On Mario Vargas Llosa And Fiction As The Art Of Living
It worked with Updike, Nabokov, Graham Greene, and Leo motherfucking Tolstoy. It'll probably work with Alice Munro, too ... The committee has a remarkably sketchy track record. (Although Vargas Llosa is a perfectly respectable choice.)
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On 'Loud Pipes Save Lives' But Who Will Save Loud Pipes? (Update: AMA Responds)
Thank you!
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On 'Loud Pipes Save Lives' But Who Will Save Loud Pipes? (Update: AMA Responds)
I live on a major crosstown street in Manhattan. It's loud; we're mostly used to it. Bus brakes, everyday honking, even the occasional helicopter - not that big a deal. Mating 20-somethings whooping drunkenly - meh. Car alarms are not the problem they once were. Sirens can get irritating, but they exist for a serious reason.
Loud motorcycle pipes, on the other hand ... Really, that is the noise I dread most, that wakes me up more than any other, and that in general drives me the most crazy. There are plenty of bars nearby so there are always groups of them coming by, revving and roaring and sputtering, at closing time. Hate. Them.
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On Behind the Franzenfreude
Which is not to say that I think that, if Jodi Picoult were Joseph Picoult, he'd have a different reputation.
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On Behind the Franzenfreude
Katha Pollitt wrote about this in Slate in 2009. The money quote:
"If The Corrections had been written by Janet Franzen, would it have been seen not as a bid for the Great American Novel trophy, but as a very good domestic novel with some futuristic flourishes that didn't quite come off?"
Full article: http://www.slate.com/id/2213111/pagenum/all/
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On 'Mockingjay': Is It YA That Makes You Stupider or Smarter?
Agree. As a parent I have to say there's a lot of crap published specifically for the Y.A. readership, but then there's even more crap published specifically for putatively adult readers.
Good is good, generally. And it doesn't get a whole lot better, in the surreal head-trip category, than Alice in Wonderland.
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On 'Mockingjay': Is It YA That Makes You Stupider or Smarter?
There's a LOT of Y.A. "dystopian future" (and just plain "dystopian") out there. Some of it is v. good.
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On 'Mockingjay': Is It YA That Makes You Stupider or Smarter?
@DoctorDisaster - Thank you, yes. Agree with the books you mention: Neil Gaiman and Roald Dahl and Philip Pullman are for everyone. And there's some amazing work out of the UK lately, by which I don't mean Rowling. Most especially, check out the late Siobhan Dowd's A Swift, Pure Cry, which could very easily have been published as an adult novel, and perhaps should have been (at least in this country, where it's gotten almost no attention). Or David Almond's weird, remarkable Skellig - but on that one, for heaven's sake don't buy the U.S. edition which changes all the British slang and makes the book feel really flat.
A lot of things published 50+ years ago would be sold as Y.A. now - for instance, To Kill a Mockingbird - and I'm not sure that's a good thing.
Twilight, however, the tweens can have, with my fervent blessing.
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On Actual Names of Actual People Who Plan to Attend the Dorrian's 50th Anniversary Festivities
Same here, hockeymom. Oh, well, I guess we can hang around up there in Gef's thread looking pathetically worshipful - at least there's two of us now!
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On Russ Feingold At Rest
I would SO trade in Harry Reid for Russ Feingold about now, even though it would mean having Angle in the Senate.
Scream.