Writing Worth Reading
Last updated 11 pm GMT
Writing Worth Reading
One for fans of the long-running TV series, as broadcasting exec who acquired Law & Order for the UK compares the British and American versions. In particular the US episode "Mayhem" and its UK remake "Dawn to Dusk"
"The Artist" is fresh, likeable, charming. But it doesn't have the ambition, power or atmosphere of its silent predecessors. Denby looks back at the early years of cinema, and considers the lost art of the silent film
Revisiting the non-Maigret novels of Simenon. Many feature characters, usually men, caught in traps of their own making and then squeezed. Simenon, ever-anxious about his own life, enjoyed studying personality in extremis
Iliad has thrived in translation from ancient Egypt to modern China. But Stephen Mitchell's new English version is a clunker: "Improperly abridged, indeed mutilated." And shorn, would you believe, of Homeric epithets
Who knew? British novelist published video-game book, "Invasion of the Space Invaders", in 1982. And has kept it out of print ever since. "Many have heard rumours of its shameful presence, but few have seen it with their own eyes"
Heartbreaking letter from Richard Feynman to his late wife, penned two years after her death. "I have met many girls and I don't want to remain alone—but in two or three meetings they all seem ashes. You only are left to me"
What is it about physical books that people like? And how does that relate to the core characteristics of literature as a medium, an art form? Could it be that ebooks bring us closer to the essence of the literary experience?
Special for Downton Abbey fans. Language nerd downloads scripts, runs them through Google Ngram database, checks period authenticity. Hmmm. "The language is about 50-50. Half is more common in 1995, half is more common in 1917"
Admit it. After a hard day you want a really cheesy read. You have our permission to enjoy this one. Skip the laborious intro, cut straight to the funny, bitchy, tell-all interview. Anthology-grade anecdote in every paragraph
Fine, detailed evaluation of troubled life, and works of David Foster Wallace. "With the benefit of time, it will be recognised that Wallace had less in common with Eggers and Franzen than he did with Dostoevsky and Joyce"
On ways people work. Poet admits that he does his writing in bed. "And my mother almost married a Serbian composer who used to compose in a bathtub. The thought that he could have been my father both terrifies and delights me"
Review of John Jeremiah Sullivan's "Pulphead". And interview with author. Who is increasingly being acclaimed as the next David Foster Wallace. Though he appears here to be a touch less cerebral and a lot less frenetic
