Lit Hub Daily: August 30, 2021

• Aimee Bender muses on surrendering to the narrative risks in Jane Campion’s The Piano and Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun. | Lit Hub Criticism

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• “Some feminists thought sports overly reflected the dog-eat-dog ethos of the patriarchy. I thought some feminists sometimes intellectualized things too much.” Legendary tennis champ Billie Jean King on activism, challenging the patriarchy, and the importance of Title IX. | Lit Hub Sports

• Stephen Prickett considers the “power literature” that spans age groups, from the imaginary worlds of the Brontë children to Tolkien’s creations. | Lit Hub

• “In Shakespeare, English protest becomes second cousin to football hooliganism.” Robert McCrum explores the comical, ominous power of a Shakespearean mob. | Lit Hub Criticism

• Kill all the buffalo: Rupa Marya and Raj Patel trace cruel colonial strategies to the health and wellness of Indigenous land and life today. | Lit Hub History

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• Read a profile of Daud Salim, whose bookstore Maktaba al-Sham is the only one that has returned to Mosul’s storied Najafi Street since the city’s liberation from ISIS. | Atlas Obscura

• “So many of us fail, so consistently, to marvel at any lives but our own.” Lacy M. Johnson on the lessons of slime mold. | Orion

• Shannon Finnegan and Bojana Coklyat discuss the value and urgency of creative alt text. | BOMB

• Meet the record label that specializes in literature-inspired music. | The Guardian

• Matt Bell considers the writing lessons he learned from Ursula K. Le Guin. | Tor

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• “If a person deeply wants something and ignores that desire, it’s probably not going to die a peaceful death.” Chris Kraus and R.O. Kwon in conversation. | Document

Also on Lit Hub: Who was Mary Shelley, daughter? • The 12 best book covers of August • Read from Sheng Keyi’s latest novel, Death Fugue