At Triple Canopy, a podcast conversation between Joseph McElroy and Joshua Cohen, discussing one another’s work.
Consider this a PS to this morning’s roundup: Emily Gould’s And the Heart Says Whatever, written by Eryn Loeb for The Rumpus. It’s not a review, exactly, and neither is it quite a personal essay (it’s also not quite not one) but it is both clear-eyed and well-intentioned, which is more than can be said for most of what’s been written about And the Heart (cf. Ana Marie Cox in Bookforum, which Loeb discusses at some length).
Lassoing Up Tuesday
James Yeh interviews Diane Williams at The Faster Times.
At The Rumpus, Elissa Bassist wonders, have I earned these cliches?
In a belated look at the NYTBR, the great Harold Bloom reviews a book about the history of anti-Semitism in English literature, Adam Kirsch looks at two books about Heidegger, and Rebecca Newberger Goldstein writes a satire on Theory, in the style of Borges.
io9 rounds up 35 titles for “The Essential Posthuman Science Fiction Reading List.”
The Nation has a new website! Learn about what’s different here, and about their decision to open source here. Kudos and congrats, guys!
Speaking of new websites, n+1 has one, too. The present feature is new fiction by Dy Tran “about” donuts.
A new issue of the Home Video Review of Books!
And last but absolutely not least, the new issue of Propeller features an interview with Kevin Sampsell, one with yours truly, a review of the latest Nicholson Baker, and a whole bunch of other treats besides. Check it out.
Variations on Reading
I’m reading some books, sure. We’re always reading books, right? But for some reason, right now, I happen to be reading very big books and very small books. And that’s been the case for the past few weeks. Books are either 800+ or -150 pages. That being the case, I wanted to talk about the different experiences in reading big v. small books.
NEW MARTIN AMIS
“This remarkably tedious new novel by Martin Amis…” Awesome. If Kakutani hates it, there’s a pretty good chance I’ll love it. Only Liesl Schillinger, whose sour-smug review of Peter Hoeg’s magnificent The Quiet Girl breezily and speciously claimed its narrative “lurches toward pedophilia,” annoys me more as far as NY Times reviewers go. Can’t wait!
What exactly does [Andrew Sullivan] think is going to happen now? Does he imagine that Kagan, in an uncharacteristically un-butch moment, is going to break down in front of Orrin Hatch and tearily confess to having cloistered away a secret lesbian lover in some Cambridge bat cave because she was worried that Alan Dershowitz would be really really mean to her about it? Because that would go over really well for gay rights–what a role model!–never mind Kagan’s confirmation.
lokes in damp 3 hotos
1. Neil from ESPN has been emailing me. And he says, “In short: We’re inviting folks to submit (to fictioncontest@espnthemag.com) sports-themed short stories of up to 3,000 words, and the best story (as picked by me and the editor of Stymie) will run in a future issue of ESPN. Then comes the fame and fortune, naturally.”
If you have a sports story, send it. Deadline is June 1st.
2. I just got an iPhone. Why should writers care? What can I do now besides take notes and commit “Douche baggery in a mesmerizing false flame.”
3. This invisible bookshelf is like emo-in-a-seatbelt badass.
Old boys
It’s recently come to my attention that HTML Giant is an “old boys club,” or at least, that’s what I’ve been told. So here’s my problem: if commenters are right and HTML Giant is an old boys club, then what role do the women have on this site? I mean, I read HTML Giant pretty faithfully, and I have since long before I was contributor, and I’ve always thought the women play a very significant role. Their posts are thoughtful, funny, often profound. So wtf? If anything, calling HTML Giant an old boys club denigrates the women who post here and the women who read here. And that’s what I think.