Chicago has a newly inaugurated Chicago Literary Hall of Fame. The idea for the Hall of Fame came out of a meeting of the Chicago Writers' Association.
On November 20th, the Hall inducted its first six authors - Lorraine Hansberry, Studs Terkel, Gwendolyn Brooks, Nelson Algren, Saul Bellow, and Richard Wright - at an auditorium in Northeast Illinois University.
The first round of inductees were "obvious choices," said Evans, the Hall of Fame's executive director (in addition to its chauffeur). But, he said, it's "going to get tricky going forward.” For instance, would Hemingway be eligible? He was born in Oak Park, a suburb of Chicago, and he attended school there, but "he only wrote one story about Chicago." The fate of L. Frank Baum, who lived in Chicago while he wrote about the land of Oz, was similarly undecided. Evans debated whether a "literary" hall of fame could include more popular writers, like Scott Turrow, or screenwriters, like Ben Hecht. newyorker.
10 Thoughts on Academia Novel Crisis. Cathy Day, scrittrice e prof. di creative writing, elenca in modo molto spiritoso i problemi dei corsi di creative writing. "5. This is Not How You Do It. I know some people who took a novel workshop in college. This is how it went down. First, they studied the first sentences of a bunch of novels and wrote one of their own, then workshopped it. Then they studied first paragraphs of novels and expanded their first sentences into first paragraphs and workshopped those. Then they studied first chapters of a few novels and wrote one of their own, then workshopped their chapters. And then the semester was over". themillions.
Molti modi di leggere. What good to a Nook is a hook-cook Vook? "And so: Vook! The invention of Brad Inman, Vook — a software application that combines video and text — was introduced as a programming platform in 2009. Promptly people started mixing it up with the Nook, the Barnes and Noble e-reader. They're different. Vooks are not physical devices; they’re digital video books. Vook apps are available through the App Store for iPad and iPhone; at vook.com for reading on the Internet; through the iBookstore; and through the Amazon Kindle application for iPad and iPhone. (Android applications are in the works.) nyt.
FreeDarko Presents: The Undisputed Guide to Pro Basketball History (Bloomsbury), di Bethlehem Shoals, Dr. Lawyer IndianChief, Silverbird 5000 e con le bellissime illustrazioni di Jacob Weinstein (autori del blog FreeDarko). Ed è per mostrare una delle sue illustrazioni che ho deciso di presentare questo libro (per gli appassionati un must).
Il libro della Tiger Mother, Amy Chua, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother (Penguin Press), la mamma cinese, docente di Yale, che spinge con ogni mezzo le figlie a ottenere il primo posto a scuola e nella musica, sta suscitando una vasta eco in America (e anche in Italia). Oggi sul New York Times si pronuncia David Brooks, e rivolta il caso: la signora Chua proteggerebbe le figlie dall'affrontare vere prove sociali: "I have the opposite problem with Chua. I believe she's coddling her children. She's protecting them from the most intellectually demanding activities because she doesn't understand what's cognitively difficult and what isn't.
Practicing a piece of music for four hours requires focused attention, but it is nowhere near as cognitively demanding as a sleepover with 14-year-old girls. Managing status rivalries, negotiating group dynamics, understanding social norms, navigating the distinction between self and group - these and other social tests impose cognitive demands that blow away any intense tutoring session or a class at Yale. ...
I have the opposite problem with Chua. I believe she's coddling her children. She's protecting them from the most intellectually demanding activities because she doesn't understand what's cognitively difficult and what isn't.
Practicing a piece of music for four hours requires focused attention, but it is nowhere near as cognitively demanding as a sleepover with 14-year-old girls. Managing status rivalries, negotiating group dynamics, understanding social norms, navigating the distinction between self and group - these and other social tests impose cognitive demands that blow away any intense tutoring session or a class at Yale". nyt.
The critic participates in the world of literature not as a lawgiver or a team captain for this or that school of writing, but as a writer, a colleague of the poet and the novelist. Novelists interpret experience through the medium of plot and character, poets through the medium of rhythm and metaphor, and critics through the medium of other texts. Adam Kirsch, nyt.
E' un sito dove si discutono le "grandi questioni". E' stato creato da Rainn Wilson, l'attore che fa la parte di Dwight nello show televisivo "The Office". Wilson spiega il perché del sito, "I grew up in a bohemian household and read a lot about great thinkers and great religions. ... Contemplating the big questions is something I've always been passionate about, but it's kind of missing from our cultural discourse, and I wanted to find a way to make it cool and fun and not so precious." SoulPancake: Chew on Life's Big Questions è anche un libro, scritto da Wilson con Devon Gundry, Golriz Lucina e Shabnam Mogharabi e edito da Hyperion. SFC.
La gestualità è un modo di comunicare in via di estinzione. Lo sostiene Angus Trumble in un curioso libro intitolato The Finger. A handbook (Yale UP). "An old-fashioned Anglo-Saxon male can go through life with his hands in his pockets. Almost the only times he is on the receiving end of a significant hand movement are when the priest blesses him in church (index and middle fingers together and turned outward), or the umpire gives him out at the crease (index finger raised solus), or he is abused by an angry cyclist (index and middle finger splayed and turned inward).
This last was the original form of Churchill’s V-sign, until delicate-minded advisers advised him to do it palm outward. Trumble himself admits that we live in a gesture-impoverished world where hand signals are disappearing as fast as many minority word-languages. Only perhaps in Italy does the full panoply still flourish, from the corni and the mano fica to the minaccia by way of a dozen variants of the raised digit, the clenched fist and the smacked palm. TLS.
"For writers, New York City has always been a magnet with two poles, one that attracts, another that repels", così inizia il lungo articolo di Stefan Kanfer che passa in rassegna tutti gli scrittori che hanno dimorato per qualche tempo a NYC. cityjournal.
