Literary & Media Indulgences - 9/23/2012

-- "Picasso and the art of conflict." Pictured above is part of his etching in the style of comics, called "The Dream and Lie of Franco." 

-- "i like my body when it is with your / body. It is so quite new a thing. / muscles better and nerves more." Let's talk about e.e. cummings.

-- How not to write about libraries.

-- So says Ray Bradbury. Open Culture has video of him speaking about the epiphany of being alive and being in love with writing.

-- Let's go on a pub crawl with Junot Díaz. (h/t Chris M.) And did I mention how the final story in his new collection, "The Cheater's Guide to Love," just slayed me when I first read it in The New Yorker? Tears, my friend. Tears.

-- ... and can you imagine translating Junot Diaz's linguistically-hybridic fiction? The Chicago Tribune looks into just how that goes.

-- "How to read Indian: 50 essential writers in translation." Fabulous list from Nilanjana Roy.

-- Maybe some great art, and great literature, isn't meant for all of us. It might be better for it to stay home, writes Tim Parks.

-- On the rights of bad guys, with journalist David Shipler.

-- Between the (spread)sheets: designing data.

-- Vertigo: Teju Cole writes about the night he met V.S. Naipul.

-- Victor LaValle talks about gothic and fabulist fiction over at Bookslut. He also spoke with Terry Gross on "Fresh Air" about monsters.

-- Sigh. Brooklyn, again.

-- Jay Caspian Kang (who has a new novel out called The Dead Do Not Improve) writes in Grantland on "The Death of the Anna Kournikova Era." Meaning, in the era of Serena Williams, Gabby Douglas, Missy Franklin, and the US women's soccer team, media and fans are finally finding new ways to talk about women's sports. (Thank god.)

-- On the (imagined) woman reader and male anxiety, from the inimitable Jenny McPhee.

-- Ruth Franklin on identity crisis and the sweep of Zadie Smith's literary career in The New Republic.

-- Zoe Heller's brilliant and hilarious New York Review of Books essay on Naomi Wolf's new book about vaginas.

-- "The Slowest Reader," from Benjamin Percy.

-- The Africa Report names Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie as one of the 50 most influential Africans.

-- Let's let Tessa Hadley read us a Nadine Gordimer story.

-- South African journalist Sifiso Mzobe won the Wole Soyinka literary prize for his first novel, Young Blood.

-- Asking questions of Alejandro Zambra's translator.

-- Peek into the diary of a mad fact-checker.

-- Why wisdom and reverence are not just for believers.

-- A comics artist raised more than $1 million for a new Tesla Museum.

-- Why doesn't your city have curbside recycling? The people want to know.

-- In response to public feedback, the renovation of the main branch of the New York Public Library will keep more books in it.

Comments

[Mike Lindgren]

Wow, what a great roundup. You should be the editor of a huge and influential arts weekly or like. Rather than the editor of a huge and influential blog. Which you are.

Saw a picture of Verlander wearing a T-shirt saying "Let's keep the MVP in the D."

[Anna Clark]

Gosh, Mike, you sure now how to charm! Thank you very much!

Also, Verlander's T-shirt has it totally right.