From Harvard Magazine, Stephen Greenblatt on Writing as Performance: Revealing "the calculation that underlies the appearance of effortlessness". A review of This Wide and Universal Theater: Shakespeare and Performance Then and Now by David Bevington. A review of Becoming Shakespeare: The Unlikely Afterlife That Turned a Provincial Playwright Into the Bard by Jack Lynch (and more). Fun with the posthumous reputation of Ann Hathaway: A review of Shakespeare's Wife by Germaine Greer (and more and more and more and more and more and more). This mire of maybes tells us nothing about Shakespeare's true love: Try to prove an unprovable biographical theory and you end up spouting nonsense. A Space for Us: In literary MySpace, Shakespeare and Ovid mingle with authors masquerading as their characters.
From Columbia Journalism Review, Goodbye to All That: The decline of the coverage of books isn’t new, benign, or necessary. How did we miss these? Far from the fame and glamour of the Booker and bestsellers is a forgotten world of literary treasures - brilliant but underrated novels that deserve a second chance to shine. 50 celebrated writers nominate their favourites (and part 2). Live first, write later: Bookshops are littered with underdeveloped work by young authors. It takes a mature novelist to write a masterpiece. Reclusive writers, a small but mythically resonant category made up mostly of successful, staggeringly prestigious figures whose refusal to play the publicity game, or to appear to swim in the same water as their readers, can signify everything — or nothing at all. Authors should be seen and not heard: Book readings are all part of a writer's promotional duties - so why are the majority so bad at it?
Would Orwell have been a blogger? The great essayist would be appalled by the writing, but applaud the democracy of the web. Can Wikipedia handle politics? A close reading of how it plays the Plame Game. From Literary Review of Canada, The Rise of the Pyjamahadeen: A review of Blogosphere: The New Political Arena by Michael Keren; and The Trial Coverage on Trial: Between the fawners and the tricoteuses, journalism is found guilty. Bat Boy Collapses in Checkout Lane! It’s probably safe to say that no other newspaper in the annals of journalism scored as many shocking scoops as The Weekly World News.
