Lit Hub Weekly: September 27 – October 1, 2021

TODAY: In 1902, Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Peter Rabbit is published by Frederick Warne & Co.  

• “If you determine to abandon me, I will be doubly ambitious.” How to deal with rejection (and get revenge) like Edgar Allan Poe. | Lit Hub History

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• Timothy Morton muses on hyperspace, the field beyond the speed of light, and how it relates to stream-of-consciousness narratives. | Lit Hub Science

• Elegy for the unforgiven: Askold Melnyczuk examines his “impulse to probe the hearts and minds” of unsympathetic characters. | Lit Hub Craft

• Sally Rooney’s Beautiful World, Where Are You, Colson Whitehead’s Harlem Shuffle, and Lauren Groff’s Matrix all feature among the best reviewed books of the month. | Book Marks

• Olivia Rutigliano ranks every James Bond film ever made, from Connery to Craig. | CrimeReads

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• “If characters are being created for illustrative purposes or representative purposes, you’re kind of fucked.” Jonathan Franzen and Merve Emre in conversation. | Vulture

• Ruth Ozeki discusses her Japanese identity, Shintoism, and writing after loss. | Harper’s Bazaar

• “If I were to expose myself, I would become a character, a public fiction that would also condition the fiction of the writing.” Elena Ferrante and Marina Abramović, in (email) conversation. | FT

• Examining the long, complex history of book censorship in the US. | Teen Vogue

• Namwali Serpell delves into “the fantasy of American race transformation” and the history of “passing” narratives. | The Yale Review

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• “Please try to notice if every artist isn’t ruthless in some way.” Read an excerpt from Patricia Highsmith’s diaries. | The New Yorker

• Anika T. Prather discusses the role of the classics in struggles for racial equality, and makes the case for their continued relevance for Black students. | The Point

• Jocelyn Nicole Johnson on her new collection and being a debut author at 50. | The New York Times

• “I think we’re seeing a great falling apart, a great fracturing and fragmentation.” Chuck Palahniuk talks to Kathryn Borel about writing in the internet age and more. | The Believer

• Richard Powers discusses the inspiration behind his new book, ornithology, and the possibilities of alien life. | Rain Taxi

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• Hanif Abdurraqib breaks down the legacy of Soul Train. | NPR

• “There’s something wonderfully defiant about the way she dumped English, like a child asserting that he no longer plans to wear shoes.” On Jhumpa Lahiri’s turn toward Italian. | LARB

• John Warner defends the “big, splashy,” Sally Rooney-style book promotion. | Chicago Tribune

• Where did Tracy K. Smith find hope in the last year? “I felt that I could clearly see there were people in my community that I felt capable of helping and advocating for.” | TIME

• “Forgive the dramatics, but I had never been so completely the target audience for something before.” Patricia Lockwood considers the album It’ll End in Tears by This Mortal Coil. | Harper’s

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• An audiovisual translator discusses the process of creating subtitles and dubs for TV and films. | Zócalo Public Square

Also on Lit Hub:

Lauren Groff on girlhood in the middle of nowhere • How to make your surroundings insect-friendly • Lucy Ellman talks matriarchy, Jane Austen, and ­Moby-Dick • Pico Iyer on the deep pleasure of Handel’s chorale music • The theory of (artistic) relativity, illustrated • How the Black Panther salute links the Black community • Christopher Sorrentino on bargaining his writing career for his father’s life • On the long-necked mouth-breathers we have to thank for our existence • Lauren Arrington on the “famously unrepentant” Ezra Pound • What would it look like to rethink safety from a feminist, abolitionist perspective? • Robert A. Jensen considers the aftermath of tragedies • Seth G. Jones on the new weapons of war • Frances Hodgson Burnett really, really loved gardens • Jon McGregor on learning about aphasia at the local support group • Retracing the failed utopian promise of fossil-fueled abundance • Natalie Starkey on the mysteries of space volcanoes • Omar Mouallem on the push and pull of his Muslim identity • Why we doubt accusers while protecting abusers • Jean Huang on Little Women and citrus as currency • Roy Peter Clark’s advice for writing cinematically • The literary film and TV you should stream in October • How the Zanzibari coast became famous… for modern-day pirates

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