Lit Hub Daily: January 11, 2019

• Portnoy’s Complaint was published 50 years ago this year, so naturally, we’re celebrating with an unnecessarily and uncomfortably close reading of that scene. | Lit Hub
• Emma Byrne submits the scientific case for calling the president a “motherf*cker.” | Lit Hub
• “In some ways I like myself well enough. I enjoy the fun of me, the harmless conceit, the guileless complexity, the merriment.” Three days in the life (and mind) of Jan Morris. | Lit Hub
• On the eve of his 50th birthday, David Mitchell talks birthday wishes, his fictional alter-ego, and his next book. | Lit Hub
• “The key is never letting the possibilities of poetry, (where it belongs and what it can do) be determined by any authority.” Cedar Sigo on playfulness and poetry. | Lit Hub
• A dark feminist fable, a grim true crime tale, and a noir-tinged debut all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week. | Book Marks
• J. Kingston Pierce on the rise and fall of Dell Puzzlebacks, in which design and plot were seamlessly integrated, then both went down together. | CrimeReads
• “The word I keep reaching for, even though it seems melodramatic, is annihilating.” Kristen Roupenian answers every aspiring writer’s burning question: what did it feel like when “Cat Person” went viral? | The New Yorker
• On the evolution of the midcentury magazine that paved the way for contemporary science fiction and built “our collective vision of the future.” | The New York Times Book Review
• “Who are Extremely Bad Reviews written for? What do they hope to accomplish?” Critics reflect on the current state of the pan. | The Ringer
• “Each wave becomes dazzlingly white at the moment of its shattering.” Read an excerpt from Han Kang’s The White Book. | Harper’s
• “Brook was a boombox bohemian trying to make the world a better place through art, culture, collective consciousness and the printed word.” Michael A. Gonzales on the deaths of a dear friend, and David Bowie. | Longreads

Also on Lit Hub: Peng Shepherd on her debut novel, The Book of M, on the New Books Network • A poem by Deborah Landau from the new issue of Freeman’s • Read from The Far Field