Whereas the modernists and postmodernists tended to use low culture as a vast reserve of references, tropes, and stock characters to be deployed as needed within the novel-as-polyvocal-assemblage, our recent crop of “genre-benders” instead work from within the given structures of genre plots, out of which they develop more traditional “literary” elements. - LA Review of Books
Kasey Meehan, director of the Freedom to Read program at free-expression advocacy group PEN America, said Randolph County’s decision to dissolve its library board is among the most severe penalties she has seen in response to a controversial book. - Washington Post
“’It’s such an illustrative word,’ said Greg Barlow, Merriam-Webster’s president. ... ‘It’s part of a transformative technology, AI, and it’s something that people have found fascinating, annoying and a little bit ridiculous.’” - AP
Around 15 percent of all the reference questions received by her staff are written by generative AI, some of which include imaginary citations and sources. This increased burden placed on librarians and institutions is so bad that even organizations like the International Committee of the Red Cross are putting people on notice about the problem.
Shafak, author of The Island of Missing Trees, has a popular appeal across the globe: She "is the author of 21 books, including 13 novels; her works have been translated into 58 languages. She also holds a PhD in political science.” - The Guardian (UK)
Sometimes it’s timing - or a good translation. Vincenzo Latronico’s Perfection didn’t find its audience in Italy, but English readers love it. It “has now sold more copies in specific London bookshops than in the whole of France.” - The Guardian (UK)
Oh, people don’t read anymore? Tell that to Matt Dinniman, who was making a living drawing people’s cats (yes, that’s a job) until he started writing what became the Dungeon Crawler Carl empire. - The New York Times
Many of Australia’s most prominent writers and artists, along with thousands of ordinary citizens, expressed outrage over the proposal to eliminate 39 jobs — including cutting the number of public-facing reference librarians by 60% — and refocus the State Library of Victoria in Melbourne on tourist-oriented "digital experiences." - The Guardian
Verse was used as a political tool going back all the way to the Revolutionary War. Walt Whitman considered poetry to democracy, which “waits the coming of its bards … in the twilight of dawn.” And the connection of poetry to politics continues today with Joy Harjo and Amanda Gorman. - JSTOR Daily
“For the next fifty years, females of all ages both delighted and troubled him. He was not sure he ever understood them, but … he wrote about women time and time again.” - Literary Hub
One of the more common doomsday scenarios about social media goes something like this: an internet-addicted public, hooked on the dopamine hits of engagement and the immediate satisfaction of short-form video, loses its ability to read books and gets stupider and more reactionary as a result. - The New Yorker
US diplomats have been ordered to return to using the Times New Roman typeface in official communications, with secretary of state Marco Rubio calling the Biden administration’s decision to adopt Calibri a “wasteful” diversity move, according to an internal department cable seen by Reuters. - The Guardian
