Thomas Hardy: Drama Queen…
Thursday, April 17th by Shane
The dog wishes he’d stop whining
According to this Guardian article, Thomas Hardy can’t write a death scene for crap. Neither can a bunch of supposedly good writers. Actually, this whole article, while admittedly bringing up an interesting topic, is covered in weirdness because the writer’s mom is actually dying. I mean, I’m all into making light of your personal tragedies and using your own experiences to highlight a greater topic, but come on- that’s just creepy.
Sarah Weinman via’d this article on the Arab world and literature. It’s a very in-depth talk on the blockades Middle Eastern writers still must overcome, both foreign and domestic, to be treated as writers and not necessarily just conduits for publishers who really want to put a desert on the cover. Please check it out if you have any interest in Middle East literature. And if you don’t, please check out this Ray Stevens video.
Remember when all of you asked me to find audio of Ed and Mark Sarvas talking about erections? Well, here you go.
New Granta website.
And finally, the NY Times covers reviews of six new books, all with a vague theme of people in between childhood and adulthood. The reviews hover around a paragraph each, so you may not get a full enough taste of whether or not the novels are up your alley, but at least when you’re done you can watch Ray Stevens performing The Streak.
