The Color White

Here is a wonderful little essay by G.K. Chesterton called “A Piece of Chalk.” It espouses the moral and philosophical ramifications that result when one acknowledges that white is a color and not the absence of color. Believe me, it’s much more interesting than the summary I just provided.

Neurological

Marco Roth has written a wonderful essay in N+1 on “The Rise of the Neuronovel.” It is an insightful, necessary examination of the trend, in the last decade or so, of novelists using neurological disorders such as Capgras syndrome, schizophrenia, Tourette’s, et al. to justify and explain away any eccentricities in their characters’ thoughts and in their own prose. This approach severely limits the project, inherited from modernism, of exploring human consciousness. These novelists, by bowing to the prevailing wisdom, that science will eventually explain and codify every wrinkle of human consciousness, have abandoned the worthy literary task of observing the remaining mysteries of our inner selves.

Julian, Jay & The Strokes

I don’t know about you, but I am very excited for the Nov. 3rd release of Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas’ first solo album, entitled Phrazes for the Young. To celebrate, I point you to this insightful and (to me, anyway, quite interesting) profile of the Strokes from 2006, written for New York magazine by author Jay McInerney. It offers a balanced portrayal of the band’s rise to fame and of the sometimes tense relationship between its mercurial frontman and the rest of the group. Excellent piece by McInerney. There are few things I enjoy more than well-done profiles of artists/groups that I admire.

The Voice of David Foster Wallace

David Foster Wallace reading his piece “Death is Not the End” from the collection Brief Interviews with Hideous Men. Bravo

Nonsense!

Here’s an interesting article from the New York Times positing that Nonsense Sharpens the Intellect. Kind of interesting stuff.

Tao Lin

Get to know Tao Lin, author most recently of Shoplifting from American Apparel, through this wonderful interview he did with the Rumpus. He is an intriguing figure, in that he has cultivated a rabidly self-promoting online persona and in many interviews seems to dares you to write him off as vapid and nihilistic, but seems to be, in reality, a hard-working, earnest, shy writer with very interesting ideas. Not to mention this vapid nihilist has for literary influences the decidedly human and moral writers Lorrie Moore and Joy Williams, amongst others. The interview linked to above best shows his “serious” side, as he would scare-quote it. For a taste of his “comedic” side, or “snarky” side, check out The Levels of Greatness a Fiction Writer Can Achieve in America. Also see his blog here.