The Best Foreign Books You’ve Never Heard Of

This is an aside titled 'The Best Foreign Books You’ve Never Heard Of' dated 10/17/08

The “Steve McQueen of French literature” JMG Le Cléziowon just won the Nobel prize. Maybe more of his work will finally be translated into English? Here’s NPR on “The Best Foreign Books You’ve Never Heard Of” (via.) And Christopher Fowler has a column in The Independent on “forgotten authors.” No 8: William Sansom sounds incredible: “London’s closest equivalent to Franz Kafka” (also compared to Henry Green and JG Ballard, who is writing memoir now with the working title “Conversations with My Physician.”) Previously.

Posted by Joanne on Oct. 17, 2008

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- All map, no territory. Armory Show preview on Flickr. Internet Archaeology tumblr (via.) Another great Sam Anderson piece in New York mag, this one on ChatRoulette. Los Angeles no longer plays itself. Found that on Interdome, a great blog on the age of atemporality. I can't wait to read Triple Canopy on an iPad. And comics. Are comics suited for digital? Listen to Scott McLeod on this. "There’s Nothing I Can Do When I Think of You Late at Night," short stories about Rurual Shanxi peasants, by Cao Naiqian, entirely "concerned with the basic instincts for food and sex.” looks interesting. Someone is trying to send Jerry Saltz a message. Do you look pretty or smart? Save the egg drinks! Lauren Cornell on how net art is not new, it's been thriving for nearly two decades now. More from Tom Moody. Bot-Mediated Reality. Alan Lomax in Haiti. Life in a "microstudio" (via.) And in the middle of all that, one woman cried out, "Fuck this." “With enough libraries, all content is free.” - Jessamyn West.
  2010-02-08 00:00:40
- “There is no culture here in California, only trash. And we who grew up here and live here and write here have nothing else to include as elements in our work. … The West Coast has no tradition, no dignity, no ethics – this is where that monster Richard Nixon grew up. … [O]ne must work with the trash, pit it against itself.” - Philip K Dick. In a six part series, LAT interviews his friends and family giving a good picture of his middle age, paying particular attention to how California influenced his work. Read I am Alive And You Are Dead, if you haven't yet. And here's me with the PKD robot. His head went missing not to long after that photo was taken. Besdies Blade Runner, of course, most of his books were turned into unremarkable films...but I hope someone does Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said right, as it's one of his more slapstick, cinematic novels. Really though, I would love to see someone like Lynne Ramsey or Darren Aronofsky take on Confessions of a Crap Artist.
  2010-02-07 23:44:52
- Siva Vaidhyanathan reviews Viktor Mayer-Schönberger's "Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age." Great title, but very flawed thesis is what I thought at his talk at the Berkman Center a few months back. As Vaidhyanathan points out, he sets up the problem in easily relatable way, however the "expiry date" idea is just too neat, I find it hard to believe Mayer-Schönberger is even serious about it. Previously: Save or Delete: Post-Scarcity vs e-Clutter
  2010-02-03 13:46:27
- Great post on possible design for iPad and iPhones as “hub + satellite” setups.
  2010-02-03 12:50:43
- I'm especially enthusiastic about what the iPad means for art museums, galleries, and artists. Already there are some wonderful iPhone apps from the Van Gogh museum, Louvre, and others...and they might only get better. How about annotated Taschen books? Imagine what you could do with an iPad app for Art Basel? Thomas P. Campbell, Director of the Met tells the WSJ: "We will absolutely continue publishing beautiful books about our own collections. But I also want to make sure that we put energy and attention into getting all the collections online, or as much as is reasonable, because we have two million objects. At a time when scholarship is rapidly advancing, are you best serving a collection by publishing a three-volume catalog of 800 pieces, where much of it becomes out of date within six months?" Previously.
  2010-02-03 12:41:18
- "I am a novelist. That is how I wish to be remembered." -Susan Sontag. Vivian Gornick considers Susan Sontag's self-identification as a novelist in Bookforum. I'm similarly unimpressed with her fiction, as Gornick writes, "Sontag did not qualify for the job. Whichever way she turned, alone in that room, it was not inward." But it's interesting she'd wish to be remember for that which clearly was a struggle for her.
  2010-02-03 12:29:45
- Best new blog in 2010 already? Star Wars Modern is pretty great. (via AFC and greg.org)
  2010-02-02 10:44:04
- Ask most people why they don't read more and they'll say it's because they don't have enough time, not because books cost too much.
  2010-02-02 08:37:56
- Like the Bell Jar, the Cocteau Twins, the poetry of Anne Sexton, and Meshes of the Afternoon, at some point in the life of a young girl with dark interests, you come across the story of Elizabeth Báthory and are unquietly amazed by it. The Transylvanian countess tortured and murdered hundreds of young women. As legend would have it, she once dabbed the blood of a servant girl under her eyes and believed it reduced the signs of aging. But stone cold sadism was her motivation, above any demand for eternal youth. Sound like the perfect role for Tilda Swinton? Why yes, indeed she's lined up for an adaptation. But wait, Julie Delpy wrote, directed, and stars in The Countess, also about Bathory. Much as I love Delpy, the Swinton movie has a script by Elfriede Jelinek, the bitterest writer I've ever read, which I mean as a very good thing.
  2010-02-01 02:39:00
- iPad...as family computer, as return to long form journalism, as taking over the textbook market, also entirely locked down, not a big iPhone ... for old people....because it appeals to just about anyone. How to give a presention like Steve Jobs (no bulletpoints.) Jobs the auteur. Apple-free Engadget. Kim Morgan makes me want to see every movie she likes. Stag Heads With Human Faces. CD-Rom all over again. Caleb Crain on book pirates...and I've been thinking about this all week. The digital trashcan (a "boomeranged metaphor.") Stefan Zweig is middlebrow. What's next for Roger Hodge? Is Indie dead? Hilo microfiction contest. Interactive theater in Boston. Weekly World News on Google Books. Nick Denton's blogs from minor to major league. At Sundance, New Routes to Finding an Audience. Globe Ideas on “cognitive fluency.” "I want the luxury of being able to push the pause button" - Douglas Rushkoff. Heather Havrikesky reviews his Frontline show "Digital Nation." Ian Buruma on China/Google at WSJ on "Battling the Information Barbarians." "Pay close attention to the most tedious thing you can find (Tax Returns, Televised Golf) and, in waves, a boredom like you’ve never known will wash over you and just about kill you. Ride these out, and it’s like stepping from black and white into color. Like water after days in the desert. Instant bliss in every atom." - DFW. "The Internet is thrusting death upon me at a rate I'm not entirely equipped to deal with." Boston is the “most challenging” large city to navigate in the United States. And congratulations Robin Sloan!
  2010-01-31 12:00:12
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