We have a week’s worth of reading to tackle. We have a week’s worth of writing to tackle. We have emails that should have been acknowledged last year. As always, we choose to face challenges with style. Yes, that is indeed code for avoidance. Because avoidance is the new responsibility. Nonsense is the new sense
Look at the women of the comics pages: mothers, little girls, nurses, the chicks in Apartment 3G (and we’re sure we don’t know what’s going on in that hotbed of thrills). Intrepid, independent, illustrated women were hard to find. Luckily, we had Brenda Starr. We, too, could have adventures. Who cared about humdrum reality: “Brenda Starr, Reporter” was sometimes criticized by journalists for its outlandish depiction of their profession. In one strip, Brenda brings a typed story to The Flash late at night and hands it to a custodian, who somehow gets it into the next day’s paper. On another
We do not shy away from controversy…with good reason. How, tell us, how can you publish a list of recommended books for six- to eight-year olds and omit all-time Booksquare favorite Where The Wild Things Are? We believe Wild Things is so critical to a child’s development that we helpfully provide a copy to every parent-to-be we encounter. We are very popular at baby showers and first birthday parties. Eight. We believe eight coincides roughly with third grade. That was the time of Helen Keller and Katharine Lee Bates. Clara Barton. Florence Nightingale. Red Shoes. The Boxcar Kids. Caldecott winners
In our defense, we rarely recommend the prologue to interviews. Usually these pithy(ish) introductions puff up the interviewer, not the interviewee. However, when the interviewer manages to make us envy and possibly dislike (in a healthy, normal way) the interviewee, we cannot help but suggest that reading the prologue is as critical as reading the interview. There are many genre fiction authors who fear their slot in life. That’s fine, but genre isn’t bad. It simply means structure. We hate to keep dragging out the haiku analogy, but if ever genre poetry existed, there you have it. Perhaps this is
We interrupt your regularly scheduled reading to bring you a brief discussion on series that have run their course and then some. Help, I’m Trapped in a Series, and I Can’t Get Out
Asked about his thoughts on what happens after death, Bellow offered two scenarios: oblivion or immortality. “My intuition is immortality,” said Bellow, who was ambivalent about whether he believed in God. “No argument can be made for it, but it’s just as likely as oblivion.” Saul Bellow, Author and Nobel Winner, Dead at 89
If we need any more evidence that this time change madness must stop*, our dear friend David Thayer has — well, there is no good way to say this — revealed something a little shocking about himself. We really picked a lousy week to cut back on the wine. Where we thought we were dealing with a mild-mannered crime fiction writer, it seems he’s responsible for both the Decline of Western Civilization and some fishy business with Jean-Paul Sartre. Not necessarily in that order. * – Did you know we are now practicing Pacific Daylight Time (or the equivalent for
Far be it for us to suggest that someone seems a little sensitive about her future, but, well, someone seems a little sensitive about her future. Maybe it’s the fact that she uses such strong words as “preposterous”. Or suggests that the sensual nature of newsprint will save the day. . .ah yes, the black ink on spotless fingers evokes fond memories of happy spring mornings. Now, we don’t really believe that blogs will replace newspapers. Nor do we think there’s a one size fits all solution for consuming news. It’s just that when the argument in favor of something
You know things have gone haywire when you read the following and realize it makes perfect sense: Not only does the University of Liverpool boast a library with the largest collection of science fiction literature in Europe, but from next week it will launch the world’s first website dedicated to science fiction research. Of course there should be a repository for all science fiction. Inventors and scientists can peruse the stacks (as it were) for products and avenues of research. The world will truly fulifill its potential. Sure, it’s going to change the course of patent law, but we’re thinking
It is possible that if Hans Christen Andersen were alive today, he’d be a rock star. Or at the least the title character in his very own reality series. Of course, if Andersen lived in the 21st century, he wouldn’t recognize himself. His work, dark and cautionary, has been turned into the stuff of cheery musicals and happy endings. This, of course, does not constitute a mystery, and we are hard-pressed to understand this: For Hans Christian Andersen, life wasn’t so much a fairy tale as a nightmare. Or so it seems. Though he was Denmark’s most famous literary son,
