Hi guys! I’m in NYC next Wednesday (one night only, only night only…) for my March 5th event at the Strand with Rebecca Mead, in which I stand up and say nice and true things about her and her book, and ideally you show up and either buy a book or a gift card of similar value (online or at the door) and then we hang out after and enjoy each other’s company.
Anyway, I’m very excited, and I’m going to wear a sleeveless dress and flex while I make hand gestures to show off my guns. This is a great opportunity to say that I’d like to start discussing the first two chapters of My Life in Middlemarch (up to page 73) on March 10th. Who’s thinking of coming, and who would be interested in hanging out after at a bar of some kind? The event ends at 8pm, so we’ve got some time to play with, even though it’s a school night.
I also have five signed copies of MLIM to give out for free to the worthy (let’s make this one for non-NYCers only, just to be different), and I’m just going to go with first-come-first-served via the comments of this post for those (make the comment rhyme, please.) They also come with a copy of Middlemarch, which obviously you already own, but can no doubt sell on the street at a wild profit.
Why I want my children to be bilingual:
Elderly Egyptians recount how in Alexandria, in the early 20th century, they would switch between Arabic, French, English, Italian and Greek, depending on what they were doing and whom they were addressing. Multilingualism was a way of life for many, a shared culture. New York in the 19th century had up to seven different Yiddish newspapers, as well as others in Italian, Swedish and German. Like America as a whole, the city was once home to rich pockets of linguistic difference before their gradual dissolution into the national melting-pot.
Why mainstream critics fail writers of color.
I’m not watching True Detective yet, but I’m GONNA, and in the meantime, here is an article about it I haven’t read that everyone is talking about. Edith Zimmerman and Logan Sachon are also doing these emoji things about it that I’m sure are amazing.
James Kress seems like a real winner.
It makes me a little uncomfortable when Benedict Cumberbatch actually looks normal-sexy. Happily, it’s just the first pic and then he goes back to looking freaky again.
Alec Baldwin needs to read up on Greta Garbo.
“International Blackness v. Hometown Negroes”
Oh, wow, this Emily Gould piece on debt and writing.
