The Times has a story on the death of Google Glass, the wearable-computing flop that at least gave us this amusing New Yorker feature by Gary Shteyngart, in which Shteyngart deploys the Glass’s full capabilities: causing motion sickness, taking many photos and videos, and translating the word hamburger into Korean.
Cory Doctorow on David Graeber’s new book, The Utopia of Rules: “bureaucracies are supposed to be meritocracies where people are hired and promoted based on talent, not because of birth or personal connections. But we all know that’s bullshit—and we also all know that the only way to rise in the Bureaucratic Utopia is to pretend that it isn’t bullshit.”
In the New York Times Magazine, Wesley Yang profiles Eddie Huang, whose 2013 memoir, Fresh Off the Boat, has recently been made into an ABC sitcom. Huang is ambivalent about the show, which he feels performs “a kind of ‘reverse yellowface’—telling white American stories with Chinese faces.”
Haruki Murakami has an advice column in which he gives very little advice. (““I have no effective answers for your questions,” begins one response.)
Harper Lee’s lawyer, Tonja Carter, has published a statement in response to allegations that the decision to publish Lee’s second book has been made without Lee’s full consent. According to Carter, Lee has said that she is “happy as hell” that Go Set a Watchman is going to be published. Never mind that the person issuing the statement that Lee is definitely not being exploited is the person allegedly exploiting her.