Lit Hub Weekly: September 20 – 24, 2021

• Jay Gabler tells a long, sad story of failed sci-fi adaptations and wonders if the new Foundation series, based on Isaac Asimov’s trilogy, will finally break the curse. | Lit Hub TV

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• “We had death threats. The kids were told that they were never going to get into college.” Dave Zirin on the first high school team to take a knee. | Lit Hub Sports

• The difference between a specter and a poster boy: Comparing the textual interpretations of The Midnight Library and The Bell Jar. | Lit Hub Criticism

• Nancy Goldstone recounts the precocious early years of Marie Antoinette, before marriage to Louis XVI. | Lit Hub History

• Richard Powers’ Bewilderment, Rabih Alameddine’s The Wrong End of the Telescope, and Amia Srinivasan’s The Right to Sex all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week. | Book Marks

• “What makes a story universal is its specificity.” Jesse Kellerman on what we write about when we write about Berkeley. | CrimeReads

• Dig into the history of bookmobiles with these photos from The New York Times’ archive. | The New York Times

• “These stories have survived the centuries because of their enduring appeal to something fundamental about our human nature.” On the pleasures of mythological reimaginings. | Esquire

• Here are 75 queer and feminist books to read this fall. | Autostraddle

• Take a tour of Haruki Murakami’s accidental novelty T-shirt collection. | The New Yorker

• “Even those villains who appear hellbent on saving the natural world do so with an all-consuming destructive fervor.” A case for Swamp Thing as great climate fiction. | Gawker

• The Black Film Archive is bringing a renewed focus to stories of cinema’s Black artists throughout history. | Los Angeles Times

• Alexander Chee considers the legacy of E.M. Forster and his novel Maurice. | The New Republic

• “His emotional authority often gets left out of the nutshell version of his legacy.” Elaine Blair on Hemingway as a writer’s writer. | NYRB

• Phoebe Robinson writes about the journey to launching her own imprint and the ever-changing publishing landscape. | EW

• Take a walk through Ramona Quimby’s Portland. | The Seattle Times

• Melissa Lozada-Oliva talks about the importance of poetry, “one of the last things that reminds us that we are alive.” | The Creative Independent

• The Pew Research Center dives into the demographics of people who say they don’t read books. | Pew Research Center

• Is the rise of “influencer publishing” good for books? | The New Statesman

• “There are many fine writers of literary fiction, maybe too many… but only one world’s richest lady.” Considering the novels of MacKenzie Bezos in the (all-consuming) context of her proximity to Amazon. | The Paris Review

• Incarcerated writers reflect on the mental, physical, and emotional toll the pandemic has taken. | The Drift

Also on Lit Hub:

In which Ruth Ozeki breaks our hearts and bowls us over • Yiyun Li takes ten writing lessons from War and Peace • An illustrated collection of very honest book covers • Dan O’Brien on the mistake no dialogue writer should ever make • On Robert Indiana’s LOVE-hate relationship with the sculpture that made him a star • When Tennessee Williams reached out to an embattled Truman Capote • Lincoln Michel in praise of genre labels • How Michael Sayman became known as “the Boy Genius of Apple” • Seeking ourselves in the Divine Comedy • Meet Berthe Weill, the groundbreaking art dealer who made a name for Picasso • When Vincent Van Gogh “landed in Paris like a meteor” • How emotions like grief physically change the heart • Laura Davis on being an old(ish) mother • Eileen Myles follows Joan Mitchell’s path through New York City • Farah Jasmine Griffin considers Black love and her parents’ enduring marriage • How did we end up with the lazy stoner stereotype? • On Bessie Smith’s bewitching blues and nuanced legacy • Telling family stories is one thing, but “how does one begin to tell silence?” • When Buckingham Palace stopped hosting debutante parties (and panic ensued) • Do fictional critiques of the wealthy ever really work? • Why it matters that the literary world lacks critical distance around Philip Roth • Leigh Cowart on the centuries-long success of sadomasochistic books • Behind the scenes of the Grey’s Anatomy writers’ room • Tales from a decade of bookstore events • How the iconic late-night TV character Elvira came to be