TODAY: In 1937, writer Thomas Pynchon is born.
- Would aliens even bother visiting Earth? | Literary Hub
- A case study in how to (almost) remove a president: Andrew Johnson’s impeachment as a model and a warning for Trump. | Literary Hub
- Édouard Louis on class, violence, and literature as a space of resistance. | Literary Hub
- “Pynchon is in his early twenties; he writes in Mexico City—a recluse. It is hard to find out anything more about him.” George Plimpton’s 1963 review of V. | Book Marks
- “It is amazing that a technical problem, which never seems to happen, mysteriously pops up when we start talking about the sensitive political things being born from treason.” A report from Cory Doctorow’s discussion with Edward Snowden at the New York Public Library. | The New York Times
- You do not slip into this book on silken bolts of easy beauty, but scratch yourself raw on language disassembled into glittering shards: John Freeman on the poetry of Layli Long Soldier. | Los Angeles Times
- How to write about authoritarians without getting arrested: truth, fiction, and fake news in Pakistan. | Literary Hub
- “The words’ histories, their original contexts, their authorial intents—none of that much matters in the breezy world of Women Who Work.” On Ivanka Trump’s appropriative use of quotes in her self-help book. | The Atlantic
- Joanna Trollope has deemed J.K. Rowling’s tweets to be a threat to the publishing industry. | The Guardian
- Culture vs. nurture: when family hierarchy informs fiction. | Literary Hub
- “Le Pen is not the first right-wing ideologue to emphasize her resilience in the face of those who’ve sought to cut her down. Just think of ‘Mein Kampf,’ or of Donald Trump’s constant complaints that the press’s treatment of him is ‘very unfair!’” Moira Weigel on Marine Le Pen’s 2006 memoir. | The New Yorker
- You’re a billion years closer to death than I am: Fiction by Sasha Fletcher. | Joyland
- “So much of team sports is dim, dull, and unmemorable. But a rivalry sparkles like a blade on a whetstone.” Kent Russell on watching professional hockey. | n+1
And on Literary Hub: Maurice Sendak on art and art-making • “Confessional Writing” is a tired line of sexist horseshit, and other insights from Red Ink’s panel discussion on literary misfits • “Old as the Hills,” a story from The Purple Swamp Hen and Other Stories by Penelope Lively
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