling Douglas Rushkoff’s 400 years of corporate history with the quake and tsunami on the Japanese coast must have come into the Church of Earthalujah in a way that our new-fangled faith actually anticipated…
Free Books (Part II)
Since our giveaway for Welcome to the Greenhouse: New Science Fiction on Climate Change was so popular yesterday, we’re offering a few more copies to the first people who email us with a promise to blog about the book! Get in touch here.
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Great piece from Publishing Perspectives about the... →
Mass Market Paperback Sales Plunged Nearly 31% in... →
According to Jason Boog at GalleyCat, paperback sales have been in the time out chair so far this year. Print on Demand (you know, that awesome thing that OR Books does) might end up being Homecoming King after all.
Posted by Crystal
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Get a free copy of 'Welcome to the Greenhouse'
Good morning! In hopes of somehow brightening this rainy almost-spring day, we’ve decided to hold a giveaway. Here’s what’s up:
Maybe you’ve heard of our new anthology, Welcome to the Greenhouse: New Science Fiction on Climate Change, edited by sci-fi legend Gordon Van Gelder and with a foreword by New Yorker virtuosa Elizabeth Kolbert (!)? The one that includes...
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Samuel Beckett is on Twitter
There is a twitter account for Samuel Beckett, which feels both a tad underwhelming and oddly inevitable. Admittedly, the uroboric aphorisms that fill Beckett’s work fit tidily into the space Twitter allots. However, as Andre the Giant could testify, the actual Samuel Beckett would probably spend far less of his time muttering about how there’s nothing to be done, and far more of it...
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“It was nothing like that. Nothing at all.”
– Gordon Lish, during an unforgettable evening at KGB Bar (via fwriction)
Posted by Joana
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The Man in the Big...er, Beige Hat
Gordon Lish in the aftermath of last night’s KGB Bar—not reading—performance? event?
Posted by John
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Don't panic...we're in control.
Why do insiders scramble to justify a system they must know doesn’t function as it’s supposed to? Perhaps because they’re insiders, and vested in the system. “The plant is safe now and will stay safe.” That’s a quote (via Peter Brantley at the Internet Archive) from a scientist (= expert=back off, you civilians!) reassuring a panicky relative about the...
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WatchYou know what you should do this weekend? See Gordon Lish at KGB Bar. Seriously, the man is a wild card. An Evening with Gordon Lish is this Sunday March 13, 2011, 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm.
Posted by Joana
