How The Literary Sphere Took Over
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Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.
The Reading Revolution: How the Literary Sphere Took Over
I have been trying to figure out why book sales have been on a tear over the last few months, to the point of even asking openly here and on the Book Riot podcast, what the reasons could be. One consistent answer has been that “books are cool now.” This is famously a difficult thing to support with evidence, but pieces in Elle with subtitles like “how the literary world became 2024’s biggest trend” make me sit up in my chair. Not sure that we need a longitudinal study of celebrities being photographed with books to agree that it feels like this is more common (I certainly don’t remember Ellen Pompeo walking around with Never Let Me Go in 2005, but maybe she did).
Project 2025’s Plan to Eliminate Public Schools Has Already Started
I have tried to avoid looking directly at Project 2025. In fact, I haven’t even squinted at it through my fingers, but rather have relied on others reading and digested what all that is in this diabolical document of moonwalking into the worst parts of the past. Perhaps more frightening than the plan are the efforts already underway to undermine, weaken, or straight up disembowel that critical pillar of civic life: the public school. It is the natural extension of banning books that say that you can love who you want: let’s just do away with the whole idea of kids learning about things that don’t have the stamp of approval from the most bigoted among us. Please vote, folks.
How Do You Solve a Problem Like Norman Mailer?
I don’t particularly care about this question as it pertains to Mailer himself (never been my cup of tea, even apart from the wife-stabbing), but I am still nowhere with the broader question of how/if/when to (re)engaged with artists who have done terrible things, disseminated hurtful ideas, or otherwise stained their work with themselves. Beckerman thinks that this new Mailer documentary’s deployment of ambivalence might be some sort of way forward. I must admit I am not sure. How can you “he was a complicated guy” your way out of knowing some of this stuff? I find myself at moments even thinking about some sort of separating the art from the artist strategy, but somehow it doesn’t erase my memory—the thing, whatever it might be for any given figure–lingers. I was out while the news about how Alice Munro seems to have enabled child abuse for years and again arrive at these same excruciating questions: I cannot forget that I love Runaway. I cannot find a way to forgive or ignore or explain or contextualize or compartmentalize what now comes with loving (having loved?) Runaway. Nor, it seems to me, have any of us. Not really.
The NeverEnding Story at 40
On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the film release of The Neverending Story, Rebecca, Sharifah, and I talk about the book, movie, and its place in pop and nerd culture. This was a ton of fun.
