Could the CIA be the most literary government agency? Consider its possible ties to the Paris Review, and to the Iowa Writers Workshop.
Robert W. Chambers’s 1895 story collection The King in Yellow features a play that is so full of terrible truths that it drives viewers insane. The book has been an influence on many writers: H.P. Lovecraft, and now Nic Pizzolatto, the author behind HBO’s True Detective. The vivid miniseries is littered with references to Chambers’s work, hinting that the moody drama may get even darker—and more supernatural. For more on the show, see Natasha Vargas-Cooper’s take, “True Detective: A Pure Visual Novel.”
At the Financial Times, Geoff Dyer reports on his lunch with Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who collaborated with NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, and who is now working for the soon-to-launch First Look Media, the $250m project of eBay founder Pierre Omidyar.
Adelle Waldman has written a brief scene featuring the main character from her hit novel, The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P., which considers what the Brooklyn-based cad would do for Valentine’s Day.
New Yorker editor David Remnick has just returned from a brief stint as a TV commentator at the Olympics, saying of his work at the opening ceremony: “This is not a televised document, a scholarly documentary. After all, it is Cirque du Soleil.” Remnick, who has written extensively on Russia, is rumored to be writing a piece on the Games.