July 13th, 2010 / 1:42 pm
Snippets

1. At n+1, Benjamin Kunkel offers yet another “take” on the future of the fucking book.
2. The Sot Weed Factor and To Kill a Mockingbird both just turned 50.
3. At Open Culture, all of Tarkovsky’s films are now available for free online.

26 Comments

  1. park

      Any future that excludes Benjamin Kunkel if fine by me! You know what’s weird, I’ve read the Barth but not the mockingbird. I was never assigned the book and then I reached an age where other things interested me. Maybe when I have kids… if Jimmy Chen doesn’t beat them to death.

  2. park

      Oops–any future that excludes Benjamin Kunkel is fine by me!

  3. JimR

      “Constantly more people in more and more places could read, and could read more books more cheaply, with increasing ease.”

      Seriously? Shite and onions…

  4. alan

      Literary culture in the United States is as healthy as it’s been in 30 years.

  5. Schulyer Prinz

      Woah. That was Asinine. I feel like somebody roofied my TAB.

  6. Tom

      Couldn’t get past the third paragraph. Is his novel that badly written? Yikes.

  7. Joseph Young

      grampa alert! that should be the name of a blog, grampa alert!, where all the keillors and kunkelspheres could go. [note that it has no indication in actual age just disposition to shouting at youtube]

  8. Matthew Simmons

      n+1 is still around?

      (Just kidding, Nick.)

  9. park

      Any future that excludes Benjamin Kunkel if fine by me! You know what’s weird, I’ve read the Barth but not the mockingbird. I was never assigned the book and then I reached an age where other things interested me. Maybe when I have kids… if Jimmy Chen doesn’t beat them to death.

  10. park

      Oops–any future that excludes Benjamin Kunkel is fine by me!

  11. JimR

      “Constantly more people in more and more places could read, and could read more books more cheaply, with increasing ease.”

      Seriously? Shite and onions…

  12. alan

      Literary culture in the United States is as healthy as it’s been in 30 years.

  13. Schulyer Prinz

      Woah. That was Asinine. I feel like somebody roofied my TAB.

  14. Tom

      Couldn’t get past the third paragraph. Is his novel that badly written? Yikes.

  15. Joseph Young

      grampa alert! that should be the name of a blog, grampa alert!, where all the keillors and kunkelspheres could go. [note that it has no indication in actual age just disposition to shouting at youtube]

  16. Matthew Simmons

      n+1 is still around?

      (Just kidding, Nick.)

  17. Merzmensch

      Awesome! Tarkovski online for free!
      Stalker is everything.

  18. Merzmensch

      Awesome! Tarkovski online for free!
      Stalker is everything.

  19. I. Fontana

      I spent money on some of those fucking Tarkovsky films.

  20. Steven Augustine

      “For half a millennium, across continents and civilizations, the human readership did almost nothing but grow and consolidate itself. Constantly more people in more and more places could read, and could read more books more cheaply, with increasing ease. And not only were they able to do this, but they chose to. It would be astonishing to learn, if some retrospective survey could be carried out, that hours per head spent reading didn’t increase across all capitalist or otherwise modernizing countries (most Communist regimes having been energetic promoters of literacy) until at least the middle of the past century.”

      The clumsiest, sweatiest, bad-breathiest intro in the history of literacy? The first line would make an excellent voice-over for a CinemaScope panning-shot of the Mongolian Steppes, though.

  21. davidk

      You mean people usually pay to watch Tarkovsky? I usually tell people to watch the Soderbergh remake of Solaris.

  22. reynard

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  23. I. Fontana

      I spent money on some of those fucking Tarkovsky films.

  24. Steven Augustine

      “For half a millennium, across continents and civilizations, the human readership did almost nothing but grow and consolidate itself. Constantly more people in more and more places could read, and could read more books more cheaply, with increasing ease. And not only were they able to do this, but they chose to. It would be astonishing to learn, if some retrospective survey could be carried out, that hours per head spent reading didn’t increase across all capitalist or otherwise modernizing countries (most Communist regimes having been energetic promoters of literacy) until at least the middle of the past century.”

      The clumsiest, sweatiest, bad-breathiest intro in the history of literacy? The first line would make an excellent voice-over for a CinemaScope panning-shot of the Mongolian Steppes, though.

  25. davidk

      You mean people usually pay to watch Tarkovsky? I usually tell people to watch the Soderbergh remake of Solaris.

  26. reynard

      ……………………………………..________
      ………………………………,.-‘”……………….“~.,
      ………………………..,.-“……………………………..”-.,
      …………………….,/………………………………………..”:,
      …………………,?………………………………………………,
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      ……………../………………………………………………,:`^`..}
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