Bites: Woody Allen Drawn, A New Case for American Lit, NYRB on Herta Müller, SXSW, and more

An abstract from Dread and Superficiality: Woody Allen as Comic Strip, a new book to be published next month, is available at the Guardian. Arcade Fire’s a lucky band.  Spike Jonze was “thinking of them almost every step of the way” in making his famous film. Rather than insular, is American Literature “borderless”? From the NYRB, a podcast on Herta Müller, the 2009 Nobel laureate in literature.  Vol. 1 touched on Müller and her recent win last week. “Is there […]

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Bites: So Many Wild Things, Gigantic Interviewed, Mr. Rochester is Dreamy, Nobels for the Small Press, 1989, Dirty Projectors at NYer Fest, and more

Wild Things: It’s Released! Did you know?? Pitchfork interviews Spike Jonze. We’ve All Been Wondering Lately about “What Makes a Children’s Classic.”(NYT Arts Beat) Ohmahgawd–Wild Things, Wild Things, Wild Things. Lit. This essay on the importance of the humanities is outstanding.(Harper’s) Gigantic is interviewed by Fictionaut. “But, reader, I loved him.”  On Charlotte Brontë’s Mr. Rochester as the most romantic character in literature.  Oh, yes. Reading!: the demand of literature From last week, The Millions on Lit’s Nobel Prize and […]

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Bites: Fiction v. Non-Fiction, Poe’s Funeral, Proust’s Questions, Lev Grossman on being a critic, Wild Things, Hornby’s Education, Nick Cave & PJ Harvey, and more

Jim Shepard for Electric Literature on the subject of fiction based on non-fiction: “We need to bear in mind, as we’ve been told many times, that we’re working from, but not necessarily about, our lives.” Lit. Edgar Allen Poe gets a real funeral. (Thanks, The Rumpus) On Vanity Fair’s website, take Proust’s Questionnaire and find out which celebrities you most resemble. Lev Grossman guest-posts for and on the National Book Critics Circle blog. Film, a Quick Weekend Roundup What will […]

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Bites: Libba Bray steals our hearts with a song, Poe’s dead date, Obama’s book, Brooklyn cliches, and more

Breaking!   Libba Bray picks “Roadrunner” by The Modern Lovers as one of her songs in her turn at Largehearted Boy’s “Book Notes”. This makes us like her even more. Lit. Last night saw Thurston Moore reading Naked Lunch to a packed house at St. Marks Church.  Next we find the Sonic Youth leader starting a publishing company. The Desk Set talk about rare book librarians. Yesterday was the 160th anniversary of Edgar Allan Poe’s death.  We failed by not […]

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Bites: Sendak Retrospective, Amos Oz as Nobel Fav., Is Teaching Shakespeare a Problem?, Af-Pak Reading, Chicago’s Loss, the age-old Polanski debate, and more

First William Blake, now the Wild Things!   The Maurice Sendak retrospective opens tomorrow at the Morgan Library.  To coincide, the Animazing Gallery presented last Thursday Sendak in SoHo, the world’s largest exhibition & sale of original illustrations from the collection of the legendary artist and author. Lit. Speaking of Where the Wild Things Are, Vice Magazine has a WTWTA blog, which presents work from 24 contributing artists inspired by the story.  A little weird because the site is totally in […]

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Bites: Bolaño syllabus, Jewish Wild Things, David Byrne, Hot Topic tour, and more.

  Lit. The Millions have an essay, “A Bolaño Syllabus.”  That’s all, nothing witty.  Just read it. Tablet Magazine, happy to point out that Where the Wild Things Are has “profoundly Jewish roots,” calls Paste Magazine’s essay which informs this theory “overwrought.”  The Wizarding World of Harry Potter: Once a dream, now a reality. L Magazine interviews Stephen Elliott, author of The Adderall Diaries. Google may modify its online book deal (Thanks, Boston Globe) Dear Conversational Reading, Mainstream publishing mystifies […]

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Bites: Wild Cupcakes, Kennedy’s do Twitter, Obama is the new Opraha, Marcel Duchamp wasn’t done, and more

Would you rather eat  library ice cream or Where the Wild Things Are cupcakes?  (Thanks Boing Boing) How indie bookstores are getting customers. (Boston Globe) Yoni Wolf of the band WHY? does vegan food in NYC (Thanks The Young and Hungry) President Obama will sell your book. What do a song off the superb album Superwolf by Bonnie Prince Billy and Matt Sweeny, Iron and Wine, and Vashti Bunyan all have in  common?  Daniel Kraus, author of The Monster Variations […]

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Eggers, it Seems, is the Wild Thing

By Willa A. Cmiel The Book Bench posted an interview with Dave Eggers today and this week’s New Yorker story, “Max At Sea,” will be an excerpt from Eggers’ upcoming novelization, The Wild Things, which, besides being available covered in fur, is written in preparation for/conjunction with/compliment to the upcoming film Where the Wild Things Are, which is an adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s timeless children’s story of the same name. Whew! How is it that Dave Eggers is the only […]

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