Literature

Do you remember the scene in Singin’ in the Rain where Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse dance a romantic, longing modernist-ballet number? That scene is a dream sequence within a dream sequence. Gene Kelly’s character, a actor in late 20s Hollywood, is pitching a movie to a studio head and the film allows the viewer

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘Everything and Nothing’ is a short story by the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986), although it is usually classified as a ‘parable’ rather than a ‘short story’ per se. Over the course of just a couple of pages, Borges gives us the life of a man who had

July 21, 2023, 10:06am When Ken (Ryan Gosling) leaves Barbieland in the movie Barbie, he finds that he is not at all prepared for what he’ll find in The Real World, where men rule all. So, the character, whose main concern in life has thus far been Beach, heads to the Los Angeles public library

July 20, 2023, 2:02pm Do you like this sentence?: How surely are the dead beyond death. Death is what the living carry with them. A state of dread, like some uncanny foretaste of a bitter memory. But the dead do not remember and nothingness is not a curse. Far from it. How about this one?:

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘Beyond the Door’ is an early story by Philip K. Dick (1928-82), and by no means one of his most famous or most sophisticated tales. But it’s an intriguing little story which is worthy of more analysis than it has generally received. It’s included in the second volume of

July 20, 2023, 10:00am Literary Hub is pleased to reveal the cover for Memory Piece, the latest novel from Lisa Ko, author of The Leavers, which will be published by Riverhead Books in March 2024. Here’s a bit about the book from the publisher: In the early 1980s, Giselle Chin, Jackie Ong, and Ellen Ng are three

July 19, 2023, 3:03pm An April report by the UK-based publishing site, The Bookseller, showed that more than half of the debut authors they surveyed said the experience of publishing a book adversely affected their mental health. Further reporting from The Guardian reveals that (some) publishers have quickly responded: This month, Anna Frame, communications director

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) The expression to give up has two complementary but distinct meanings. Indeed, in one sense, the two meanings stand in opposition to each other: one might give up oneself to a vice or weakness (by surrendering to one’s desire for a drink or a bar of chocolate), or one

July 19, 2023, 10:00am Literary Hub is pleased to reveal the cover for Grief is for People, a first memoir from the sharp-eyed essayist and novelist Sloane Crosley, which will be published by MCD/FSG on February 27, 2024. Here’s a bit about the book from the publisher: For most of her adult life, Sloane and Russell

July 18, 2023, 11:46am Famous writers: they’re just like us. At least in the sense that they too were children once. And some of them even endured the ritual of a childhood nickname, whether cruel or adoring or somewhere in between. But can you guess which famous writers belong to these childhood nicknames? Take a

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Two extremely popular musical acts who emerged in Britain in the 1980s owed their names to the work of the American psychologist Arthur Janov (1924-2017). Janov’s 1970 book The Primal Scream gave its name to a Glasgow band formed in 1982, while a band formed down in Bath in

Illustration by Krishna Bala Shenoi. Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso is a weekly series of intimate conversations with artists, authors, and politicians. It’s a podcast where people sound like people. New episodes air every Sunday, distributed by Pushkin Industries.  * This week, we revisit our conversation from last August with Joyce Carol Oates. We begin

“We never stop reading, although every book comes to an end, just as we never stop living, although death is certain.” This certain death came tragically early for the Chilean poet and novelist Roberto Bolaño, writer of that lapidary sentence, who died twenty years ago this month at the age of 50. In the years

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) William Wordsworth’s classic poem beginning ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud’, which was first published in 1807, is a classic work of English Romanticism. Part of its power lies in the symbolism Wordsworth uses. Let’s take a closer look at some of the most important symbols from Wordsworth’s ‘daffodils

Picture books must hitch a ride on the parent if a child is to get a look-in. The children’s publicity machine is tilted fully at the adults, a frontlist built around celebrities children have never heard of (is Zadie Smith a sure thing for a young reader? Is Aubrey Plaza?), and market needs—ideas around the

The German filmmaker Christian Petzold has often incorporated books and literature into his work: Barbara (2012) was based on a German novella and borrowed passages from W.G. Sebald; Undine (2020) reinterpreted a mermaid myth; Jerichow (2008) was inspired by James M. Cain’s The Postman Always Rings Twice. Other times, texts become totemic objects, like the

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘Lying’ is a very useful word. But it’s also a strong accusation, and one that, when made, we want to hit the mark and have maximum impact. Overusing such a word can dull its edge and rob it of some of its power, so it’s sometimes useful to reach

During the first few weeks of the fall semester, when I teach with the windows wide open, it’s not uncommon for the whine of lawnmowers on the quad to interrupt our work. Sometimes I’ll shut the windows with a sigh. Sometimes, if we are at a stopping point, I’ll wave the class away: Go. Live