2024: Articles on writers, the writing life and contemporary publishing

Richard Kadrey needs your help:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/medical-bills-rent-and-a-big-hungry-cat?utm_source=cu...

One of my favorite essayists, Rebecca Solnit, takes down social media:

https://lithub.com/rebecca-solnit-how-to-comment-on-social-media/?utm_source=Sai...

J.G. Ballard's favorite books:

https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/j-g-ballard-my-favorite-books/?utm_source=Sai...

Happy 150th birthday, Gertrude Stein:

https://lithub.com/a-poet-is-a-poet-is-a-poet-ed-simon-on-the-significance-of-ge...

Rebecca Solnit's new piece in THE LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS is a thing of beauty. Man, she's a sharp cookie:

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n03/rebecca-solnit/in-the-shadow-of-silicon-...

The sad fate of Larry McMurtry's book collection:

https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2024/02/29/fixer-upper-larry-mcmurtrys-libra...

Controversy over the Hugo Awards? Shocking! (Sarcasm intended.)

https://www.vulture.com/article/hugo-awards-china-censorship-controversy.html?ut...

>7 CliffBurns:: "Zhao, who was deemed ineligible for the Best New Writer Award, was named for ... possible issues: ... (2) they are “described on Wikipedia as an ‘internet personality.’”

Reminds me of the infamous Gay's the Word trial in 1984, when HM Customs & Excise raided the eponymous London bookshop and attempted to bring a prosecution for importing and distributing pornography. The court case eventually collapsed due to a welter of contradictory statements and actions, in particular seizing books openly on sale in High Street bookshops. One of the classic statements in court from a Metropolitan Police officer, acting for the Revenue, went something like this:

"I impounded this book because there was a quote from Mr. Christopher Isherwood on the back cover, saying that it was a good book; and Mr. Isherwood is a known homosexual."

https://academic.oup.com/book/55815/chapter/435528360

>7 CliffBurns: I honestly don't know which is worse - the fact they did it, or the fact they did it so ineptly. They ruled Babel ineligible for fear it would upset the Chinese government. It had already been picked up by a Chinese publisher. They ruled Paul Weimer ineligible because he'd visited Tibet. He'd been to Nepal, not Tibet. And the author of the book which eventually won the Hugo, Nettle & Bone, had visited Tibet.

And, of course, they threw away loads of votes by Chinese fans because they were afraid no US works would appear on any of the short lists. That really is indefensible.

...and this ain't the first time there's been trouble with the Hugos.

Of course, I have trouble with any fan-based award system--fanboys/girls are hardly qualified arbiters of taste.

They favor likable books over challenging, original reads, which makes their standards, er, questionable to say the least.

>10 CliffBurns: the problem here wasn't the voters, it was the administrators. The whole Sad Puppies thing was the voters. Likewise when the Scientologists tried to game the award back in the 1980s. This is a completely different order of fuck-up.

This. This is why authors should destroy all uncompleted manuscripts or unworthy material before they die:

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-68488756

>12 CliffBurns: But that would leave us without Kafka altogether. Also, I like being able to read anything written by those whose entire oeuvre I cover, though some things are more of a documentary value and as insight into creative phases and processes. I do think they should be marketed properly, though, and not mislead people

I think each case is different.

I believe a writer's legacy can be damaged by ill-considered posthumous releases (that certainly happened with Hemingway).

At the end, Marquez's power and intellect were besieged by dementia and he knew he didn't have it in him any more to achieve the high standard he set for himself and clearly made his wishes known to his heirs.

The manuscript should've been consigned to his archives, accessible to academics: referenced, even quoted from, but kept from general release.

Just my view, a highly personal one.

Simone Weil fascinates me:

https://www.versobooks.com/en-ca/blogs/news/the-enigma-of-simone-weil?utm_campai...

Mary Ann Caws, one of surrealism's great teachers and apostles:

https://hyperallergic.com/875556/scholar-mary-ann-caws-women-surrealists-andre-b...

(Hopefully you don't have to sign in to read this.)

Remembering Russell Banks:

https://lithub.com/remembering-russell-banks-mary-morris-on-her-long-friendship-...

It's no fun being an indie publisher (I'll vouch for that):

https://lithub.com/when-indie-publishing-meets-corporate-bookselling/?utm_source...

Good article about grieving and creativity, featuring Nick Cave:

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2024/mar/28/nick-cave-on-love-art-and-t...