Today's belated Lull Report …

… courtesy of Dave Lull:



… Getting at the the man: The John Updike Society — De Bellis: Updike’s first biographer gets a gold medal.

Begley frames his exploration of Updike by taking his cue from this admission inSelf-Consciousness: “Some falsity of impersonation . . . forms part of myself.” Updike’s good friend Joyce Carol Oates, detected this “element of impersonation in his character. . . hints that his modesty was exaggerated.” She knew that this “hillbilly” had managed to masquerade as a world-famous writer, and the role made him “uneasy and ironic.” Begley discovers Updike “impersonating the author as a wholesome family man,” while posing for a Life photographer, though instantaneously, “he couldn’t stop being a writer, his ‘inner remove’ apparent in the backward tilt of the head, the slight squint, the half-smile.” This is real sleuthing!

… Melody, rhythm, and conversation: Jazz study shows link between music and language.



… Pull up the bandsaw and have a seat: The Man Who Makes Steampunk.



… Encounter: Ronald Blythe suggests that a service is more than ‘going to church’.

… Sight and vision: LETTERS TO BORGES BY STEPHEN KUUSISTO.

… Because the writers usually have nothing to say? WHY IS ACADEMIC WRITING SO ACADEMIC?

… The L.A. Times Book Prize in Fiction Finalists.