MetaFilter posts tagged with fiction and literature

Tomes of ancient lore

Artw — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:13:37 -0800

Although it's commonplace nowadays to assume that J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings was the primary source of inspiration for Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax when they created the world's first tabletop roleplaying game, Dungeons & Dragons, a careful examination of the game suggests otherwise... James Maliszewski on The Books That Founded D&D. Some disagreement.

Knut Hamsun.

hydatius — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 14:29:42 -0800

Street Time for Hamsun. This month marks 150 years since the birth of the Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun, Nobel laureate in 1920. As well as the opening of a new centre dedicated to the man and his work, a whole range of events have been held in relation to this anniversary. It has also been the occasion for academic conferences, commemorative coins, tourism campaigns, and stamps. A writer of brilliance; a deeply problematic legacy. Previously on mefi.

In writing this book my intention was to present, in the form of an interesting story, a faithful picture of working-class life...

hydatius — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 10:18:17 -0800

In August 1910, an Irish sign-painter and decorator named Robert Noonan left the town of Hastings on the south coast of England, and made his way north and west towards Liverpool, with the hope of emigrating to Canada. Already sick with tuberculosis, his condition worsened once he reached the city, and he was to die there in a workhouse hospital ward, in February 1911. He had, however, left in the care of his daughter Kathleen a package that was to change the political landscape of twentieth-century Britain. Composed between 1906 and 1910, and written under the pen-name of Robert Tressell, The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists told the story of a group of house-painters and craftsmen living and working in the appalling conditions of Edwardian provincial capitalism, in the fictional town of Mugsborough, a narrative based on Tressell's own working life in Hastings. The novel's central character, Peter Owen, preaches the socialist cause to try to convert his fellow working men (the titular characters, who seem content to 'donate' their labour to their capitalist masters). Tressell was to die without seeing his book in print, but it has now sold over a million copies in numerous languages and it has never been out of print since its eventual publication in 1914; its text can be found here, and Tressell's original manuscript can be scrolled through here. The Trades Union Council keeps detailed pages devoted to Tressell, as does Hastings Museum. The Robert Tressell Society runs an annual festival in the town in his honour. Although after his death in 1911, he was buried in a pauper's grave in Liverpool, a monument was subsequently raised over the spot, as well as at the hospital in which he died. In his adopted home of Hastings he is honoured throughout the townscape, including an accommodation block of the university, and several commemorative plaques. His family received nothing beyond the £25 Kathleen was paid for the rights to the manuscript in 1914, although she and her own son continued to champion the novel's causes. There has been a marked upswing in the book's sales this year, and this week The New Statesman named it number 5 in their list of the most important progressive and liberal books ever (just behind Marx, Engels, and Jesus).

Marguerite Young

Joe Beese — Fri, 22 May 2009 08:08:19 -0800

Marguerite Young - whom Kurt Vonnegut called "unquestionably a genius" - first achieved success with a study of the utopian commune at New Harmony, Indiana called Angel in the Forest. She then spent 18 years writing Miss Macintosh, My Darling - a 1,198 page novel that William Goyen praised in The New York Times Book Review as "a masterwork". She spent the last 30 years of her life writing an unfinished biography of Eugene V. Debs that was posthumously published, in heavily edited form, as Harp Song for a Radical. Her interview with The Paris Review. A book of tributes and essays.

The Giving Tree

the_bone — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 22:21:11 -0800

The Giving Tree (1973), animated short based on Shel Silverstein's 1964 children's story and narrated by the author. Once you're done crying, here are a few related links: The Giving Tree: A Symposium (a collection of thoughts on the story by some American religion scholars.) The Misgiving Tree (a parody) A couple of parody videos: "The Really, Really Giving Tree" and "The Taking Boy"

At A Deadly pace

The Whelk — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 14:10:41 -0800

The Invasion From Outer Space: Steven Millhauser gives The New Yorker a short, unsettling sci-fi story.

Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius

Fizz — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 13:07:49 -0800

Norman Thomas di Giovanni, translator for the 20th century Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges's has recently posted on his web-site, his translation of Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius, one of his most well known and greatest short stories.

Hard-Boiled Detectives, female and male

mediareport — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 21:56:33 -0800

Early Female Authors of Hard-Boiled Fiction. Chester Himes and Early African-American Detective Novelists. The Detective's Code. The Femme Fatale. Just a few of the many fascinating offerings at detnovel.com.

2666 reasons to find your library card.

zoomorphic — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 13:34:49 -0800

With the advent of December comes the annual ranking of the book industry's over-saturated market. Along with the garden variety Best Books of 2008 lists, niche critics weigh in on the best cookbooks (baking and regular), most trustworthy business publications, best children's book illustrations, safest bets for literary holiday gifts, and, of course, the prettiest book covers.

In case you were wondering

kliuless — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 05:38:37 -0800

Joyce explained. (via)

Don'tgive me no jibber-jabber

Artw — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 14:59:52 -0800

Man-up with Stephen King.

Interviews with Venturous Writers

Iridic — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 11:46:37 -0800

Dalkey Archive conversations with William Burroughs, Angela Carter, Robert Creeley, William Gaddis, William H. Gass, Danilo Kis, Harry Mathews, Richard Powers, Raymond Queneau, Hubert Selby, William T. Vollman, David Foster Wallace, and many other writers.

The Apparition of Enoch Soames

Iridic — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 10:58:47 -0800

In the summer of 1897, the Devil transported a minor Decadent poet named Enoch Soames one hundred years into the future to see what posterity would make of his work. The only witness to the affair was the parodist Max Beerbohm, whose account of Soames and his journey ensured that at 2:10 P.M. on June 7, 1997, some dozen pilgrims waited in the Round Reading Room of the British Museum to see the poet appear...

Condensed: 'Care, constraint, concise, cut, character, clarity, and charity.'

goodnewsfortheinsane — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 18:35:00 -0800

How to Write With Style.

A Web of Geeks, Every One of Which Knows a Lot about Something

Navelgazer — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 18:32:38 -0800

Vegging Out vs. Geeking Out. Romance as the MSG of film. The bifurcated careers of Lucy lawless, Sigourney Weaver, and Hugo Weaving. Characters making smart decisions vs. stupid decisions. Neal Stephenson discusses Sci-Fi/Speculative Fiction as a literary genre at Gresham College. (Warning: requires Flash 9)

Literature Isn't Dead, It Just Smells Funny

NolanRyanHatesMatches — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 08:12:37 -0800

Those big, wonderful book blogs like Paper Cuts, Guardian Books, and Poetry Foundation haven't totally satisfied your book blog bloodlust? Well, maybe you could start with the lit blogs updated throughout the day, like Blog of a Bookslut, Conversational Reading, Quick Study, GalleyCat, The Millions, Bookninja, and The Elegant Variation. Perhaps you'd rather lit blogs that offer a more classically bloggy style? Old Hag, Maud Newton, ENotes, Pinky's Paperhaus, and After the MFA might be up your alley. And of course, there are a variety of blogs offering a smattering of lit talk: Silliman's Blog, BookFox, Literary Kicks, and Syntax of Things. "Pft, I'd rather just stay at home, ready my New Yorker, and count my short story rejection slips," you say? Well, there are even a few blogs for you, too!

Database of free speculative fiction online

Kattullus — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 13:52:07 -0800

Free Speculative Fiction Online is a database of free science fiction and fantasy stories online by published authors (no fan-fiction or stories by unpublished writers). Among the authors that FSFO links to are Paul Di Filippo (14 stories), James Tiptree, Jr. (4 stories), Connie Willis (3 stories), Eleanor Arnason (3 stories), Bruce Sterling (5 stories), Robert Heinlein (7 stories), Ursula K. LeGuin (3 stories), Jonathan Lethem (5 stories), Michael Moorcock (6 stories), Chine Miéville (2 stories), Samuel R. Delany (3 stories), Robert Sheckley (8 stories), MeFite Charles Stross (33 stories) and hundreds of other authors. If you don't know where to start, there's a list of recommended stories.

