HVRB

Reviews & Web Hype

Around the Web

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mDbNYqio1g&

There’s a new issue of the Home Video Review of Books. The above clip is the middle installment of the HVRB’s three-part review of We Take Me Apart by Molly Gaudry. Also reviewed in this issue: Graham Foust, Angela Veronica Wong, Brenda Ijima, and more.

Don’t forget The Rumpus Sunday Books Supplement. Direct your attention especially to Elissa Bassist’s Imaginary Interview With Elaine Showalter.

Jezebel takes a look at Best Sex Writing 2010, edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel.

Another standout is Betty Dodson’s “Sexual Outlaw,” about her post-menopausal discovery of a lesbian S/M support group: it’s both a powerful refutation of the notion that women over 50 aren’t sexy, and a sexy exploration of the idea that fucking is all about power. And Janet Hardy’s “The Portal,” about fisting, fingering, and general vagina appreciation, is dirty fun (example: “I do, however, like men. And since they don’t have cunts, we use mine.”).

Slate’s Troy Patterson says “Conan should have seen it coming.” Patterson also offers a Top 10 list of “fun facts” about the history of the Late Night wars.

4. When it seemed possible that Letterman might unseat Leno from Tonight, Leno consciously used monologue jokes about his relationship with NBC as part of a PR campaign, painting himself as a victim. Last week, when he joked, “What does NBC stand for? Never Believe Your Contract,” he was actually stealing 17-year-old material from himself.

There’s a new issue of Diode!

Over at the NYTBR, meanwhile, Ned Vizzini reviews a YA novel, Walter Kirn something something Sam Shepard, and Edmund White really likes Frank Kermode’s new book about E.M. Forster. Also, our buddy Stephen Elliott has an essay at the Times about The D.I.Y. Book Tour. After the dismissive in-brief review his book got a few weeks ago, this might at first seem schizophrenic on the Times’s part, but I think the correct way to read this is as a sign of health: that one critic’s opinion doesn’t sour the whole institution’s relationship with a given author. The Times is commended for their multiplicity of views, and encouraged to maintain this position w/r/t reviewing my book, in light (or, hopefully, not in light) of what I said about their other critic yesterday. Also, since turnabout is apparently fair play over there, when’s the Dennis Cooper op-ed coming? I’ll hold my breath if you hold yours. Whoever passes out first gets their picture taken.

Oh, and Jeremy Schmall passed this along to me. “Lit 101 Classes in Three Lines or Less.” He said his favorite is the Paradise Lost one. I personally prefer the one for The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.

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January 17th, 2010 / 1:24 pm