Category: words

Crass but necessary, perhaps? “A publisher choosing to fete authors during Book Expo — introducing them to the news media, readers and, most important, booksellers who attend the show — is a signal that the house is betting big on them. And for nonprofits both large and small, Instagram-ready parties are the best way to raise awareness as well as money.”

The novelist and essayist says it’s not the job of a writer to be an activist – but that writers are always political, and now that is deeply necessary. “Individuals are being turned into micro-fascists by so many means. It is the mobs and vigilantes going and lynching people. So more than ever, the point of the writer is to be unpopular. The point of the writer is to say: ‘I denounce you even if I’m not in the majority.'”

Novelist Kurieshi is not holding back: “It is not coincidental that at this Brexit moment, with its xenophobic, oafish and narrow perspective, the ruling class and its gatekeepers fear a multitude of democratic voices from elsewhere and wish to keep us silent. They can’t wait to tell us how undeserving of being heard we really are. But they should remember this: they might have tried to shut the door on Europe, refugees and people of colour, but it will be impossible for them to shut the door on British innovation. We are very insistent, noisy and talented.”

This is a perfect time for “Wait, what?” because … wait. Is Interview dead or resurrected or what the heck? It’s a family business that, a member of the family recently said, will rise from its ashes and still be a family business – ignoring, of course, all of the back pay owed to freelancers, the editorial director, and more.

“The khipus might seem bizarre to us, but the Inkas, who were the inheritors of a long tradition of weaving with cotton and camelid yarns, were unique and highly creative – not underdeveloped – in their approach to documenting language. Pencil and paper is not the only road to progress.”

“Such high profile cases [as those of Sherman Alexie and Junot Díaz] are far from rare as the #MeToo movement spreads across the creative industries. They come at a time when writers are facing increasingly draconian attempts by publishers to police their behaviour, calling into question centuries old assumptions about the desirability – or even the possibility in today’s networked world – of separating writers’ lives from their work.”

Jack Hitt explains the years-long scholarly feuds over the errors, large and small, in various editions of Ulysses (and why they matter); tells the story of James Kidd, the professor who prepared, but never published, the most accurate edition of Joyce’s novel yet; and finds and visits Kidd in Brazil, some 16 years after he disappeared from Boston, seemingly without a trace.

“It’s not often that an author described on his own Wikipedia page as ‘disgracefully neglected’ is awarded a €100,000 literary prize. But this is where the Irish author Mike McCormack finds himself, with Wednesday’s announcement that he has won the International Dublin literary award for his novel, Solar Bones.” The prize, formerly known as the Impac, is the richest one in English-language literature.

Orwell was right. The totalitarian regime rests on lies because they are lies. The subject of the totalitarian regime must accept them not as truth—must not, in fact, believe them—but accept them both as lies and as the only available reality. She must believe nothing. Just as Orwell predicted, over time the totalitarian regime destroys the very concept, the very possibility of truth. Hannah Arendt identified this as one of the effects of totalitarian propaganda: it makes everything conceivable because “nothing is true.”

“Three months ago, I was a normal person. Now all I think about 24-7 is the dinkus. Did you know that dinkuses is an anagram of unkissed? I did. For the uninitiated, the dinkus is a line of three asterisks (* * *) used as a section break in a text.” Daisy Alioto offers some reasons to love it.