What should a writer notice; what can a critic contend? Sam Tanenhaus pits Updike against James Wood, which gets Wyatt Mason thinking: “as a form of argumentation, literary criticism is charged with making defensible cases for indefensible positions …”
Okay, I like a good mean joke. All the same, it’s pretty dark to pick on community organizers.
Sure, her pet cemetery is nice. Whose isn’t? But the only real reason to preserve Edith Wharton’s house is “as a monument to disappointment…”
“Which Jane Austen Heroine Are You?” Is it just a fluffy Facebook quiz, or is it “Emotional Porn?” You decide!
Might it be possible to elect an African American president, Dr. King? Our friend Timothy Stewart-Winter reminds us of great expectations in perilous times.
“How does one turn from a reader of ‘Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue’ into a reader of, for instance, Eudora Welty?” Gregory Cowles wants to know your literary gateway drug.
The 15th century and the bookmakers who made it so lively: kudos to the University of Iowa for this Atlas of Early Printing (Hat tip: readysteadybook)
“They were so very, very white—like a refrigerator, or like the newly fallen snow, or like Moby Dick” Laurie Fendrich is staring at her students’ teeth a little too closely …
