**Interesting Articles -- May/June

Time to startup another edition of Club Read's new stand for the months of May and June!

I'll start with yet another spat over ebooks and library lending:

Library e-book lending hurt by publisher restrictions

Do long or obscure words disqualify a book?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17777556

Robert

>3 - I don't often agree with Will Self but that is a nicely argued piece. However I fear that the proverbial horse has already bolted.

There will be an academic conference on the work of China Mieville. Found via Nalo Hopkinson's twitter feed.

Why do we connect with certain authors/books over others? I'm not sure I'm totally on board with this theory, but there might be something here.

Why Readers Disagree by Tim Parks

HT: Le Salon

When I read The Hunger Games last year, I liked it but was disturbed by its overriding message and of teens butchering each other. Here's an article with a similar concern: The Immorality of “Hunger Games”

For all those Hilary Mantel fans among us, there is a great article on her historical fiction in a recent issue of The New Yorker, that can also be accessed online.

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2012/05/07/120507crbo_books_wood

Nickelini >6,

The article's author has a good point. The Hunger Games' Katniss only kills those who somehow deserve that, who have attacked her or her allies. It'd be a very different story if there'd been only her and Rue at the end, say. In part, this sort of story lets us think about responding to injustice without having to confront an actually existing injustice - the games stand in for conditions in our world, but don't obviously call for us to do anything.

In its defense, I'd say that it also makes very easy the choice to resist the imaginary evil - of course you'd resist such a great evil. Maybe this makes it a bit more likely that a reader would also do something about an evil existing in our world, having imagined such a response?

Umberto Eco was given the Award of the Peace of Nijmegen and gave this acceptance speech:

http://vredevannijmegenpenning.eu/gelauwerden/2012-umberto-eco/rede-umberto-eco/

I thought this article on the NY Times webpage was scary! Where do we draw the line for diagnosing psychopaths! (I think this is an article from the New Yorker, but I'm not sure).

(please excuse the cross post if you've seen this on another thread)

A very interesting article about one of my pet peeves -- the faceless woman cover:

http://www.adiosbarbie.com/2012/05/downcast-decapitated-and-dead/

"Whether dead, the obvious victim of violence, or simply downcast and passive, images of women who can’t stare back are part and parcel of a broader culture where women are expected to be objects rather than subjects, to be acted upon rather than act, to be dehumanized rather than fully functioning agents in charge of our own destinies. "

What do you think?

From the New Yorker: Why Is Literary Fame So Unpredictable?
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/05/why-is-literary-fame-so-unpr...

"And so, New Yorker readers: Who are you reading today that you think people will still be reading in the future?"

Paul Fussell has died, age 88. Known for his writing about war (extremely graphic descriptions of death and injury at this link).

Edited to note that the New York Times has an extensive obit for Fussell.

NPR's Literary Look Ahead: 13 Great Books On The Horizon.

Forgot the = sign.

stretch,

Wrong link.

Article in The Nation on the book biz after Amazon. Good overview if a little long.

http://www.thenation.com/article/168125/amazon-effect