Lit Hub Daily: August 29, 2022

• “No one did more to further the genre of the novel than the Hermit from Croisset.” Mario Vargas Llosa considers the eternal youth of Flaubert’s writing. (Translated by Charlotte Whittle). | Lit Hub Criticism

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• How can global cities adapt to the climate crisis? | Lit Hub Climate Change

• Deborah Liu in praise of Pizza Hut’s Book It program, which encourages—and feeds—voracious readers. | Lit Hub Memoir

• “These characters don’t require our forgiveness, but they challenge our capacity for empathy.” Rebecca Bernard on books that portray criminality without dehumanizing characters. | Lit Hub Reading Lists

• Here’s how Florida schools are handling efforts to censor books on controversial topics. | Tampa Bay Times

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• “I feel an urgency to tell the stories that I’m telling.” Alejandro Varela on how his studies in public health have influenced his writing. | LARB

• “It was the novel’s repetitions, more than any other transgression, that drove early reviewers to unknown furies.” Meghan O’Gieblyn on Marguerite Young’s Miss MacIntosh, My Darling, “one of the most widely unread books ever acclaimed.” | n+1

• Lesley Chamberlain considers the “narrow focus” of Rilke’s life, and the “huge questions” of his poems. | Poetry 

• “I don’t need to feel like I’m dominating or conquering something in an adventure. I want to feel reverent, or at peace.” Megan Mayhew-Bergman finds transcendence on a historic canoe route. | The Guardian

• A brief history of the iconic life of Clippy, Microsoft Office assistant. | Seattle Met

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Also on Lit Hub: Guy Delisle revisits a brief interaction with José Muñoz • How creative thinking can inform medical science • Read from Keith Cohen’s debut novel, A Season Unknown