Literary & Media Indulgences - 6/14/2012

-- The novel Little Women is more radical and strange than you remember. This literary journalism from The American Prospect reminds me of Anne Trubek dismantling the domesticization of the legacy of Louisa May Alcott (pictured above) in the book A Skeptic's Guide to Writers' Houses. I asked Trubek more about this in our Isak interview, where she shared an idea for how Alcott's legacy would be honored better than by Orchard House tours. I also stole the mic for a bit to rant about how Alcott's writing "really is far better, more complex than it's given credit for these days. Brilliant, even."

-- Here is what Mary Ruefle has to say on fear.

-- Bookstores are actually a pretty new invention.

-- This bit of hilarity from The Millions satirizes the very worst habits of writers and editors. It cuts rather close. This is a fraught relationship, people!

-- Ninety percent of books reviewed by The New York Times are by white authors. Roxane Gay wrote the piece on this, and it's getting international attention.

-- Emily Douglas, who has been my solid-as-a-rock editor at two publications, steps out from behind the curtain and claims her own byline in the Los Angeles Review of Books. The piece, "Intellectual Property," takes a long look at Sarah Schulman's new book, The Gentrification of the Mind: Witness to a Lost Imagination.

-- "When I catch a copy error in The New Yorker." I laughed and laughed! This is from, by the way, a brilliant and too-short-lived Tumblr by Ann Friedman, another pro I've been lucky enough to be edited by.

-- Zadie Smith, fierce for libraries: "The North West London Blues."

-- Ruth Franklin, whose literary journalism I admire, won the 2012 Roger Shattuck Prize in literary criticism from the Center for Fiction. In her acceptance speech, she said:

Nearly a hundred years ago, Rebecca West ... castigated her fellow reviewers for reducing their work to what she called “a chorus of weak cheers.” She complained about a general sense that it was silly to waste one’s fierceness on unserious matters: especially in a time of war, as when West was writing, art and literature can seem less important than politics. This perception persists in our own time of war: just look at the magazine editors who pay several dollars a word for feature stories, and a fraction of that for criticism—the most poorly paid beat in journalism.

Even if we agree with West that the life of the mind does matter, it can be tempting to fall prey to what she called the “vice of amiability”—to reserve our energy for supporting writers we admire rather than criticizing those we dislike. I can’t tell you the number of times I have heard some famous writer or other declare that he or she only writes positive reviews, because negative reviews are so, well, negative. Some of us do this for reasons of self-preservation: we might run into our subjects at cocktail parties. But more often, I think it’s because of a misguided philosophy of criticism based on the idea that reviewing books is somehow secondary, even shameful—something no one grows up dreaming of doing.

-- I love this news so much: The National Science Foundation is investing in literary science journalism. Because knowing about our amazing planet and its universe is worth it; a thousand times yes.

-- Let's improve environmental journalism.

-- A ranking of the top ten poetry presses -- as measured by cover design.

-- The 2012 Mirror Awards for reporting on the media industry were given this week, and two of my very favorite journalists -- Rebecca Traister and Anna Holmes -- were among the deserving winners.

-- "Lessons from the Motor City: What New Orleans might expect when the printing presses slow." A fascinating piece from Nieman Journalism Lab. I had no idea about the rogue paper routes in my own city.

-- "Louisiana Incarcerated." Speaking of the Times-Picayune in New Orleans, the paper has a remarkable and unsettling investigative feature on "how we built the world's prison capital." I urge you to mine through the multimedia pieces in this eight-part series: it's engrossing.

-- I'm still reading this in my lovely print edition of Harper's, but I can already tell you that it is a must-read: "The Last Tower: The Decline and Fall of Public Housing."

-- "Why Washington Needs More Tracy Flicks." And, I'd add, local government needs more Leslie Knopes.

-- Gail Collins on Texas, bad textbooks, and what we do and do not want students to know.

-- FDA approval is required for drugs but not required for medical devices. Lindsay Beyerstein's smart investigative journalism taught me this.

-- Woodward and Bernstein share their first byline in nearly 40 years. The occasion? To detail the corruption of President Nixon, which has been forgotten or rationalized in the years since. Meanwhile, the Washington Post argues that the future of investigative journalism is at risk.

-- "Mothers Beware!" says Diane Johnson in the New York Review of Books.

-- Comics artist Robert L. Washington III has died at age 47.

-- Jay Smooth, on whom I am still crushing hard, posits "the last word on that word" over at Ill Doctrine.

-- "The Martian Eco-Chronicles."

-- Media reports on toxic pollution rarely mention, let alone focus on, communities that bear a disproportionate burden. But a new environmental justice series is stepping up.

-- "Vogue Italia's 'Rebranding Africa' disaster." Go get 'em, Africa is a Country!

-- Oral Literature in Africa: There is a campaign to raise $7,500 to publish a freely available edition of the out-of-print classic.

-- "How should a writer be?" An interview with Sheila Heti at The Millions.

-- "Post-literacy or super-literacy?"

-- Why did it take me this long to realize that the London Review of Books published a big essay last month on Angela Carter?

-- Even the Dogs by British author Jon McGregor is the winner of the 2012 IMPAC Dublin literary prize.

-- Beverly Cleary is almost 96 years old, but it's not like she has forgotten her writing roots. (Related: my take on Cleary, her awesomeness, and her cover art.)

-- I love that Natasha Tretheway is our new poet laureate. You should read Native Guard. It's good.

Image Credit: Arizona Public Media