#tobyreads: Getting International (and Interplanetary)

I’ve been slowly working my way through the works of Russian science fiction novelists Arkady and Boris Strugatsky–following Definitely Maybe and Roadside Picnic, I checked out Hard to Be a God (in part because I’d been reading about a recent film adaptation of it). It’s a deeply strange book, in the best way: though set in a world that resembled medieval Europe, it’s also a work of science fiction. The protagonist hails from a future Earth, and while he’s a participant in this society, he’s […]

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Afternoon Bites: Sheila Heti’s Mythology, Shuggie Otis, Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s Memoir, Seth Fried, and More

Ngugi wa Thiong’o talked about language, political unrest, and his new memoir with NPR. Sheila Heti gives us “A New Canadian Myth for New Canadian Times.” “In the album, it’s possible to hear the kaleidoscopic ambition and bruised optimism of What’s Going On and Innervisions, hints of Miles Davis’ prolific funk-fusion period and Bob Marley’s ascendant good vibrations, the lingering specter of Love’s death-of-innocence opus Forever Changes, and the drawn-out, spaced-out folk-rock sigh emanating from Laurel Canyon.” Eric Harvey on Shuggie Otis, at Pitchfork. The […]

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