Over thirty years after their mysterous fight in a Mexican cinema, it appears that Gabriel García Marquez and Mario Vargas Llosa may have finally made amends or at least it would appear that way. According to this report in the Guardian, Vargas Llosa has penned an introduction to a special 40th anniversary edition of García Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude.
Atlanta's Emory University has acquired Ted Hughes's love letters to his mistress Assia Wevill, letters Hughes had asked be destroyed upon his death.
Here's a conceptual art installation that I would love to attend: free books! Of course, I would be going for the sake of art...of course.
Just what the world needs...another MTV reality show. This one, however, pits six wannabe writers against each other for a chance to win a contributing editor position at Rolling Stone. I guess it does beg the question, which has sunk lower, MTV or Rolling Stone?
Perhaps only interesting to those in the Triangle area of North Carolina, but the small town of Hillsborough, just a few miles from where I sit, has decided to form a committee to name a town poet laureate. Before you laugh, consider that "The county seat is a 'literary town' with many writers, said Eric Hallman, a Town Board member who brought up the idea in October. A number of well-known writers, including, among others, the novelists Lee Smith and Allan Gurganus, call Hillsborough home."
In the New York Sun, Benjamin Ivry examines Baudelaire's place in contemporary America:
Baudelaire's life was grim, highlighted by unrequited love, penury, lack of critical acceptance, prosecution on charges of obscenity, and illness leading to his early death at 46 from syphilis. Some American fans have tried to add humor to alleviate the gloom, like the San Francisco writer Daniel Handler who in his mock-ghastly Lemony Snicket series of books for young readers dubbed his protagonists the "Baudelaire Orphans." "Say it with Flowers" Baudelaire T-Shirts and tote-bags are sold online (cafepress.com) by Leaping Dog Press, a small literary publisher in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Baudelaire Soaps, a Swanzey, New Hampshire-based company (baudelairesoaps.com) explains that its bath and beauty products are named in honor of the poet, "or ‘Chuck' as we call him around here."
"Just what the world needs...another MTV reality show"
You know you CAN'T WAIT to be sitting on the couch, next to your little girl, watching NEXT together.
Posted by: Dan Wickett | January 10, 2007 at 11:22 AM
Good lord...no.
Posted by: Jeff | January 10, 2007 at 06:13 PM
Is there a more repulsive, less-worthy of your time show on the full spectrum of the television waves than that piece of manure?
Posted by: Dan Wickett | January 10, 2007 at 06:29 PM
Baudelaire 'made' Edgar Allan Poe (made certain Poe stayed in the American canon) by translating Poe into French at an early date. I'm believe he hated the smell of soap, certain that he hated flowers and guess he is rolling over in his grave as he is being lionized by Americans.
Posted by: Blogaulaire | January 11, 2007 at 05:13 PM