July 2008 Archives
July 29, 2008
Posted at 8:44 PM in Lit Crit
Finally, somebody with something sensible to say about the LATBR and its devolution from stand-alone section to part of the culture pages. More reasonableness here. And the NBCC, after a spate of the usual hand-wringing, actually did a mini-interview with LATBR editor David Ulin and learned a couple of reassuring things (what's NOT going away, in other words). Was that so hard?
If you want more, you can find an editor's note from Ulin to LAT readers here.
Meanwhile, I am resisting the impulse to read this as ironic:
Having some standards seems more and more important in a time when the traditional arts have lost a bit of their prestige, some of their audience, and all of their monopoly on perceived quality. As silly as the chaste, Victorian tones of the literary and high culture worlds could be in their heyday, we need a certain amount of seriousness in our lives. At least I do. If the marketplace is left entirely unfettered, we'll lose a lot of what we consider valuable -- not just J.S. Bach and John Coltrane but shows such as "Deadwood" and nonchain bookstores.
The LAT running a defense of "a certain amount of seriousnes in our lives" the same week it downsizes its book coverage? Interesting. Then again, much of the article is a defense of high-middle-lowbrow mashups. It's all good, right?
Right.
July 28, 2008
Posted at 12:04 PM in Lost in the Stacks
I'm talking rodents, not computer peripherals. Does your local library have a cat? Also check this out.
(Via LIS News.)
Posted at 10:58 AM in Publish or Perish
I've got two new stories up at the Chronicle. The first is a look at "Literary Geospaces." I write about two very cool digital projects: the Map of Early Modern London, run by Janelle Jenstad, an assitant professor of English at the University of Victoria, and Matthew L. Jockers's Google Earth visualization of the development of Irish-American literature. Jockers is an information technology specialist at Stanford Univeristy--a PhD who helps other academics create nifty new digital ways of presenting scholarship. He's created a movie of his Google Earth visualization, which you can catch here.
The other story up today is a close reading of--wait for it--the latest annual report of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. As I say in the story, annual reports aren't anyone's idea of beach reading. But if you care about scholarly publishing and where it's headed, the essay in the report on "Scholarly Communication Initiatives" is, despite the title, a page-turner.
This also marks the first time I've done something multimedia for the Chronicle. (It's a tie-in to the "Literary Geospaces" story.) You can watch/listen to my narrated tour of Cheapside here.
July 25, 2008
Posted at 2:06 PM in Publish or Perish
As some of you know, I've been looking for an agent to represent a little thing I wrote for my kids. It's called "Henry and the Hungry Hamper," and it's about a boy who does battle with his laundry hamper at bath time. Oh, and it rhymes. It's 600 words long. Reax so far:
Good: My guess is that you will find an agent or editor who will snap this up. Good luck!
Bad: I'm afraid I'm not looking for picture book texts right now as this segment of the market is very flat, and editors are terrible and not buying many these days, alas. Then too, rhymed texts are proving to be challenging as well.
So...onward? Upward? Sideways?
July 20, 2008
Posted at 9:18 PM in Reading and Writing
You'd never know it from my wardrobe, but I subscribe to Lucky, "the magazine about shopping and style." (It used to just be "the magazine about shopping"--times were simpler then.)
It's not the articles that keep me hooked, much as I appreciate being given advice on topics like "613 Smart Buys" (SIX HUNDRED AND THIRTEEN? Are these people kidding?) and "What I Want Now!" (The sad thing is I could use some help with that.)
Nope, it's the compound descriptors that keep me sending in the subscription checks. Here, some favorites--must-haves, in Lucky parlance--from the July and August issues. Think of them as six personality types for the new millennium. Use with abandon!
1) "unbelievably adorable"
2) "sexily bare yet versatile"
3) "somewhere between sporty and tech-y"
4) "slightly prim"
5) "charmingly French, slightly nautical"
6) "elegantly stunted"
Join me over at Bookslut this week, where I'll be guest-blogging for Jessa Crispin while she's enjoying a well-deserved vacation. If you're lucky, I'll be more 1, 3, and 5 than 4 or 6 about it. No promises about 2.
July 2, 2008
Posted at 11:37 PM in Publish or Perish
Maybe I'm just a cockeyed optimist, but I'm less gloomy than some are about the state of university-press publishing. If you have a Chronicle subscription, you can read why here, in my report from the Association of American University Presses conference, held in Montreal last weekend.
Nice town, Montreal. What I did there: Walked around McGill U. and admired the stonework. Got my rusty French working well enough to tell a cashier that I didn't want a bag with my purchase. Had some surprisingly good vegetarian sushi in a town that otherwise serves foie gras with EVERYTHING. Sat in windowless conference rooms. Tried not to overdo the coffee (again, surprisingly good). Talked to university-press editors and directors and other concerned parties. Looked for signs that the End of Days is about to be visited upon UP publishing. Concluded--well, see above.
