Roundup: Stephen King, Philip Roth and Radiohead

The New York Times - Stephen King discusses "What Ails the Short Story" and The Best American Short Stories 2007, which he edited.

What’s not so good is that writers write for whatever audience is left. In too many cases, that audience happens to consist of other writers and would-be writers who are reading the various literary magazines (and The New Yorker, of course, the holy grail of the young fiction writer) not to be entertained but to get an idea of what sells there. And this kind of reading isn’t real reading, the kind where you just can’t wait to find out what happens next (think “Youth,” by Joseph Conrad, or “Big Blonde,” by Dorothy Parker). It’s more like copping-a-feel reading. There’s something yucky about it.

Hero Hill - Bryan reviews The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter.

For me, Ritter is at his best when he focuses on his guitar or piano and his pen. "Temptation of Adam" uses a simple finger picked riff and some string parts at just the right times, but the star of the show is Ritter's narrative about love and the apocalypse. The rollicking nature of "Open Doors" continues perfectly, adding a driving drum beat without cluttering the mix.

Largehearted Boy - Carol Bui takes part in LHB's Book Notes series.

I was reading The Bell Jar when I wrote a good portion of Everyone Wore White. I'm kind of afraid to admit this, but I followed the narrator through her thought processes, through all the hoops and jumps, really believing they were all valid, totally human and understandable. It wasn't until I got to the point in the book when she was committed, when everyone else had declared her kooky, that I thought...wait, so she's nuts? If I am able to relate to her does that mean I'm nuts, too?

The New York Times - Michiko Kakutani reviews Exit Ghost by Philip Roth.

Compared with Mr. Roth’s big postwar trilogy (“American Pastoral,” “I Married a Communist” and “The Human Stain”), which unfolded into a bold chronicle of American innocence and disillusionment, this volume is definitely a modest undertaking, but it has a sense of heartfelt emotion lacking in “Everyman” and “Dying Animal,” and for fans of the Zuckerman books, it provides a poignant coda to Nathan’s story, putting a punctuation point to his journey from youthful idealism and passion through midlife confusion and angst toward elderly renunciation.

The Bat Segundo Show - An audio interview with George Saunders, downloadable as an MP3.

Saunders: Each one of the GQ trips was an eight to ten day thing. So really, in a certain way, the form would follow the experience. You know, you go to a place and you’re taking notes like crazy for eight days. And you don’t really know what’s good or what’s interesting and then you come home and start writing them up. And as certain things—you know how it is when you’re writing—sometimes, a certain thing would just lurch forward and it’s writable in some way you didn’t anticipate when you were there. So in a way, it was kind of like taking X number of those things, the ones that would sort of step forward and allow themselves to be polished, and then kind of trust that that was happening for a reason.

The New York Times - Radiohead will sell their new album online for $1.00 or $3.50 or $9.99—you decide.

Radiohead’s move is as much an experiment in consumer behavior and the socially acceptable cost of art as it is a way to distribute records. Each donation is a sort of commentary: on the nature of fandom and band loyalty, on the indier-than-thou current rock scene, and on the worth of buying—not sampling or stealing—new music.

And that's the roundup.

Download:
Carol Bui | This is How I Recover [MP3]
Carol Bui | I Don't Call Him by Name [MP3]