Caitlin Flanagan, the writer, has a lot of nerve, and the arrogance can grate on a reader. (And maybe grated on her editors at The New Yorker too, which might explain why she's not there anymore.) A writer who reviewed her most recent book went on air with her and Tom Ashbrook a year ago andContinue reading “Why gay men like Marilyn Monroe: Caitlin Flanagan”
Category Archives: culture
Orwell on the rules of story-telling in non-fiction
A review of Zero Dark Thirty includes this gem of a quote, one writer in effect overhearing arguably the first great modern non-fiction writer, George Orwell, talking about what we today call literary non-fiction, and what fictionalization he allows in a non-fiction story. . There were few more minute observers of fact than George Orwell.Continue reading “Orwell on the rules of story-telling in non-fiction”
Researcher clicks w/reporter: true stories become movies
For decades the Los Angeles Times has had a Column One feature on the front page, at the top left of the front page, usually, in the A1 position. It's a story-telling opportunity for good reporters. Yesterday Chris Lee hit the ball out of the park with his profile of the unusual reader/Hollywood producer StuartContinue reading “Researcher clicks w/reporter: true stories become movies”
A to Z in the environment in 2012
A is for ARCTIC, once ice-bound year round, but no longer, as ice and snow coverage this summer in the Arctic this year plunged to an all-time low. This will amplify warming over time, but in the short-term, forecasters say warming summers in the far north tends to bring cold winters to Europe and theContinue reading “A to Z in the environment in 2012”
Humiliation planned for losing candidate: Romney set
The most astonishing book of the year to date around here is critic Wayne Koestenbaum's Humiliation, from 2011, a pained confessional essay about being brought low, about being crushed, about what the pain of embarrassment, shame, and mortification brings to a sufferer. Tomorrow the media pillory that Koestenbaum describes so well will begin (it's alreadyContinue reading “Humiliation planned for losing candidate: Romney set”
The Sessions’ source material: “On seeing a sex surrogate”
The trailer for The Sessions could hardly be more charming. This looks to be in the vein of that classic kind of ironic indy flick — a painful story told in a funny way, like Election or Heathers or Little Miss Sunshine. Wonderfully, the source material for this lauded movie — a riveting memoir/essay piece by aContinue reading “The Sessions’ source material: “On seeing a sex surrogate””
Cheever: Life is for some an exquisite privilege
Today is, Allen Gurganus reminds us, John Cheever's 100th birthday. In celebration, here's the last couple of graphs from his story The Lowboy, which is about how some people turn life into a battle over stupid possessions. No one (in my experience) has ever dramatized this all-too-common meanness so eloquently: At some point — perhapsContinue reading “Cheever: Life is for some an exquisite privilege”
Faction: Why Truman Capote lied about himself
Biographer and psychologist William Todd Schultz argues on an Oxford University Press blog that Truman Capote lied about his past because he needed to be telling a story about himself. (If I understand correctly.) Schultz comments: Aren’t psychobiographers supposed to care about the facts? Yes, facts are crucial. Facts are the instruments of revelation. IContinue reading “Faction: Why Truman Capote lied about himself”
Downbound Train: The kids think Springsteen is all right
At age 62, Bruce Springsteen is on tour, and the young bucks (or semi-young bucks) of today, including Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, and Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, are joining him on stage. Good to see, and great to read a full-scale feature on Springsteen by the editor of The New YorkerContinue reading “Downbound Train: The kids think Springsteen is all right”
Bob Dylan: He’s back and he’s electric — again
Once upon a time in rock and roll, a great rock star, set off by something called Johnny Rotten. wondered out loud in song if rock and roll demanded a fiery, perhaps suicidal finale. Neil Young set off a storm with the idea, on Rust Never Sleeps, one of his greatest albums, and among hisContinue reading “Bob Dylan: He’s back and he’s electric — again”
Kit Stolz 