#usylessly--ulysses

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Writing
fromThe Atlantic
8 hours ago

The Feeling of Becoming Less and Less of a Person

The advent of the smartphone marked a significant shift in human perception and relationships, altering the human sensorium since June 2007.
#literature
fromThe Atlantic
4 days ago
Books

Unconventional Novels About Conventional People

Aging revolutionaries and conformists share parallel narratives of disillusionment and the loss of youthful dreams in recent literature.
Books
fromThe Atlantic
4 days ago

Unconventional Novels About Conventional People

Aging revolutionaries and conformists share parallel narratives of disillusionment and the loss of youthful dreams in recent literature.
#ben-lerner
fromArtforum
1 day ago
Writing

Ben Lerner's Transcription and the Fictional Readymade

Ben Lerner's new novel, Transcription, showcases his restless creativity and innovative formal experimentation in fiction.
fromThe New Yorker
1 week ago
Writing

The Ample Rewards of Ben Lerner's Slender New Novel

An interview with Ben Lerner reveals complexities of memory and influence in art and literature.
Writing
fromArtforum
1 day ago

Ben Lerner's Transcription and the Fictional Readymade

Ben Lerner's new novel, Transcription, showcases his restless creativity and innovative formal experimentation in fiction.
Writing
fromThe New Yorker
1 week ago

The Ample Rewards of Ben Lerner's Slender New Novel

An interview with Ben Lerner reveals complexities of memory and influence in art and literature.
Cancer
fromIndependent
1 week ago

'Writing allows me to face what is happening now. And what is happening now is that I'm dying'

Gabriel Rosenstock faces mortality with peace, relying on poetry and philosophy for support during his battle with terminal cancer.
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 week ago

Daunting, inspiring, comforting, terrifying: the writers who can make silence as eloquent as words

A vision lay before him: Fleet Street blanketed with snow, silent, empty, pure white, and, at the end of it, the huge and majestic form of Saint Paul's Cathedral. It was a spellbinding moment: the great thoroughfare temporarily devoid of carts and carriages, the cathedral looming blurrily out of the still-falling snowflakes a real-life snow globe.
London
Books
fromThe New Yorker
6 days ago

The Sci-Fi Novelist Who Disappeared for Decades

Cameron Reed's science fiction explores cognitive estrangement, revealing alien worlds that reflect and challenge our own societal norms and moral dilemmas.
Arts
fromArtnet News
3 weeks ago

How the Yeats Sisters Turned Ireland's Saints Into National Icons

Lily and Lollie Yeats were revolutionary artists who shaped Irish national identity and visual culture at the turn of the 20th century, collaborating with prominent women artists through enterprises like Dun Emer Industries.
#irish-film-industry
fromIndependent
3 weeks ago
Film

'Culturally, we've always punched pretty hard,' says 'Harry Potter' star Gleeson as Oscar Wildes' 'Irish' rally behind Jessie Buckley

fromIndependent
3 weeks ago
Film

'Culturally, we've always punched pretty hard, it makes me proud,' says Gleeson as Oscar Wildes' 'Irish' rally behind Jessie Buckley

fromIndependent
3 weeks ago
Film

'Culturally, we've always punched pretty hard,' says 'Harry Potter' star Gleeson as Oscar Wildes' 'Irish' rally behind Jessie Buckley

fromIndependent
3 weeks ago
Film

'Culturally, we've always punched pretty hard, it makes me proud,' says Gleeson as Oscar Wildes' 'Irish' rally behind Jessie Buckley

fromwww.theguardian.com
1 week ago

Benjamin Wood: John Fowles's The Magus was so frustrating I threw it at the wall'

My mother bought me Stanley Bagshaw and the Short-sighted Football Trainer by Bob Wilson. I grew up thinking he was the same Bob Wilson who played in goal for Arsenal and presented sport on ITV.
Books
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 weeks ago

The News from Dublin by Colm Toibin review subtle short stories about being far from home

The stories in Colm Toibin's collection explore themes of displacement and the emotional complexities of living away from home and loved ones.
Writing
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 weeks ago

I've learned first-hand how evil is tolerated': Colm Toibin on living in the US under Trump

A character's decision to return home is influenced by political climate and personal connections.
fromenglish.elpais.com
1 month ago

Michel Houellebecq: the prophet of decadence returns to music

I belong to a current of poetry that is meant to be read in public. Houellebecq's statement reflects his philosophy on artistic expression, emphasizing the performative nature of his work across multiple mediums. His musical recordings and public performances demonstrate this commitment to bringing poetry and artistic vision directly to audiences through various channels beyond traditional literary publication.
Music production
fromIndependent
3 weeks ago

Fewer people are now reading for pleasure - just how worried should we be?

