Rivka Galchen: “For me, the unforgivable sin in literature is the same as that in life: the assumption of certainty and the moral high ground.”
Benjamin Moser: “The Nazis proved that perverted words can, in fact, lead to the destruction of society. … To use words to serve the cause of human unfreedom is grotesque, like a physician serving torturers.”
Category: words
Short Stories Used To Be Able To Shock Us. No More.
“Perhaps the short story in America has matured to a point where the form can no longer be shocked.”
Formidable! Guess Which Will Soon Be The Most-Spoken Language On The Planet?
“While the top languages in the world today are Mandarin, English, Spanish, and Arabic, Natixis has produced figures that show French will be number one in 35 years time.”
The New Republic Is Up For Sale Again
“A year ago, [owner] Chris Hughes … vowed to continue his fight to transform the century-old magazine into a more digitally-focused media operation, despite a mass walkout by staffers who bristled at his efforts. On Monday, he said he was done.”
Flooded British Bookstores Get An Infusion Of Cash From James Patterson
“The last week, it has felt genuinely that we are part of a real community, that publishers do care about independent bookshops and understand their value. We are important: to the book trade, to authors, readers and to the wider communities we exist in. The amazing support we have had is a huge reminder of this and made us even more determined to survive this.”
Here Are All Of The American Library Association Medal Winners From This Morning’s Ceremony
“After wading through the Golden Globes last night, the ALA Youth Media Awards this morning were like a refreshing start-over for the week. The American Library Association, IMHO, can show the rest of the universe of award shows how its done: The awards are always bursting with positive energy, love and true support for the winners, and (revolutionary!) diversity of winners and presenters. Sorry, negative spirit of the Golden Globes, I’m Team ALA this morning.”
Contrary To The Claim Of A Very Important Guy, Women Do Create Comics, And They Always Have
“In a remarkably tone-deaf interview, the executive officer of the festival, Franck Bondoux, claimed that there was a very simple reason no women were included among the nominees. Discrimination was not to blame, he said. Instead, it was because of a lack of qualified women. ‘The Festival likes women, but cannot rewrite the history of comics,’ he said.”
How To Keep That New Year’s Resolution To Read More Books This Year
For one thing, quit feeling guilty about it. “I think a lot of people feel guilty about reading. … We are all so busy and have so much going on in our lives that we find it difficult to justify taking the time out.”
For First Time Since 1945 “Mein Kampf” Goes On Sale In Germany
A team of scholars and historians spent three years preparing a nearly 2,000-page edition with about 3,500 annotations in anticipation of the expiration on Dec. 31 of a 70-year copyright held by the state of Bavaria.
Why The British Tell Better Children’s Stories
“If Harry Potter and Huckleberry Finn were each to represent British versus American children’s literature, a curious dynamic would emerge: One defeats evil with a wand, the other takes to a raft to right a social wrong.”