Tag: 10.01.19

The Scary Apocalyptic Literature Of The Nationalist Far Right

Lone wolves, domestic terrorists, white supremacists, and militiamen on the far-right fringes who have long trafficked in an expansive body of published manifestos and propagandist fiction. Theirs is a kind of sick pop culture, constantly updated and running parallel to the mainstream, that fully accounts for apocalyptic race wars and nationalist-driven coups d’etat. Those steeped in this body of literature are primed to expect the moment where their rhetorical “shit” hits the real-life “fan.” – The New Republic

Cookbooks Sell Very Well. Why Aren’t Their Authors Aren’t Making More Money From Them?

Major publishers will do right by their cookbook authors, who are usually already established, but there’s a larger set of small publishers who work with newer writers. “With these smaller publishing companies, there isn’t always an advance, and if there is, it’s often less than $10,000. Royalties aren’t always offered, and most expenses aren’t covered. … Authors are occasionally asked to sign nondisclosure agreements before even viewing a contract.” – The New York Times

Penguin Random House Defends Author Against Plagiarism Claims In Dr. Zhivago Book

Published in September, Lara Prescott’s The Secrets We Kept tells of how the CIA planned to use Doctor Zhivago as a propaganda tool during the cold war. But Anna Pasternak revealed in the Sunday Times that she had sent a legal letter to Prescott, claiming that the novel features “an astonishing number of substantial elements” copied from Pasternak’s 2016 biography Lara, which is about Olga Ivinskaya, Pasternak’s lover, muse and inspiration for his character Lara. – The Guardian

David Henry Hwang And Jeanine Tesori Turn ‘The King And I’ On Its Head

“In [Soft Power], a stand-in for Hwang named DHH is hired by a Chinese producer to try to stage a theatrical production in Shanghai. Then, after a stabbing that mirrors Hwang’s own, he falls into a coma and imagines a full-blown future production of a Chinese musical about an intrepid Chinese producer who meets Hillary Clinton and teaches lessons from the communist perspective about screwed-up American democracy. There’s also, of course, a ‘Getting to Know You’-style lesson scene, but about learning to distinguish tones in Mandarin.” – Vulture