Category: words

A new facsimile publication of J.M. Barrie’s handwritten first version “demonstrates how Barrie toned down Peter Pan’s character to suit audiences in 1911, after having second thoughts about how negatively Peter should be portrayed. … This depiction is arguably more consistent with the ending of the book.” – The Observer (UK)

With Playing in the Dark, Morrison changed the rules of the game, effectively recasting what we see when we look back to figures like Woolf and to writers of the present and future like Colson Whitehead, Jesmyn Ward, and Angela Flournoy. “All of us are bereft,” Morrison writes, “when criticism remains too polite or too fearful to notice a disrupting darkness before its eyes.” – The Nation

She didn’t sound offended. She sounded bored. Ninety years ago, “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” was banned in the United States. Today, a popular literary novel can contain so many oral sex acts that readers yawn. This is progress, mostly. But how did we get here? – Washington Post

Laura Miller: “As a book publishing phenomenon, young adult literature entered the decade like a lion. At the beginning of the 2010s, a generation that had grown up obsessed with Harry Potter and other middle-grade fantasy series decided it wasn’t that interested in adult literary fiction, with its often lackadaisical plotting and downbeat endings. YA stood ready to supply them with plenty of action, cliffhangers, supernatural beings, mustache-twirling bad guys, and true love. But now, at decade’s end, YA seems to be eating itself alive.” – Slate

Authors argue that the anatomical ingredients for speech were present in our ancestors much earlier than 200,000 years ago. In fact, they propose that the necessary equipment—specifically, the throat shape and motor control that produce distinguishable vowels—has been around as long as 27 million years, when humans and Old World monkeys (baboons, mandrills, and the like) last shared a common ancestor. – The Atlantic

The best contemporary romance authors know that technology can inject a straight shot of chemistry into a relationship — even when partners are balancing life, work and saving the world. – Washington Post

“Cheap books make authors canonical.” Thousands of mid-century readers consumed “yellowback” versions of Austen’s novels, so-called because of the yellow paper stuck to the back of them on which advertisements were printed. The sheer proliferation of cheaply produced editions of Austen’s fiction has been invisible because very few of these books have survived. – The Guardian

Not nudity (though that may, of course, be involved), but naked emotional truth. “Authenticity can’t exist without artistry. Truth in life doesn’t automatically morph into truth on the page. And living people don’t necessarily come to life in print. It takes creativity.” – The Guardian (UK)

Sure, for those who love the Regency era, nothing has changed (though the politics certainly have). But for contemporary books, writers must figure how to navigate the ever-changing technological landscape. “What keeps people so separate IRL is providing endless possibilities for connection — even in a hellscape littered with dating apps, ghosting and unsolicited you-know-what pics.” – The Washington Post