Lit Hub Weekly: October 28 – November 1, 2024
TODAY: In 1960, Penguin Books is declared Not Guilty in R v Penguin Books Ltd, the obscenity trial over Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
“The defining feature of the act of translation is the kind of reading the translator is doing.” Damion Searls on what emerging and established translators can learn from some good old fashioned close reading. | Lit Hub On Translation
Rebecca Solnit considers the reissue of Mike Davis’s Dead Cities and why “Mike knew apocalypses had been coming at us all along.” | Lit Hub Climate Change
Nick Hornby wonders if aging has changed his reading preferences (and shares some titles he’s read and bought). | Lit Hub Criticism
Read an open letter signed by hundreds of authors pledging to boycott Israeli cultural institutions. | Lit Hub
“Even when there’s no clear through line to change, these are stories that outside reporters just can’t access.” Christopher Blackwell and Emily Nonko consider the necessity of prison journalism. | The Nation
Sheila Heti on writing advice and the people who give it. | The Paris Review
“This commodification of cultural differences challenges authors and readers as they navigate between authentic expression and market demands.” Alex Taek-Gwang Lee considers the paradox of the Nobel Prize. | e-flux
How a turbulent media landscape helped bring about the Civil War. | Atlas Obscura
“The work lifted me up. A life buoy as I was drowning in loss.” Sigrid Rausing on translating and editing Johanna Ekström’s final notebooks. | Granta
“Ultimately, I loved Megalopolis. Perhaps I am being seduced by the allure of late-style auteurism.” Sam Bodrojan on Francis Ford Coppola’s most chaotic movie. | Los Angeles Review of Books
“The real battle is not between urban dwellers and smallholding farmers—as capitalist social conflict or cheap populism would render it…” On communes and the state of the Hudson Valley. | Public Books
Lisa Ko: “To pressure authors to remain silent about institutional response to war in order to be eligible for prestigious literary prizes is not only ironic — PEN America’s mission, for instance, is to protect freedom of expression — but sinister.” | Truthout
“Can Amazon reviews be more than just margin notes to Amazon’s particularly pernicious brand of monopoly capitalism?” Thomas Hobohm considers the universes within Kevin Killian’s Amazon reviews. | Dirt
“…student restraint stands in stark contrast to the barely controlled hysteria of administrators, university presidents, trustees, and now library administrators.” On protests and privilege at American universities. | Arrowsmith Press
Revisiting Fire!!, the Harlem Renaissance literary magazine that was ahead of its time. | Hammer & Hope
Alexis Okeowo explores the continuing relevance of Binyavanga Wainaina’s writing about Africa. | The New Yorker
“The only way he could tell us about ourselves was by talking about himself, and the only way he could tell us about himself was by talking about anything but.” Dale Peck remembers Gary Indiana. | The Baffler
Mira Ptacin tells the story of how a neo-Nazi was driven out of Maine. | The Atavist
Ariel Lown Lewiton on finding hope in protest pins. | The New York Times Magazine
Also on Lit Hub:
New York City’s unique position to preserve endangered languages • How the ruins of the Umatilla Chemical Depot reveal illusions of progress and productivity • Nazem Kadri remembers growing up on the ice rink in Ontario • Why Trump’s appeal to white Americans perpetuates racial trauma • Kelly Sather shares how she got her (literary) style • The ways Black Americans commemorate Independence Day • Rebecca Solnit on how we, the people, can make a better future • Why the United States was doomed to fail in Vietnam • Mónica de la Torre on the people who influence her creative development • Emily Herring on Henri Bergson’s radical view of reality • Check out Mike Fu’s TBR • On reading George Stewart’s Fire during fire season • The urgent issue of abortion rights across the country • Fady Joudah on images from Gaza • Ed Simon explores the long history of European vampire legends • Nick Ripatrazone on that time Dylan Thomas got spooky • October’s best reviewed books • Are you the asshole if you want your friend to stop bragging about reading YA? • What does horror need? Humor. • The literary film and television coming to streaming services near you • Helen Donahue tells the story of a haunting, a kidnapping, and escaping her own boogeyman • November brings new paperback editions • The urgent issue of climate change • Leonard Cassuto on how to take care of your reader • Caroline Carlson recommends 10 new children’s books • This week on The Lit Hub Podcast: celebrating 20 years of n+1 • November brings new sci-fi and fantasy books • 5 book reviews you need to read this week • Rebecca Morgan Frank recommends new poetry collections • These are the best audiobooks coming in November
