Everywhere you turn, there’s a review of Jonathan Franzen’s new novel, Freedom. Most appear in print, and they’re buttoned down. Not this one. It’s a little different. The video above features Ron Charles, The Washington Post’s fiction critic, taking his own approach.
Speaking of Franzen and book reviews: Franzen appeared on San Francisco radio earlier this week. And the conversation was moving along quite smoothly until Franzen was asked about Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times book critic. That’s when the knives came out. You can catch the comments below at the 33:20 mark…
[gplayer href=“http://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/forum/2010/09/2010–09-13b-forum.mp3” ] Jonathan Franzen Interviewed on KQED Forum. September 13, 2010 [/gplayer]
Together, Oxford University and King’s College London are leading a three year effort to unite in one digital archive the surviving manuscripts of Jane Austen’s fiction. Since 1845, these texts have been dispersed among libraries and private collections. Now, they’re getting back together, at least virtually. When finished, the digital collection will include every manuscript Austen produced, starting during her youth (around 11 years old) and ending with her death at age 41. You can start reviewing some of the first manuscripts brought online here, and get more background on the project here. Good find by Kottke.
Crawdaddy! It was the first US magazine of rock music criticism, preceding both Rolling Stone and Creem. Paul Williams, then a student at Swarthmore College, first launched the magazine in 1966. And by the 1970s, Crawdaddy! hit its stride, publishing exclusive contributions by John Lennon, Joseph Heller, and Studs Terkel, to name a few. On one occasion, the self-described “first magazine to take rock and roll seriously” sent William S. Burroughs, the great beat writer, to a Led Zeppelin concert. He came back in June 1975 with a rather offbeat concert review. There’s a strange innocence, even naivete, to the whole piece (though we know better than to confuse Burroughs himself with innocence). We give you an excerpt right below, and the rest here.
So there we sat, I decline earplugs; I am used to loud drum and horn music from Morocco, and it always has, if skillfully performed, an exhilarating and energizing effect on me. As the performance got underway I experienced this musical exhilaration, which was all the more pleasant for being easily controlled, and I knew then that nothing bad was going to happen. This was a safe and friendly area–but at the same time highly charged. There was a palpable interchange of energy between the performers and the audience which was never frantic or jagged. The special effects were handled well and not overdone.
A few special effects are much better than too many. I can see the laser beams cutting dry ice smoke, which drew an appreciative cheer from the audience. Jimmy Page’s number with the broken guitar strings came across with a real impact, as did John Bonham’s drum solo and the lyrics delivered with unfailing vitality by Robert Plant. The performers were doing their best, and it was very good. The last number, “Stairway to Heaven”, where the audience lit matches and there was a scattering of sparklers here and there, found the audience well-behaved and joyous, creating the atmosphere of a high school Christmas play. All in all a good show; neither low nor insipid. Leaving the concert hall was like getting off a jet plane.
Always wanted to read science fiction? But never knew where to start? io9, a blog dedicated to futurism and sci-fi, has you covered. Today, they published a handy sci-fi syllabus/reading list “intended to introduce the novice student … to the major themes in the genre, as well as books and authors who are representative of different eras in SF lit (including the present day).” The io9 reading list breaks down a vast body of sci-fi literature into six useful categories – 1) Foundational Works/Classics, 2) Utopias and Dystopias, 3) Robots, 4) Aliens, 5) Space Travel, and 6) Science Fiction as Political Philosophy. Wells, Lovecraft, Huxley, Orwell, Dick, Asimov, Gibson, Heinlein, LeGuin – they’re all on the list.
Philip Roth, now 77 years old, keeps publishing with a certain urgency. Everyman in 2006, Exit Ghost in 2007, Indignation2008, The Humbling last year, and next comes Nemesis, due to be released in earlyOctober. After The Humbling hit the shelves, magazine editor Tina Brown conducted a rare video interview with Roth, and they covered a fair amount of ground in 14 minutes: his creative surge, how he approaches writing sex scenes, Obama’s literary talents, the coming extinction of the novel and whether the Kindle can make any bit of difference, etc. You can watch the video above, or read a transcript here.
Now a little freebie. A nice copy of Indignation goes to the first reader who sends along a compelling piece of open/intelligent media that we choose to post on the site. (If you’re looking for more guidance on what we have in mind, please read the tips on this page.) You can submit your media picks here. Cheers…
Last week, Jonathan Franzen appeared on the cover of TIME magazine – the first time in a decade that a living novelist has graced the cover page. Authors only get there if they’re flirting with greatness (TIME’s piece is called “Jonathan Franzen: Great American Novelist”) and if they have a new novel coming out. Freedomhits the bookstores next Tuesday, but you can get started with the first two chapters right now. Good Neighbors and Agreeable both appear on The New Yorker magazine web site.
Writing in The Guardian in years past, Christopher Hitchens revisited Animal Farm, George Orwell’s “dystopian allegorical novella” that took aim at the corruption of the Soviet Union and its totalitarian rule. Published in 1945, the short book appears on the Modern Library’s list of the 100 Best Novels of the 20th century, and Time Magazine’s own honors list. But, as Hitchens reminds us, Animal Farm was almost never published. The manuscript barely survived the Nazi bombing of London during World War II, and then initially TS Eliot (an important editor at Faber & Faber) and other publishers rejected the book. It eventually came to see the light of day, but, 65 years later, Animal Farm still can’t be legally read in China, Burma and North Korea, or across large parts of the Islamic world. But, no matter where you come from, you can listen to Animal Farm for free. That’s right, I said it – free. The Internet Archive offers free access to audio versions of Animal Farm and Orwell’s other major classic, 1984. Both texts appear in our collection of Free Audio Books, and you can download them directly from the Internet Archive here (Animal Farm) and here (1984), or stream them below:
Animal Farm
1984
The text versions of these classics also appear in our collection of Free eBooks.
Finally, if you’re interested in downloading a free audio book from Audible.com (pretty much any book you want), you can get more details here.
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