With literacy rates declining across OECD countries, building healthy habits around books is truly essential. Allowing reading at dinner started as one of those on-the-spot parental solutions. Letting them have a copy of Bunny Vs Monkey or The Beano while they ate seemed like a more ethical solution for keeping them in their chairs for the duration of the meal than, say, duct tape.
Books
Books
fromThe New Yorker
3 weeks ago

Briefly Noted Book Reviews

Two literary works explore complex themes through innovative narrative techniques: Morrison's essays examine challenging craft elements in Toni Morrison's writing, while Nganang's memoir uses the scale as a metaphor connecting personal experience to colonial history.
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
3 weeks ago

Daisy Johnson: I wasn't a fan of David Szalay, but Flesh is a masterpiece'

Reading shapes identity across life stages, from childhood memories through formative teenage years to adult perspectives, with specific books creating lasting connections and inspiring creative ambitions.
Writing
fromPsychology Today
1 month ago

Virginia Woolf and the Reclaiming of Attention

Virginia Woolf's stream-of-consciousness technique demonstrates how attention shapes consciousness and remains relevant to contemporary struggles against digital distraction.
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
4 weeks ago

Plan to turn Irish borderlands into Unesco region of literature'

A literary heritage initiative aims to rebrand the Ireland-Northern Ireland border as a Unesco region of literature, creating nine guided routes through 11 counties associated with major writers like Yeats, Beckett, and Heaney.
fromDefector
4 weeks ago

Dan Simmons Is Dead So It's Time To Read 'Hyperion' | Defector

This is a shame, because his best work belongs with the greats of fantasy, horror, and sci-fi. Summer of Night is a tighter, more satisfying version of Stephen King's It. Carrion Comfort is a brick-sized epic about psychic vampires that reads as breezily as a trade paperback. The Terror, which inspired the well-regarded show, is for its first three-quarters a brilliant and non-supernatural speculative take on a real doomed Arctic expedition.
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month ago

A Beautiful Loan by Mary Costello review a profound exploration of the inner life

From the outset, in the novel's prologue, Anna tells us she is determined to account for herself and her life. But we are to expect no ordinary narrative, concerned only with actual events, evidence-based or relying on historical data. No, Anna is interested in the climate of the psyche and the vibrations of the soul. Can it be that the very things we cannot quantify or rationalise are what make life meaningful?
Books
Europe politics
fromThe New Yorker
2 months ago

The Country That Made Its Own Canon

Sweden released a national culture canon, sparking controversy over national identity as immigration rises and the nationalist Sweden Democrats gain political influence.
Photography
fromHarper's Magazine
1 month ago

Unreal City, by Hari Kunzru, Matthew Sherrill

Psychogeography reads urban spaces as layered, historically charged environments where architecture, mysticism, and power shape experience and social control.
Relationships
fromIndependent
1 month ago

'Love never dies' - what Irish psychiatrist learned from reading 20 medical romance novels

Hospitals, including emergency departments, are depicted as fertile settings for passionate romantic and sexual relationships in medical romance novels.
from48 hills
2 months ago

Live Shots: 'Finnegan's Wake' summons Irish ghosts to SF Mint - 48 hills

Finnegan's Wake: An Immersive Ghost Story, presented by 13th Floor Theater, plunges audience members into the beautiful, dysfunctional Finnegan-Plurabelle family. Scenic designer Treigh Buchet, lighting designer Meghan Schultz, and ephemera designer Michelle Josette Crashette transfigure the San Francisco Mint into an Irish family home on the banks of a mystical river. Audience members are free to explore the spaces before the show begins with libation in hand. When the dinner bell rings, the show commences.
Arts
Writing
fromOpen Culture
2 months ago

Hear James Joyce Reads From Ulysses and Finnegans Wake In His Only Two Recordings (1924/1929)

Ulysses examines Dublin and language, portraying words as two-faced with immediate meaning and historical, mythic resonances within journalism and rhetorical performance.
fromAeon
2 months ago

How a playful literary hoax illuminates Classical queerness | Aeon Essays

Carved on the walls surrounding her sarcophagus were more than 150 ancient Greek poems in which Bilitis recounted her life, from her childhood in Pamphylia in present-day Turkey to her adventures on the islands of Lesbos and Cyprus, where she would eventually come to rest. Heim diligently copied down this treasure trove of poems, which had not seen the light of day for more than two millennia.
Philosophy
Books
fromBustle
1 month ago

The 10 Best New Books Of March

Spring 2024 brings diverse literary releases across romance, literary fiction, and debuts, featuring works by established authors like Abby Jimenez and Rebecca Serle alongside promising new writers.
#mortality
Arts
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 months ago

Dublin Gothic review epic losers' history' of the city traces 100 years of family life

A century-long Dublin tenement saga tracks four intertwined families, exposing recurring trauma to women amid political upheaval, poverty, addiction, and cultural caricature.
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month ago

What we're reading: writers and readers on the books they enjoyed in February

Claire Baglin's 'On the Clock' uses narrow focus on fast-food work to reveal profound truths about contemporary alienation and precarity with compassion and emotional depth.
Books
fromThe Atlantic
1 month ago

When Did Literature Get Less Dirty?

