Gary Shteyngart Stars in Super Sad True Trailer Story 2: Rise of the Machines
Yesterday, the trailer for the paperback edition of Super Sad True Love Story premiered on NY Mag’s Vulture blog. James Franco isn’t in this one (sorry, ladies), but Paul Giamatti (fellas!) is! It is really funny!
Zounds! Astounding Science Fiction Recommendations!
In honor of something or other, The Guardian recently posted a wicked list of science fiction recommendations from some of the genre’s best writers.
Thursdays, they are the worst. But here are some links to put a little bit of Friday in your Thursday. It’s raining Thursdays! Party in the U.S.Thursday!
The sport of horse racing, which celebrates the whipping of inbred and fragile horses for purposes of monetary gain, has been sullied.
On Mark McGurl’s Strange, Belated Response to Elif Bautman’s “Get a Real Degree”
Batuman’s article is worthy of serious discussion; this isn’t it. Rather, McGurl has wasted an essay trying to out-snark Batuman — and I think it’s safe to say that she’s a better and far more entertaining crank than anyone.
A few years ago, I saw Rick Prelinger give a speech called “On the Virtues of Preexisting Material: A Manifesto,” a stirring treatise on the value of cultural recycling. It included points like “Why add to the population of orphaned works?” and “The ideology of originality is arrogant and wasteful,” and “The pleasure of recognition warms us on cold nights and cools us in hot summers.”
In which Stephen Spielberg likes CGI and I admit to never having read Tintin.
A Weird Floating Island of Strange Death
I have to say I don’t know what I find more invigoratingly overwhelming: our power to create a weird, floating island of strange death, or art so prescient that it displaces time, distorts causality, and convinces us for a moment that it has killed and buried coincidence.
Reading Tweets From Tahrir, a collection of tweets from the English-speaking vanguard of the Egyptian revolution, I remembered what struck me as so important about the events a few months ago, and why that moment will continue to resonate no matter what road the Arab world takes- young people made change happen, and for a moment, their nation beamed.
Happy 60th Birthday, Jonathan Richman!
Jonathan Richman, one of my favorite singer-songwriters/humans in the world, turns 60 years old today. Happy Birthday, Jonathan! Say hi to Tommy for me! I hope you dance like this today: