Bites: Bonnie “Prince” Billy Talks to R Kelly, Tolstoy’s Rules, a Romanian Talks Dracula and More

Will Oldham interviews R Kelly (above) for Interview. Tolstoy had ten rules in his life.  I especially like “eat little and avoid sweets.” Joaquin Phoenix in the film adaptation of “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” is a possibility. Everybody thanks God when they win something.  When is somebody going to give praise to Cthulhu? A Romanian wonders what is up with America’s obsession with Dracula. The possible Tea Party analogy and other interesting facts about the Reagan appointed judge who ruled […]

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Weekend Bites: 100 Years After Tolstoy, Yale Gives Back to the Incas, Richard Nash, Bellow’s Letters and More

At Slate: Looking at Leo Tolstoy 100 years after his death. At The Huffington Post: White people trying to make up for destroying ancient civilizations At Jewcy: An interview with Richard Nash. At Boing Boing: Somebody is really excited about the John Hodgman podcast. At The Atlantic: Sure, Harry Potter makes a ton of money, but is it the best franchise ever? At The Guardian: Saul Bellow: Letters is reviewed.

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Sleeping on Tolstoy

Harper Perennial’s great Olive Reader blog hipped us to this article about how Russia’s forgetting about Tolstoy. Tolstoy is better appreciated in the West, academics claim, even though Western readers discovered classics such as War and Peace a good century after their Russian counterparts. Yet in Tolstoy’s native Russia, one could be forgiven for not knowing that such an important milestone in the country’s literary heritage was imminent.

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