Reading, A Supposedly Fun Thing
plus interviews with Idra Novey & Victor LaValle, a playlist from ANOHNI, Ireland's basic income for artists pilot program, the collected mixtapes of DJ Screw, a new essay by Garth Greenwell, and more
I am refreshed. After 10 days, four ports, and two oceans, I am finally back home in Brooklyn. The cruise ship experience deserves more space than I could give it here, but my favorite activity on board (and on the beaches) was having unlimited time to spend with my partner.
Most of our days were spent on the small veranda, a couple of feet apart, enjoying a cold drink and reading, appreciating time off and time together. A couple of days before the trip I downloaded about twenty books to read. A handful of titles to feature on Largehearted Boy, but mostly backlist novels I had yet to read. Everything by Mieko Kawakami minus Breasts and Eggs and Heaven. Matthew Salesses’ excellent The Sense of Wonder. A coule of books to reread with baseball season about to start, Philip Roth’s The Great American Novel along with Mitchell Nathanson’s biography of Dick Allen, God Almighty Hisself.
Removed from the day-to-day responsibilities of work (and housework), the veranda became an oasis. A place to enjoy sunrise, sunset, and the day in between. To watch the moon and stars. Reading electronically eventually became easier, though I still prefer the experience of physical books I can easily bookmark and page through.
When we left the boat I had read sixteen books, given up on four, and had to catch up on longform journalism and essays on my phone on the flight home. Now I’m back in NYC, where I have traded the cruise ship veranda for my backyard, the sea and its flying fish for a garden with birdfeeders. Scenic in a different way, and I still have a stack of books to read.
Largehearted Likes
In 2010, cursive was dropped from Common Core standards, and children in kindergarten through 12th grade at public schools were no longer required to learn it in school. The change was controversial, and many legislators have since fought for its resurgence in schools.
The Rideback Rise Fellowship applications are open until April 15th
1. The lack of accurate representation in mainstream entertainment perpetuates the racial divide in American society.
2. While trends have incrementally improved for diversity on screen, representation throughout the entire industry remains a chronic failure.
3. People of color remain underrepresented as writers and directors. The problem is more extreme on higher budget films.
Evolution of a Book Cover: THE PROPHETS by Robert Jones, Jr.
Ireland Asks: What if Artists Could Ditch Their Day Jobs?
A message from Ireland’s government said that Fay had been selected for a program guaranteeing 2,000 artists a basic income. For three years, participants — including musicians, novelists and circus performers — would be paid 16,900 euros a year, about $18,200, no strings attached.
Julia Cameron on creativity and mental health
Samuel Bercholz: Your creativity exercises could also be viewed as a form of therapy.
Julia Cameron: Again, I don’t make those definitions. My books are taught by myriad therapists. What they have found is that if they can heal their clients’ creativity, neurosis disappears. This is why they all love this approach, and why therapists facilitate artists’ circles all the time.
On vacation last week I visited Grand Cayman, Aruba, Curacao, and Bonaire. Grand Cayman and Aruba were too touristy. Curacao’s northern beaches and national park were nice, but Bonaire is the place I will return. The water was beautiful, the people friendly, and the snorkeling amazing.
George Saunders’ guest spot on the AMC show Lucky Hank
Much like Saunders’ high-concept stories, Lucky Hank blends the real with the fictional to unpack the peculiarities of human behavior. Most deftly, this episode uses Hank and Saunders’ relationship to nail the frustration felt by anyone who fancies themselves a fiction writer.
Memoir Monday’s new “The Lit Lab” feature
Interviews and essays on craft and publishing from one of my favorite literary newsletters.
Hear Hear is a great resource for new music, featuring featured artists, playlists, and links to interesting sounds.
Largehearted Links
A new essay by Garth Greenwell
Here’s a way of putting the problem: on one hand we want art to be free, and on the other we want it to mean. Not just to mean, but to be meaningful—to be useful for, and so maybe responsible to, other realms of life: our sense of community, say, or politics, our moral relations.
Victor LaValle on books and reading (and horror)
For me, the best horror speaks to a deep fear the author hopes to address, one that feels profoundly personal, and you as the reader are welcome to watch the author/the characters wrestle with it. People sometimes ask why I want to read horror at all, let alone write it. Horror is a fearless genre. So much writing glances off the hardest and worst experiences, but horror confronts the worst that happens. Sometimes the worst can be defeated, but just as often it can’t. Nevertheless, it can be addressed, acknowledged, rather than tidily resolved. A good horror novel doesn’t lie to you.
Questlove’s new publishing imprint
“I would like to think of myself of what Def Jam was trying to be back in 1985 — keep my ear to the streets, keep it underground and keep my eyes on people that you otherwise would have never have heard of, but who I feel can really do a paradigm shift,” he said.
Spring’s most anticipated albums
New music from boygenius, Angel Bat Dawid, Bill Orcutt.Everything But the Girl, Deerhoof, Jana Horn, and much more!
Electric Literature’s March Madness: Book-to-TV Adaptations Edition
Idra Novey Interviewed by Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi
AVO I’m intrigued by your relationship to cars and by what the space of the various cars and car rides hold in Take What You Need. Do cars represent a specific fascination for you as someone who is often in transit between languages and genres?
IN What an astute question. One of the first finished scenes of this novel was with the two narrators sealed together in Jean’s truck as it was in motion while they remained motionless inside of it. That mix of stillness and movement felt just right for the estrangement that follows, when their relationship remains on pause but the changing world does not.
José Olivarez on his new poetry collection, Promises of Gold
Promises of Gold is a failed book of poems in the sense that the poems fail to materially change the world in the ways I want. For example, I can’t actually punch Jeff Bezos in the face— even though I would really like to. The point of the poems is to rehearse the impossible and in doing so maybe make a little more love possible.
Last Week’s LHB Feature Posts
Blair Austin’s playlist for his novel Dioramas
Christopher Bollen’s playlist for his novel The Lost Americans
Jinwoo Chong’s playlist for his novel Flux
Regan Penaluna’s playlist for her book How to Think Like a Woman