Also dead

Via The Elegant Variation, a new book has come out discussing the history of book burning and it seems like it rules pretty hard. It turns out the Nazis saved a lot more books than they burned (so when they ruled the world they could study the Jew-making formulas or something) and Virginia Woolf kind of liked the idea. Also, on Youtube, two wankers spend a ludicrous amount of time cussing at and burning Golding’s Lord of the Flies because they had to read it in school. Kids are stupid.

From Sarah Weinman, a little piece on how good or bad book titles help or ruin the chances of the book selling well. The writer likes some real crappy titles, but also hate some crappy titles, so it works out. I recently mentioned that We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families totally rules, while something like On Chesil Beach makes me think of a diet fad or something equally banal. Of course the title has little to do with the quality of the book, but it seems that people play too safe with book titles. Indignation? Booooo.

Also from TEV, suicide notes from Ryunosuke Akutagawa have been found after his granddaughter cleaned out her house and they are, wait for it… depressing.

Apparently you don’t need to write a Young Adult book to get published as a YA author. This NY Times piece details the crystal clear line between adult fiction and YA fiction as well as the pros (maybe sell more books, hot teenage fans) and cons (get made fun of, go to jail). I had no clue the publisher decided which section to put books in, but that’s probably because I’m a little slow. Either way, I know a surefire way to make sure you get an adult fiction label- write about something real boring.

And finally, Scott at Conversational Reading discusses a new Sebald bio and while he swears it is an invaluable text to a greater understanding of the author, it sounds like reading 200 pages of old stock market quotes. I know that Sebald is a singular author in many ways, and that his apparent lack of plot makes him a more challenging read to people like me who only like erotic thrillers, but if the heart of Sebald is cultural studies-based discussions on the problems with modernity, I don’t know if I have room in my life for that kind of fiction. I met a girl the other night reading Austerlitz and she was obviously doing her best to give a damn about it, but would anyone around here like to explain why Sebald is so indispensable? If no one replies in 48 hours, I’m burning every copy of Rings of Saturn I can find.

Posted Mon, 21 Jul 2008 16:01:56 and filed under Writing, Shane, Awards, Short Stories, Authors, Writers. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.