Weeks (like this one) where I don’t have a lot of fodder for this post always make me wonder: Did I have an off week? Was it just one of those weeks where everyone was thinking about other things? Does it matter—it takes three things to make a list, as long as I have that…
I tend to lean toward the last one, my streak of these is long enough that as long as I’ve got those three…
Odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
29 Works of Nonfiction You Need to Read This Summer—I will not be reading any of these this summer (which goes for all of LitHub’s summer lists), but most of these look interesting a couple might find their way to the Fall list.
Constable signs three more titles from Craven in six-figure deal—The lines there about “global brand” and “North American rights” warm my heart. The idea of not having to put up with the cost/time (mostly time) involved in getting Craven from the UK makes me very happy.
When Will Novels Fix Society Already?—I dunno…tell me the U.S. hasn’t been “fixed” into a dystopian/cyberpunk prequel? We just need to pick better books (see also: less pretentious works than this piece talks about)
Peat Long posted a couple of good ones this week (well more than a couple, but I’m sharing two): Secondary Belief vs Suspension of Disbelief—Secondary Belief is a term I’ve been grasping after for months. Good stuff…
As much as I enjoyed that post, and will be reacting to it (not that anyone but me will likely be able to tell) for a while, On Objectivity as a Reviewer is better.
10 Quick Takes on Common Bookish Controversies—Sure, I’d co-sign 80% of this (likely 90%, if pushed, but my reflex is to shudder at the upscaling idea). If I disagreed, it’d still be a fun post to read.
This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Trouble with the Cursed by Kim Harrison—the latest Hollows novel dropped this week, it looks like Rachel has some cleaning up to do/keep doing after last year’s novel.
Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Shristy Singh, who followed the blog this week.
Peat
Thank you for the mentions.
That “When Will Novels Fix Society Already” link is fascinating, particularly as I’m still mulling over Kuang’s Tolkien lecture on the ideological novel (listen if you haven’t), which included a bit of historical background on how Chinese novelists asking the same question and acting on it led in part to the Chinese Communist Party.
I agree with the author that pointing at literary novels as the answer rather than movies is hilarious.
But the idea it can’t do anything? I feel less sure of that. I look at the Vonnegut quote and feel frustrated because people are always measuring social change as if they expect everyone to change who they are tonight, which is so very rarely seen without the sort of huge shocking real life events, and saying there’s no change if they don’t see the instant change. The 26 years from the end of ‘Nam to 9/11 are fairly peaceful by western standards – did all that anti-war art in Vietnam maybe have an effect later?
Or maybe it just didn’t at all, but then isn’t this like marketing, where the line goes “50% of all advertising is wasted but nobody knows which 50% it is”. But that doesn’t mean it always fails.
But yeah. If people want to push change through art, fiction is a bad choice unless you’re hoping to get picked up by TV. My gut instinct is that a lot of people don’t really want radical change tbh.