My first introduction to the world of Paul Bowles, as well as the Sub Rosa record label, was through this disc. The combination of stories read by Bowles himself, as well as the artwork and ambiance by storyteller Mohammed M’Rabet, made it wonderful bedtime listening, allowing me to transport my mind to what a hazy, stoned Tangier must have been like in the 1950s and 60s. This aged very nicely.
Novels
[Literature/Social Commentary] We live in Philip K. Dick’s future, not George Orwell’s or Aldous Huxley’s
“Philip K. Dick and the Fake Humans” is a compelling essay by Henry Farrell published today in The Boston Review. From the essay: This is not the dystopia we were promised. We are not learning to love Big Brother, who lives, if he lives at all, on a cluster of server farms, cooled by environmentally friendly technologies. […]
via We live in Philip K. Dick’s future, not George Orwell’s or Aldous Huxley’s — Biblioklept
Our friends at Biblioklept never cease to surprise. The political junkies followed the wrong person into a future oblivion. It was the cyberpunk Philip K. Dick who may have had the right vision all along.
[Literature] “July Stories” — Roberto Bolaño — Biblioklept
July has been a strange month. The other day I went to the beach and I saw a woman of about thirty, pretty, wearing a black bikini, who was reading standing up. At first I thought she was about to lie down on her towel, but when I looked again she was still standing, and […]
[Literature] Modern China is So Crazy It Needs a New Literary Genre | Literary Hub
Ning Ken from LitHub documents a new literary genre coming out of China called “chaohuan,” which means ultra-unreal.
[Literature] Jorge Luis Borges – The Library of Babel [Sci-Fi | Let’s Read!]
It’s good to hear people take a crack at reading works by Jorge Luis Borges. This one is my favorite.
[Film] Viy (1967)
[Literature] Sir Terry Pratchett, renowned fantasy author, dies aged 66
Sir Terry Pratchett, fun and pragmatic despite dying from Alzheimer’s Disease to the very end, finally met his end today. He was 66, far too young to leave this mortal coil.
[Article] Harper Lee to Publish Sophomore Novel
The risk Harper Lee took to publish a second novel is breathtaking. She essentially hit a home-run her first time at bat with To Kill A Mockingbird. She wrote nothing since, though she did help her childhood friend, Truman Capote, by doing research for his classic work, In Cold Blood.
The risk has paid off, however. Go Set A Watchman won’t be released until mid-2015, and it is already #1 over at Amazon.com.
Read Publisher’s Weekly for the announcement of Lee’s book release here.
