Best of the Week: Sept 28 – Oct 2, 2015

TODAY: In 1925, Eugene Louis (later known as Gore) Vidal is born.

• Fan letter turned friendship turned flirtation: The sitcom of Eudora Welty’s and Ross MacDonald’s not-quite-romantic relationship. | The Paris Review
• On the mysterious death and lasting influence of Walter Benjamin, forefather of today’s overly intellectual TV bloggers. | The Guardian
• You’ll claw yourself (with pleasure?): A compelling take on book blurbs. | NPR
• Jonathan Franzen reviews a book about technology’s impact on human interaction; you will not believe how he feels. (Hint: “Our rapturous submission to digital technology has led to an atrophying of human capacities like empathy and self-­reflection.”) | The New York Times Sunday Book Review
• “When I got very stoned and watched Planet Earth, I thought a lot about sand.” Claire Vaye Watkins on the origin of her debut novel, interrogating the myth of the American West, and the comfort of apocalyptic thinking. | Vol 1. Brooklyn
• A series of “thought-provoking missive[s] re: Lispector’s short stories:” a collaborative critical look at The Complete Stories. | Full Stop
• “I guess I’m just having a big-ass Fall.” Eileen Myles talks sexism, outer space, and what lies ahead. | Broadly
• Six writers look back at their first novels with affection–and/or slightly gritted teeth. | The Millions
• “See how much you love me when I’m not giving you what you want!” New fiction from Atticus Lish. | Granta
• In which Hemingway’s love triangle sounds exactly like you thought it would: “Hadley submissive, willing, a follower. Pauline explosive, wildly demonstrative, in charge, mounts me.” | Smithsonian Magazine
• In case a tsunami of think pieces has attempted to convince you otherwise, books by queer authors and authors of color remain disproportionately banned. | Flavorwire
• Revisiting William Delisle Hay’s The Doom of the Great City, a Victorian horror story and the spiritual prequel to “An Inconvenient Truth.” | Public Domain Review
• Seattle: City of White Literature? Why Ryan Boudinot’s new anthology is a failure of representation. | The Seattle Review of Books
• Adrian Tomine talks fatherhood, his new graphic novel, and the dearth of Asian-Americans mainstream culture. | Guernica
• “After my son was born, everyone told me to write it all down. Instead I went home and cancelled my credit cards.” A birth story from Mia You. | Poetry Foundation

And on Literary Hub:

• Exploring Patrick Modiano’s melancholy fiction and his Paris. | Literary Hub
• What happens when social progress moves faster than your novel-in-progress. | Literary Hub
• Jonathan Russell Clark got really stoned and interviewed Jesse Eisenberg. | Literary Hub
• How Donna Tartt, Lorrie Moore, and Richard Ford are the literary heirs of the great Nick Carraway. | Literary Hub
• The second part of Paul Holdengraber’s conversation with Neil Gaiman, in which bees, fatherhood, and magic are discussed. (From our new podcast, A Phone Call From Paul.) | Literary Hub
• Sloane Crosley on battling novel dysmorphia, realizing her 700-page first novel was not so big after all. | Literary Hub
• A conversation with Jonathan Franzen, who just wants everyone to have a good time. | Literary Hub
• From Pliny the Elder to Twin Peaks, the poetics of everyone’s favorite “monster of the night,” owls. | Literary Hub

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