Mark Sarvas's Blog, page 22

WEEKEND READ

I've said it before and I will say it as often as it continues to resurface:  Elmore Leonard's ten rules of writing fiction is as splendid an example of unhinged dipshitery as I've ever seen, and its longevity never ceases to depress me. 

I've previously reproduced the 2001 TLS response to this idiotic drivel but I never tire of it, so here it is again:

The eleventh rule is: If you come across lists such as this, ignore them. The rules may sound sensible enough, but, with the exception of No...

THURSDAY MARGINALIA

* Back in November, I was invited to participate in the Significant Objects art project, all the details of which you can find here.  In a truly remarkable coda to this endeavor, a group of students from the Savannah College of Art and Design created a number of mock advertisements for some of the significant objects, and a surprisingly large number chose my yo-yo.  Their absolutely inspired results can be found here.

* At the Guardian, John Crace looks back at ten years of the Digested Read.

...

WEHO HEARTS GATSBY

Very exciting news in these parts: West Hollywood has chosen The Great Gatsby for its Big Read. You can find event details here.  Can't wait to tell my students, who have spent the last five weeks using the book as a Rosetta Stone of novel writing.

TOP 10 IN TRANSLATION

The Best Translated Books Award finalists have been announced over at Three Percent.  You can find their top 10 list here.

SULLIVAN v. WIESELTIER

What follows is not strictly literary, but might be of interest to my audience.

For all his flaws - an occasional propensity for obsession, hysterics, and self-regard - I'm generally an admirer of Andrew Sullivan's.  I also think that Leon Wieseltier is, for all his obvious brilliance, a monumental tool.  So I've watched the unfolding of their current spat with not a little interest.  What is most striking about the saga is how thoroughly both parties - but the normally acute Sullivan, in...

WEEKEND READ

So, one of the inevitable by-products of fatherhood is I'm just not as up on things as I was a year ago, and I tend to stumble onto things well behind the curve.  So it's entirely possible you've already visited the New York Review of Books' blog, but if you haven't, start with Tim Parks on the difficulty of European writers trying to publish in America, and then explore the rest, including Tony Judt's moving memoir posts.  I have a new favorite ...

THURSDAY MARGINALIA

* Junot Diaz wins yet another award - this time, Barnes and Noble's Writers for Writers Award.

* Tan Zuoren, a Chinese literary editor, has appealed his five-year sentence for subversion.

The court said Mr. Tan faced the charges because of recent writings and a rally criticizing the government's deadly suppression of the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989 were the reasons, but his supporters said the central government wanted to stop his investigation of fatal school collapses during the 2008...

NOW HEAR THIS ...

... you thesis/custom essay comment spamming motherfuckers.  I will delete your comments as quickly as you post them, you hear?  So move on.  I have nothing but time and patience, and I live to thwart bottom feeders like you.

"THE ASK" AT FIVE CHAPTERS

All those as crazy about Sam Lipsyte as I am will want to hustle over to Five Chapters this week, where an excerpt from The Ask is presented for your consideration ...

MY SUMMER OF DEBUTS

Last year, I was invited to be a judge for the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize which, as you all know by now, was awarded in November to John Pipkin's Woodsburner, a choice I wholly and enthusiastically approved of. (I was also tremendously impressed with Paul Harding's Tinkers – I've had a note on my desk since then to add the book to the Recommended sidebar.) I'm not going to talk about the judges (who were all smart and cool and engaged) or the deliberations (which were cordial and ...