Lit Hub Weekly: October 28 - November 1, 2019

• “To escape from the asylum was, in a sense, to attempt an exit from a woman’s place.” On gothic asylum horror and the 19th-century invention of the madwoman. | Lit Hub History
• “She encourages us to dream, to linger, to flirt, to fall in love, or to at least fantasize that falling in love is possible.” Elaine Sciolino, in praise of the Seine, river of romance. | Lit Hub Travel
• How to resist late-stage capitalism—and other lessons from Charlotte’s Web, E.B. White’s modern classic of radical decency. | Lit Hub Literary Criticism
• Parul Sehgal on Carmen Maria Machado’s experimental memoir, Kate Aronoff on Jonathan Safran Foer and the climate sad bois, and more of the Book Reviews You Need to Read This Week. | Book Marks
• Olivia Rutigliano makes the case for Dracula as a detective novel—and as a sprawling, radical take on the literature of investigations and the paranormal. | CrimeReads
• “The Count of Monte Cristo is one of the most exciting novels ever written and on the other hand is one of the most badly written novels of all time and in any literature.” Umberto Eco on Dumas, Casablanca, and the pleasures of imperfection. | The Paris Review
• “Jack Keroac was my boyfriend then, and I was very young.” Joyce Johnson describes what followed the publication of On the Road. | New York Review of Books
• The world of magazine publishing has changed. What does that mean for the future of one of the most prestigious publishers of all, Condé Nast? | Intelligencer
• “J.R.R. Tolkien created Middle Earth to give his languages somewhere to be spoken”: on the scientific and cultural impact of invented languages, or “conlags.” | Slate
• An interview with Edward Norton on New York, urban planning, and his unconventional film adaptation of Jonathan Lethem’s Motherless Brooklyn. | Smithsonian
• “To understand the public library as a benevolent form of welfare would be to entirely miss the radical potential of the institution as a political project.” Searching for the future of public spaces at an all-night library party. | The Baffler
• “Kids have not been exposed to a writer who looks like he does, who sounds like he does, who has that deep honesty and connection with them like he does”: A profile of best-selling children’s book author Jason Reynolds. | The New York Times
• A new generation of historians is unearthing stories of the women who helped build Hollywood. | The New Yorker
• On Jonathan Safran Foer and the other literary “climate sad bois.” | The Nation
• Both the wallpaper and the man are gone, but you can still stay in the hotel where Oscar Wilde died. | Spectator Life
• Alert: soon you will be able to read Patricia Highsmith’s diaries. (!!!) | The New York Times
• “What the books share is a sense of abiding fear—fear that is infrastructural and architectural.” On the defining horror of #MeToo stories. | The Atlantic
• How are California’s indie booksellers coping with wildfires? | Publishers Weekly
• David Bowie didn’t hide the fact that he loved books. A new one by music journalist John O’Connell traces the influence of 100 books on Bowie’s music. | Newsweek
• Philip Roth quietly left at least $2 million of his $10 million estate to the Newark Public Library. | Wall Street Journal

Also on Lit Hub:

More in our Best of the Decade: The best essay collections of the decade: in which we essay an impossible task • John Edgar Wideman on the impassable divides of the prison visiting room • Eclipsed by the racial shadow of Shakespeare’s Othello: Aatif Rashad on Edward Said, Ayad Akhtar, and depictions of violent brown men • Almost lost arts: here’s what traditional papermaking looks like in 2019 • Paul Theroux on the Day of the Dead • Jon Krakauer on the incredible career of mountaineer Fred Beckey • Andrea Long Chu on Valerie Solanas and modern trans identity • Lessons in gardening from Emily Dickinson • Albert Camus on the responsibility of the artist • Charlie Tyson on the philosophical implications of a world with less work • There’s no such thing as a stupid question, but here are a bunch very strange ones, courtesy of the infinitely patient staff of the New York Public Library • Lydia Pyne on one of the great art criminals of all time • If you think there’s a lot of trash on Earth, we regret to inform you that humans have managed to float 6,000 tons of junk into outer space • Mónica Ramón Ríos and Carlos Labbé on the protests in Chile • Here’s the cultural encyclopedia of mushrooms that we need right now • Ada Deer on her mother’s fight for tribal sovereignty in the 1960s • On the fine line between self-preservation and self-deception • Cinelle Barnes on raising a brown girl who believes she can be a writer • On the metaphysical terror of the mask-wearing murderer • Ruth Madievsky on the creepy dissonance of reading Trick Mirror in a “self-care” book club • Kevin Wilson on learning pronunciation from Seinfeld, and pretending he’s read the classics • Here are five Halloween audiobooks to help you drown out the doorbell • Mira Jacob, Maile Meloy, Emily Raboteau, and Diana Abu-Jaber discuss comfort food, dream dinner parties, and more • Swimming through writer’s block at an Icelandic public pool • André Aciman on writing his way back to his famous lovers • Ahmet Atlan, the imprisoned Turkish dissident, on the freedom of his mind • A century before Springsteen, Stephen Crane chronicled Asbury Park • The Lit Hub staff’s favorite stories of the month

Best of Book Marks:

New on CrimeReads:

“The genre has never been more exciting or vibrant.” Nominees for the Anthony Awards weigh in on the state of the crime novel • Emily Stein recommends all the spooky podcasts to listen to this Halloweekend • Abigail Tarttelin on 7 crime tropes we really could do without • Zach Vasquez looks at 20 essential films that blur the lines between horror and noir • Erica Wright highly recommends growing up in a haunted house • From Sue Grafton to Attica Locke, a look back at three decades of Anthony Award winners • Everything you need to know about Watchmen, which is totally a crime show • Jake Hinkson on the literary roots of backcountry noir • Human marionettes, frogs, and the color black: behold, October’s best book covers • Janet Roger on The Big Sleep at 80