Shaun Tan is one of the most interesting comics creators working now. Last year he broke through with his picture novel The Arrival, seen above. This is from an interview with the Guardian, in which he comments on fiction writing: “The detail adds an element of unexpected something,” Tan explains. “All fiction is false; what [...]
Entries from September 2009
September 22, 2009
High Fives All Around
Dear MacArthur Foundation Fellows Committee: I am just walking around smiling about what I’ll get to read from Deborah Eisenberg in a few years. Your job must be amazing. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Alex * * * Dear Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah): Healthcare reform is not funny. It’s nice that no [...]
September 20, 2009
Daeji Bulgogi Tacos
A few weeks back I was having friends over for my birthday. I wanted to try making some Korean tacos LA-Kogi-BBQ-truck-style, which is to say, inspired by them—they ARE the masters. So I sat and read their online menu and then went to the store, where I came up with the below taco. It was [...]
September 19, 2009
Using Ford Madox Ford to Fix Wolverine
This last summer, at the same time that I was thinking about Ford Madox Ford’s theory of fiction writing, I went to go see maybe the most disappointing of the summer films, X-Man Origins: Wolverine. It’s just come out on DVD. I’m not much of a Wolverine fan–I just like other X-Men more—and he is [...]
September 9, 2009
Why Must the Novel Be Boring?
Yesterday, in my Fiction II class, as the students introduced themselves I asked them to speak about what they’d been reading over the summer. One student impressively admitted to reading both Underworld and Infinite Jest. Another, though, shyly said she was reading YA novels. “I suspect they’re more fun,” she said. “To read or to [...]
September 9, 2009
Mary Gaitskill, circa 2000
Mary Gaitskill, on victimization and personal responsiblity in viewing art.
