Category: words

And that’s not even taking into account the genocide apologist stance of the man who won. This two-year award “decision fails to demonstrate the widened perspective that Olsson promised. Taking him at his word, it invites questions about how diligent their search can have been, how knowledgeable the jury, and indeed how global a literary prize the Nobel can claim to be.” – The Guardian (UK)

Dan Kois wonders if, in the age of the internet, his daughter should have the kind of editorial control she wants. “The lesson of sharing your work with a family member is that sometimes the story you wrote in private becomes less precious to you when you face the possibility of hurting someone you love with it.” – The New York Times

Okorafor is already a star of the science fiction novel-writing community, and she penned some episodes of Marvel’s Shuri as well. But she’s also about to hit screens with an HBO series based on her book Who Fears Death and an Amazon Prime series that she and a co-author are adapting from Octavia Butler’s Wild Seed series. And the world can thank Michael Palin, Ben Okri, Tove Jansson, and The Very Hungry Caterpillar for inspiring her. – The Guardian (UK)

IDEK why ppl think txting & emojis aren’t language. “Any concerns about what the internet is doing to our collective mental health must be set against the poetry that it has simultaneously unleashed – the sheer range of textual innovation and expression that you can find on Tumblr or Twitter or even TikTok, the way three dots, or a question without a question mark, or ‘idk lol’ can become loaded with meaning – The Guardian (UK)

“The original manuscript of the story no longer exists, with the oldest versions of the story believed to have been transcribed by the poet Teika, who died in 1241. Until now, just four chapters of the 54-chapter story are confirmed to be Teika’s transcriptions, but now a fifth chapter, which depicts Genji’s encounter with the girl who becomes his wife, Murasaki, has also been identified as Teika’s. The manuscript had been kept in an oblong chest in a storeroom at the Tokyo home of Motofuyu Okochi, a descendant of [a] former feudal lord.” – The Guardian

Social media lit up with outrage when Handke’s win was announced, and criticism came from some (seemingly) surprising quarters. Albania’s acting foreign minister said the award was “an ignoble and shameful act.” PEN America, in an unprecedented move, publicly condemned the Swedish Academy for its choice. What’s the reason for all the anger? It goes back to the post-Yugoslav wars. – Slate

When a linguistic shift is too heavy-handed, too obviously driven by an agenda to change hearts and minds, it can run up against a response known as reactance. Reactance is our mind’s instinctive defense against the attempts of others to control our thoughts and behavior. – Nautilus

Fragments of a manuscript of Le Roman de la Rose — containing a double entendre-filled episode about a pilgrim at a shrine — were found in a centuries-old book binding in the public records office of the English city of Worcester. – Live Science

The Nobel committee cited Polish novelist Tokarczuk, awarded the delayed prize for 2018, for “a narrative imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life.” Austrian prose author, poet and dramatist Handke was cited for “an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience.” – The Guardian

“The question goes beyond whether or not Whitman should be banished from the literary forum, if such a thing were even possible. If America can be said to have a national poet, if “O Captain! My Captain!” is still memorized by schoolchildren, then the fact of Whitman is burned into America’s signature.” – Los Angeles Review of Books