New prestigious Arabic award for fiction

stbalbach — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 19:08:26 -0800

IPAF (International Prize for Arabic Fiction) is a new prestigious $50,000 literary prize managed the Man Booker Prize in London and sponsored by Abu Dhabi's¹ crown prince of the United Arabs Emirates. The inaugural winner was announced on March 10: Baha Taher's Sunset Oasis (shortlist). English translations appear to be unavailable although some are in the works. This is the first international prize for Arabic literature, and it has stirred up some passions.

1. "It's no accident that the prize is based in Abu Dhabi ... [it] is going flat out to become the cultural center of the Middle East. The city is to host a new Guggenheim Museum designed by Frank Gehry, not to mention an outpost of the Louvre." (from last link)

"turn to page 69 of any book and read it. If you like that page, buy the book."

amberglow — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 19:17:56 -0800

The Page 69 Test --inspired by Marshall McLuhan's suggestion to readers for choosing a novel, a new blog, inviting authors to describe what's on page 69. One says: Not the best, but not the worst. If my pages were presidents, I’d put page 69 somewhere in the James K. Polk range.

201 Stories by Anton Chekhov

Kattullus — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 00:39:56 -0800

201 Stories by Anton Chekhov translated by Constance Garnett presented in order of Russian publication.

Invisible and Redoubtable Beings

Iridic — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 12:26:12 -0800

"The Great God Pan," by Arthur Machen. "The Beckoning Fair One," by Oliver Onions. "Green Tea," by J. Sheridan LeFanu. "The Boarded Window," by Ambrose Bierce. "The Horla," by Guy de Maupassant.

Just four words. Our legacy. Our epitaph.

ZachsMind — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 03:31:11 -0800

"Humanity will wither and die. It’s inevitable now..." It's a work of fiction, or so one would hope. I humbly submit for your perusal if not approval, Humanity’s Final Message to Those Who Would Come After by Jeff Harrell. "It’s not hard to understand why. The big picture is scary. The big picture is that we’re all dying. Every last one of us." He's written other stuff too, but this one got my attention. Try reading it with your favorite celebrity voice in mind. I used Morgan Freeman. Christopher Walken would probably work as well. Maybe Judi Dench. Jeff Harrell's website has been mentioned in MeFi twice before that I could find, on August 6, 2007 and April 27, 2006, but not his fiction and not this work. Looking forward to hearing what others think of this. Also, if you've seen brief fiction recently on the web, please share the link.

Rebus Retires

fearfulsymmetry — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 13:46:24 -0800

Exit Music. The King of Tartan Noir, Ian Rankin has retired his detective John Rebus. Ageing him with each novel, Rebus has finally reached the retirement age at Edinburgh CID; Although that may not stop him... Though Rebus will probably now have more time to spend in the Oxford Bar, his creator had not slowed down, producing a newspaper serial, writing for and appearing on television including his 'Evil Thoughts'- here interviewing Anne Perry, writing a libretto and a comic book, giving away Kidnapped, having a public row with "bloodthirsty lesbians" and starting spurious rumours about that other famous best-selling Edinburgh writer.

Story time

dersins — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 08:44:13 -0800

You should read these three stories by Amy Hempel. (Oh, and maybe listen to her read, here.) While you're at it, read some of these idiosyncratic but beautifully-written stories by grammarian Gary Lutz.

Patient Zero

chuckdarwin — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 13:40:34 -0800

Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey is Chuck Palahniuk's eighth novel. It takes the form of an oral history of one Buster 'Rant' Casey, in which an assortment of friends, enemies, admirers, detractors and relations have their say on this (in Chuck Palahniuk's words) 'evil, gender-conflicted Forrest Gump character'. His work is controversial, but I imagine a few Palahniuk fans who read The Blue might have missed the fact that he has a new book out. [ Previously ]