HITCHCOCK AND ART

A new show in Montreal ponders Alfred Hitchcock’s ties to the other arts. “The general idea is that Hitchcock has a great culture in literature but also in art, and sometimes he transposes to cinema some of the solutions that have been found by surrealist and symbolist artists.” – CBC

ART OF EDITING

“Robert Gottlieb’s near-legendary status in the publishing world owes much to sheer anomaly. Running Simon & Schuster, and then Knopf, he had just two interests: the books he edited and the books he balanced (”What people forget about Bob,’ says Charles McGrath, editor of The New York Times Book Review and Gottlieb’s deputy at the New Yorker, ‘he was a terrific businessman’). – Boston Globe

TRASHING SUSAN SONTAG

Was the selection of Susan Sontag’s “In America” as the winner of this year’s National Book Award a mistake? Daniel Halpern thinks so. ” ‘In America’ is such a bad book that it seems possible that even its nomination – to say nothing of its victory – is the result of some sort of conspiracy, or at least of a mistake resulting from the particularly baffling handwriting of someone at the National Book Foundation.” – The New Republic

ART OF EDITING

“Robert Gottlieb’s near-legendary status in the publishing world owes much to sheer anomaly. Running Simon & Schuster, and then Knopf, he had just two interests: the books he edited and the books he balanced (”What people forget about Bob,’ says Charles McGrath, editor of The New York Times Book Review and Gottlieb’s deputy at the New Yorker, ‘he was a terrific businessman’). – Boston Globe

SEE YOU IN THE FUNNY PAGES … ER, GRAPHIC NOVELS

Comic books (or “graphic novels” as they’re now being called) are hot. “More than a few of these works not only tap into a burgeoning post-20th-century self-referential nostalgia, they also manage brilliantly to bridge the ever-widening chasm between visual and print generations. Thus, the ascendancy of the graphic novel becomes less about economics and more about the intertwined abstractions of demographics and esthetics. A fusion of styles and fascinations has facilitated the maturation of the comic book into a smart, funny, haunting work of literature with effects.” – The Globe & Mail (Canada)

E-BOOKS: MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS

  • Is the electronic book really going to democratize publishing, as its proponents hope? Or simply flood the market with content, without a filter for quality or a universal format for downloading and reading? “Last week’s e-Book World Conference showed an industry riven by as much schizophrenia as the presidential elections. For now, anyway, the e-book industry is more rumpus than reality.” – Village Voice