Dizzies Press Release: "Jonathan Safran Foer: Literature and Terror"

At Columbia next Tuesday (12/2), DLC* Jenny D moderates a conversation with Jonathan Safran Foer at Columbia's Institute for Religion, Culture, & Public Life.

* * *

Marie M.M. on that LWC books & blogging panel...

* * *

LIGHT POSTING HERE FOR A WHILE—HAPPY THANKSGIVING...





--------
*Dizzies Life Coach

The uses of neglect

Dizzyhead Thomas tips us off to a great site: The Neglected Books Page, "where forgotten books are remembered."

Ever read The Cubical City? No Pockets for a Shroud? 1923's Capitol Hill? Me neither...this suggests another Dizzyhead comment-fest: Favorite truly obscure novels—

* * *

Over at the L.A. Times, a revamped Book Review is announced. I'm happy to report that I'll be contributing a monthly column on science fiction—tips and recommendations are welcome! (My column will be in rotation with three others—Sarah Weinman kicks things off this week with Dark Passages.)

Also at the LAT, book review editor David Ulin has a fond Vonnegut appreciation, and Jonathan Safran Foer is an early favorite for lede of the week honors: "Petr Ginz's parents met at an Esperanto conference."

* * *

I thought you said you weren't going to post for a while!

* * *

Dizzyhead Dennis talks to everyone's favorite shaggy Lacanian over at the New York Times:

In one sequence that redefines bathroom humor, Mr. Zizek connects the shower drain in “Psycho” with the backed-up toilet in “The Conversation” and compares the experience of looking up at a blank screen before a movie to that of staring into a toilet bowl. (Toilets are something of a Zizek fixation. One of his most notorious arguments traces geopolitical differences to variations in toilet design.)

McCloud 9 — Mots sans frontiéres

The new Believer is out, and—I love it. Brothers Scott and James Browning visit the North and South Pole, respectively—each with their mom (but not each other). You need to see this in print—the top half of each page consists of Scott's journey, the bottom half is taken up by James's.

Meanwhile, Jonathan Taylor visits the house of the great "I hate Austria" Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard, and learns (among other things) that the author was a Prince fan—a wonderful piece, often echoing TB's style, that can be enjoyed even if you're not yet a Bernhardian.



And there's much more: Dizzyhead Paul on allonymic lit—books falsely published under an author's name...Conversations with Namesake director Mira Nair and with Omnivore's Dilemma writer Michael Pollan...Online you can read Hillary Chute's great interview with Understanding Comics author/artist Scott McCloud (Hillary's also co-edited the Winter 2006 number of Modern Fiction Studies, devoted to Graphic Narrative—a must for brainiac graphic novel aficionados.)

This is no April Fool's!

Time to subscribe? Definitely. I can't believe how cheap it is!

(Believer illustration by Tony Millionaire.)

* * *

The new anthology Words Without Borders looks terrific—writers I've heard of (Jonathan Safran Foer, Edwidge Danticat, Javier Marías, et al.) introducing writers I haven't heard of: Italy's Giorgio Manganelli, Korea's Jo Kyung Ran, Norway's Johan Harstad. Perfect eclectic subway reading. (Thanks to Dizzyhead Gautam, who worked on the book.)