Some Writing (& Such) Links
A handful of links to interesting writing (& such)-related things.
1. What the Internet Age Is Taking Away From Writers
Like Anolik, I once pursued a profile of Tartt, but when she declined to participate, I desisted. I confess that my interest in her, as with Pynchon and Harper Lee, was driven in part by how little I knew about someone whose writing I greatly admired. In her New York essay, Anolik calls her podcast “an act of love and an act of aggression.” Tartt and other writers fear that aggression most, but they also benefit from the aura of mystery that courts such intense curiosity. A private persona can draw readers to the work just as much as—perhaps even more than—a persistently public presence would.
2. How Autofiction Turns the Personal Into the Political
As a charged label itself “autofiction” is not neutral, nor inherently freeing. The approach to writing, however contentious, nonetheless enables some authors to gradually shift the norms that seek to contain them. Vietnamese-American poet Ocean Vuong is a good example. Vuong describes writing his debut novel, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (2019), to both attract and refuse an autobiographical reading. He wanted to give depth to real lives neglected by the mainstream and retain his freedom and agency as an artist.
3. The 25 Most Influential Cookbooks From the Last 100 Years
Despite its millions of recipes, the internet hasn’t killed cookbooks. Instead, the genre’s fans seem more motivated than ever to collect and use them — and not just for making dinner. For some, they’re bedside reading. For others, they’re design objects. A cookbook can be a work of cultural anthropology, a historical record, an instruction manual and a vehicle for armchair travel. But what makes a cookbook great? In trying to compile T’s list of the 25 most essential examples written in English over the past 100 years, we prioritized influence — how has a book affected the way we eat, cook, think, talk, photograph and write about food?
4. Murderbot, She Wrote
Hearing a name like that, you’d be forgiven for running for your life. But the thing about Murderbot—the thing that makes it one of the most beloved, iconic characters in modern-day science fiction—is just that: It’s not what it seems. For all its hugeness and energy-weaponized body armor, Murderbot is a softie. It’s socially awkward and appreciates sarcasm. Not only does it detest murdering, it wants to save human lives, and often does (at least when it’s not binge-watching its favorite TV shows). “As a heartless killing machine,” as Murderbot puts it, “I was a terrible failure.”
5. How Gen Z Came to See Books as a Waste of Time
Why is this happening? The allure of smartphones and social media came up, and it appears that many middle and high schools are teaching fewer full books. (One student arrived at Columbia having read only poems, excerpts, and news articles in school.) But one possible cause that I nodded to in my article is a change in values, not ability. The problem does not appear to be that “kids these days” are incurious or uninterested in reading. Instead, young people might be responding to a cultural message: Books just aren’t that important.