Philip Roth's Zuckerman Unbound functioned as a response to the controversial reception of Portnoy's Complaint, with Roth's protagonist expressing regret over writing sexually explicit material that drew accusations of anti-Semitism and misogyny.
fromHarvard Gazette
2 months ago

Moved by what's missing in Homer's 'Harrow' - Harvard Gazette

At first sight, Winslow Homer's " The Brush Harrow," which depicts two young boys, a horse, and a harrow against an arid landscape, evokes a feeling of somber isolation - but it's hard to pinpoint why. During a talk by curator Horace D. Ballard at the Harvard Art Museums on Jan. 29, visitors learned that Homer painted the scene in 1865, as the Civil War was ending, making the emotional underpinnings of the work clearer.
Arts
Books
fromThe Nation
1 month ago

Has Contemporary Fiction Ignored the Working Class?

Work's grip on life demands vigilance; allowing career to consume identity risks losing oneself entirely to labor's demands.
Writing
fromThe New Yorker
2 months ago

The Brilliance and the Badness of "The Sun Also Rises"

A narrative that outwardly endorses bravery, nature, and grace is fundamentally held together by hatred.
Writing
fromThe New Yorker
2 months ago

Joseph O'Neill on Why a Story Should Be Like a Poem

People conceal shameful deeds and also quietly perform unrecognized good acts; withholding specifics preserves mystery and influences how others perceive moral character.
Writing
fromThe New Yorker
2 months ago

"Light Secrets," by Joseph O'Neill

Hidden rumors and secrets complicate a lunch between friends, revealing humor, vulnerability, and a belief that everyone has concealed darkness and hidden goodness.
#infinite-jest
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 months ago

Cameo by Rob Doyle review a fantasy of literary celebrity in the culture war era

Perky, satirical portrait centred on a globe-trotting Dublin figure whose sensational life—crime, drugs, sex, espionage—and pettiness lampoon contemporary literary culture and celebrity.
Books
fromThe Atlantic
2 months ago

Sense of an Ending

Julian Barnes's Departure(s) eschews conventional plot, blending memoir, sparse romance, and reflections on memory and aging in elegant prose.
Books
fromenglish.elpais.com
2 months ago

The lost lessons of Jorge Luis Borges: His English and American literature classes

Recovered 1966 lectures by Jorge Luis Borges were published, revealing lost oral work and previously uncollected material through meticulous editorial recovery.
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month ago

The best recent science fiction, fantasy and horror review roundup

Subsequently, runaway children turned the valley into a fortress, surviving on food they could catch or grow, with occasional forays into the towns below. Riley has heard the rumours, but it is only when she sees a green-clad boy or is it a girl? hovering outside her bedroom window offering directions on how to find Nowhere that she realises this might be her chance to escape and save her little brother from their sadistic guardian.
Books
Books
fromIndependent
2 months ago

'I don't see there is any point retrospectively criticising people for the way that they behaved' - 'Butcher Boy' novelist Patrick McCabe

Patrick McCabe remains rooted in Irish counter-culture while engaging with communal rituals and symbols.
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 months ago

Vigil by George Saunders review will a world-wrecking oil tycoon repent?

A spectral death doula confronts an unrepentant, fossil-fuel–profiting oil tycoon in a liminal afterlife, forcing moral reckoning over climate-denial harms.
Books
fromwww.npr.org
1 month ago

February may be short on days but it boasts a long list of new books

February brings multiple commemorations and a wave of new, translated and genre‑blending book releases that invite readers to dive into fresh literary work.
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 months ago

Ali Smith: Henry James had me running down the garden path shouting out loud'

Early exposure to Beatles labels, Charlotte's Web, and Liz Lochhead’s poetry sparked a lifelong love of reading and inspired a desire to write.
Books
fromThe New Yorker
2 months ago

How Do You Write About the Inexplicable?

Rational skepticism coexists with a persistent tendency to personify evil and read coincidences as omens.
Books
fromThe New Yorker
2 months ago

A Debut Novel About the Quest for Eternal Youth

The boundary between responsible adult and dependent child has frayed as caregivers flail through midlife while youth confront a crumbling, dishonest world.
fromThe Atlantic
2 months ago

A Biography Without 'The Boring Bits'

Sophia Stewart poses a choice that many biographers struggle with: "what to do with the boring bits."
Books
Books
fromwww.newyorker.com
2 months ago

Tessa Hadley Reads John McGahern

Tessa Hadley reads John McGahern’s 'Gold Watch'; she has published thirteen books including Bad Dreams and After the Funeral, and won the 2016 Windham-Campbell Prize.
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 months ago

Sex, death and parrots: Julian Barnes's best fiction ranked!

Duffy, The Porcupine and The Lemon Table deliver a bisexual private-eye crime caper, a savage satire of a collapsed communist regime, and stories about ageing.
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month ago

Beyond Trainspotting: The World of Irvine Welsh review uniquely funny writer holds court

The extended footage of Welsh in conversation is certainly engaging, as he discusses his writing and the movies it created, and his own youth in Edinburgh. Some of the rest of the interviewees aren't quite so gripping, however, and the film is padded out with a fair bit of redundant anecdotage from people on the subject of getting hilariously wasted in Irvine's company or at least his approximate vicinity.
Books
Books
fromwww.npr.org
2 months ago

'Even the Dead' wraps up John Banville's smart, moody mystery series

Quirke mysteries combine noir darkness with literary prose, following a Dublin coroner confronting trauma, moral ambiguity, and hidden crimes in 1950s settings.
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