“What is it, then, that makes the books enter kids’ consciousness? First, kids experience them as mythologies more than as stories–the narrative sweep is, curiously, the least significant part of their appeal.”
Category: publishing
Oh, Goody! London Has A New Literary Feud!
“It has been an intellectual spat of some savagery, so far largely confined to the refined pages of one of Britain’s most respected literary magazines. This weekend, however, it seems ever more likely that a court will have to adjudicate between the historian Niall Ferguson and writer Pankaj Mishra over Ferguson’s claim that he had been accused of being a ‘racist’.”
In Praise Of Professional Book Critics
“People who earn a salary reading and critiquing books have one of the sweetest jobs on earth, except that it’s harder than it looks.”
Our Dual Nature, Horror-fied
“While we live we shall always be self-divided. … And in showing us the darkness of the double self the Gothic, for all its horror and terror, tells us the truth: we are all Cain and Abel.”
Are You Copying That? Well, Fine. That’s What Artists Do
Novelist Charlie Fletcher: “I was swimming in the Musselburgh pool with Peggy Lee and Iggy Pop when I decided to steal Long John Silver.”
Taking A Literary Feud To The Next Level – The Courts
Book reviewing in Britain can be a dangerous art, thanks to libel laws. Now reviewer Pankaj Mishra may face a lawsuit from historian Niall Ferguson over whether Ferguson got an appropriate apology, and whether Ferguson’s work can be called racist.
People’s Libraries Open As England Closes More Public Libraries
“As councils up and down the country close libraries faster than you can say “select committee”, the Occupy London library is expanding, with two new branches.”
Why Are Men So Bad At Writing About Sex?
One well known author and broadcaster was fairly representative when he told me: “I can write about sex, but only if it’s bad, comedic, absurd, embarrassing or downright disgusting. I can’t begin to write about ‘making love’ because the very thought makes my toes curl.”
The Grapes Of Wrath, Still Relevant After Seven Decades
Melvyn Bragg writes that John Steinbeck’s novel “seems as savage as ever … It is just as alive, with its fine anger against the banks: ‘The bank – the monster – has to have profit all the time. It can’t wait … It’ll die when the monster stops growing. It can’t stay in one place’.”
Do We Need New Definitions Of Plagiarism In An Online World?
“When does a mash-up become an infringement of copyright? When does playful anonymity become insidious disguising? The speed of technological change often outstrips legal and philosophical discussions of the impact of those technologies. I don’t think it’s too much to suggest that there is an almost pathological relationship between “online” and “real world” mental modes: the internet hysterically polices the contours of its own distorted reflection.”