Later on today, I’ll be posting the latest in our fabulous video series, so that’s something to look forward to, right? In the meantime, check out these excellent articles:
- At the Millions, Edan interviews Joe Meno, author of the tremendous new novel The Great Perhaps: “After I finished the first draft, I realized the book was about complexity, and the need for it, and how terrified we, as Americans, seemed to have become of anything complicated or uncertain.” Also worth a click is Meno’s “Book Notes” entry at Largehearted Boy, where he discusses, among other things, The Beatles “Yellow Submarine.”
- At Jacket Copy, Carolyn Kellogg interviews George Pelecanos. I think he distilled the relationship between power and evil in “The Wire” better than anywhere else I’ve seen it: “We were always on the side of labor, as I am. We were on the side of the police officers who walk the beat, kids on the corner who are selling drugs — anybody who was the working person. If you were in management, you were a bad guy.”
- Who’s excited to see Angels & Demons? From A.O. Scott’s NY Times review of the movie: “The only people likely to be offended by “Angels & Demons” are those who persist in their adherence to the fading dogma that popular entertainment should earn its acclaim through excellence and originality.”
- Malcolm Gladwell responds to criticism about his latest New Yorker piece about “underdogs.” There’s some interesting stuff here. I think critics of the piece seem to focus too much on the idea that the full-court press is the key to underdog success when it really seemed to me that doing something novel – changing the rules in a heretofore unexplored or unpleasant way – was what really led to success. Still, folks do have a point. That 1996 Kentucky team was loaded with talent (It’s also worth noting that the Kentucky team met a true underdog in the finals that year, Syracuse. How did Syracuse make the finals? By employing a two-three zone defense that gave opponents fits).
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