June 2008

Reviewing the Review: June 1 2008

Music,

Visual Art

A rare Nicholson Baker byline graces the table of contents in today's New York Times Book Review. A devoted newspaper archivist as well a literary sporting male, Baker was the obvious choice to review a newspaper collection called The Flash Press: Sporting Male Weeklies in 1840s New York by Patricia Cline Cohen, Timothy J. Gilfoyle and Helen Lefkowitz. Naturally Baker likes the book, though I doubt he was responsible for the too-cute article headline, "Sex and the City (Circa 1840)".

This article is part of the Reviewing the New York Times Book Review series. The next post in the series is Reviewing the Review: June 15 2008. The previous post in the series is Reviewing the Review: May 25 2008.

Offbeat with Andrew Gallix

British,

Fiction,

Indie,

Internet Culture,

Interviews,

Transgressive

A self conscious 'movement' calling itself 'the Offbeat Generation' has been emerging in the blogosphere. This generation got its name from Brit-lit Andrew Gallix, founder and editor of 3:AM magazine, who has been described by underground writer, artist and activist Stewart Home as "the Breton of the post-punk generation, the Rimbaud of the Net, Beckett to my Joyce, and Trocchi to my Beckett."

Bo Diddley, Lyricist

African-American,

Comedy,

Music,

Tributes

"I walk 47 miles of barbed wire"

Crescendo

Being A Writer,

Love,

Technology

1. It's an honor to review the first posthumous Kurt Vonnegut book (and, in a way, the final note in his career) at The Quarterly Conversation.

2. Another good piece in this issue: Richard Grayson on his experience publishing his own book. My own experiences with print-on-demand indie publishing have been about equally mixed. It's a hell of a way to try to make a living.

Rebranding the Review: June 8 2008

Internet Culture,

Lit-Crit,

Publishing

An ecology activist climbed the New York Times building in midtown Manhattan this week, but the best part is that a few hours later another guy heard about it and rushed over to do the same thing. Which just goes to prove: you can't scrounge a minute of fame in this city without somebody else jumping into the spotlight. Same as it's always been.

Tough Love

Film,

Internet Culture,

Litkicks,

News,

Publishing,

Technology

1. I used to review a lot of poetry chapbooks on LitKicks. I really loved doing that, but then more and more chapbooks started coming in the mail and I couldn't figure out what to do with them. One day I looked at a stack of chapbooks by my front door and realized I'd just been stacking them there for the last few months. I hadn't opened a single one.

The Awesome and Important LitKicks Reading Survey

Polls and Questions,

Reading

New Books: Zhu Wen, Indra Sinha

Eastern,

Fiction,

Reviews

I Love Dollars (and Other Stories of China) by Zhu Wen

Father's car pulled up soon after, his unmissable dye job emerging first into the night. I then watched him walk over to the other side of the car, and open the door -- ever the perfect gentleman -- for his girl, Li Hong. I couldn't believe my eyes, seeing my own father open the car door for a whore, and help her out, his every action gleaming with a lustrous, classical polish. Dad, I know you're nervous. I can tell, but you make me so proud. You're amazing, you really are.

Reviewing the Review: June 15 2008

Politics

Not William F. Buckley again.

Please, not another love letter to the late intellectual conservative hero in another New York Times Book Review. I thought I already made it clear how I felt about this. But here goes Jacob Heilbrunn's review of George Will's One Man's America:

This article is part of the Reviewing the New York Times Book Review series. The next post in the series is Reviewing the Review: June 22 2008. The previous post in the series is Reviewing the Review: June 1 2008.

Zine Scene

Being A Writer,

Indie,

Internet Culture,

News,

Personal

1. Ahh, zines. Of course the zine scene is still alive (it's been ingested into and mostly absorbed by the blog scene), but we used to print them on paper -- typing paper, computer paper, newsprint -- and try to distribute them in book and record stores.

Good Ideas

Beat Generation,

Music,

New York City,

News,

Politics,

Publishing,

Technology

1. Now this is a good idea. I've said this before and I'll keep saying it: readers are ready for e-books, but we don't want to buy puffed-up $400 Kindles or $300 Sony Readers. We want to read e-books on the devices that are already in our pockets: iPhones, Blackberrys, high-end full-screen cell phones. This is the way e-books will succeed in the marketplace.

John Carey on Elitism and the Literary Intelligentsia

British,

History,

Lit-Crit,

Modernism,

Politics,

Publishing

Why is literary fiction inevitably a poor seller? This question is at the core of John Carey's The Intellectuals and the Masses, Pride and Prejudice Among the Literary Intelligentsia, 1880-1939.

Reviewing the Review: June 22 2008

History,

Music,

Politics

Not Arthur Schlesinger Jr. again.

This article is part of the Reviewing the New York Times Book Review series. The next post in the series is Reviewing the Review: June 29 2008. The previous post in the series is Reviewing the Review: June 15 2008.

George Carlin: Safe at Home

Comedy,

Language,

News,

Tributes

Language was George Carlin's playpen. Here he is on the difference between baseball and football:

I enjoy comparing baseball and football.

Baseball is a nineteenth-century pastoral game. Football is a twentieth-century technological struggle.

Baseball is played on a diamond, in a park.The baseball park! Football is played on a gridiron, in a stadium, sometimes called Soldier Field or War Memorial Stadium.

Baseball begins in the spring, the season of new life. Football begins in the fall, when everything's dying.

... Read more and add your thoughts (8 comments)

Sick, Sick, Sick

Classics,

Comix,

Lit-Crit,

New York City,

Poetry,

Transgressive

1. We don't hear enough about cartoonist Jules Feiffer these days, so this interview is a nice refresher. (Via Slut).

... Read more and add your thoughts (18 comments)

Carlin Psych

Comedy,

Kid Lit,

Language,

News,

Postmodernism,

Psychology,

Transgressive

1. Wow! Do you remember when I told you about my impromptu train buddy Jay Dixit, blogger for PsychologyToday.com, who inspired me to read (and then, unfortunately, hate) Jennifer 8. Lee's book The Fortune-Cookie Chronicles? Well, Dixit now finds he has a rather monumental honor; on June 13 he conducted what appears to be the final interview by America's favorite iconoclast George Carlin.

... Read more and add your thoughts (4 comments)

Five Books I’ve Read While I Was Supposed To Be Reading Ulysses

Classics,

Reading

Hey, remember when I said I was going to read Ulysses? I have to say I'm still not quite ready to admit that this book has kicked my ass.

... Read more and add your thoughts (23 comments)

Reviewing the Review: June 29 2008

Poetry,

Politics

I have a love-hate relationship with William Logan, the New York Times Book Review's fiery poetry critic, who eviscerates the new volume of selected Frank O'Hara poems on the cover of this weekend's issue.

This article is part of the Reviewing the New York Times Book Review series. The next post in the series is Reusing the Excuse: July 20 2008. The previous post in the series is Reviewing the Review: June 22 2008.

High Tech, High Touch

Drama,

Internet Culture,

New York City,

Publishing,

Technology

Back in 1982, a business book called Megatrends by John Naisbitt made a big splash. The most memorable phrase in this study of future trends was "high tech, high touch", describing a product style or marketing approach that combines technical wizardry with heightened emotional appeal.