As you may have heard, this month marks the 70th anniversary of the first publication of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s classic kids-book-for-adults (or adult-book-for-kids) The Little Prince. This book was wildly important to many of us, so we decided to ask some other bookish types about their own experiences with the story. As we reached out to a few friends in the literary world, we were surprised by how many of them hadn’t read it — after all, it’s one of the best-selling single-volume works of all time. But the devotees are out there. After the jump, a few recollections and musings on The Little Prince from authors and editors. Tell us your own Little Prince story in the comments. … Read More
Intricate Paper Sculptures of Famous Cities Around the World
London-based artist Matthew Picton, whose work we recently spotted over at Faith is Torment, creates beautiful paper sculptures of cities from New York to Tehran. As his website suggests, he is engaged with “humanising the city by deconstructing the clean, uncompromising aesthetic of the cartographic city plan and imbuing it with the unique history and culture of each place.” Indeed, Picton’s sculptures are more than just accomplished papercraft. The materials he chooses have resonance with the city in question, as in Venice, which is constructed from excerpts of Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice, written after his visit to the city in 1911, as well as segments of the musical score by Benjamin Britten for the operatic interpretation of Mann’s novel, and the paper was “partially soaked in water and mud dredged from the lagoon surrounding Venice.” In this way the representation of the city becomes a part of the city, at least conceptually. After the jump, check out a few of our favorites of Picton’s pieces, and then be sure to head over to his website to check out more of his work. … Read More
20 Words You Didn’t Know Were Inspired by People
Given that all we do is write about culture all day, we at Flavorpill are always fascinated by words and the tricksy ways they come to be. Recently, we’ve been thinking about the etymology of common words, particularly the ones that can be traced back to specific people in history, whether authors, scientists, or just wealthy estate agents who were, well, boycotted by the town around them. Here are twenty common words that originated as people’s names — add your favorite to the list in the… Read More
Geffen Refaeli’s Surreal Instagram Illustrations
Israeli illustrator Geffen Refaeli draws strange, surreal and often highly adorable illustrations, each one inspired by other people’s Instagram photos. Fittingly, she publishes a cheeky drawing every few days as dailydoodlegram, and has racked up thousands of followers in the process. As she told Haaretz, ”I almost always look for pictures with objects rather than landscapes, something with a focus rather than a panorama. Usually I choose pictures of an object or animal or a figure that can be removed from its context.” It’s the removal from context that turns these irreverent sketches into art — the way Refaeli can see possibility, magic and weirdness in even the most mundane snapshots. After the jump, check out a few of our favorites from her ongoing project, and then be sure to head over to dailydoodlegram to see many more. … Read More
10 Books That Could Save Your Life
This week marked the release of Reality Hunger author David Shields’ newest book, How Literature Saved My Life, a wonderfully meandering meditation on reading, writing, and the reason for art. In that spirit, we offer ten books that just might save your life — some which Shields mentions in his latest, some of which are our own favorites.… Read More
Surprisingly Beautiful Portraits of Frying Pan Bottoms
“To eat is to appropriate by destruction,” said Jean-Paul Sartre. Norwegian photographer Christopher Jonassen evokes this sentiment in Devour, his photo series of the bottoms of frying pans, which we recently spotted over at iGNANT. Frying pans may seem a crushingly mundane subject, but in Jonassen’s hands they turn into mythical planets, complete with deep seas and scorched earth — a neat trick for kitchenware. After the jump, check out a few of our favorites from the series, and then be sure to head on over to Jonassen’s website to see more of his work. … Read More
10 of the World’s Greatest Hotels Inspired by Literature
After spotting this Jules Verne-inspired hotel in Canada, we decided to go on a worldwide hunt for other interesting hotels that pay homage to our favorite reads — whether in general, or focusing on a single volume, or even detail. After all, book nerds need someplace cool to stay as much as art nerds… Read More
Whimsical Flying Portraits of the ‘Japanese Harry Potter’
Japanese graphic designer Halno is er, elevating the Instagram format with his wonderful levitation photography. His flying broomstick photos, which we spotted over at My Modern Met, have earned him the nickname “The Japanese Harry Potter,” and why not? It seems like there’s more than a little magic going on here. Want to fly yourself? Halno has these tips for you: “To create your own copycat version of the ‘flying broomstick,’ it is important to bend the legs, and make sure you perfect your facial expression, no excitement needed!… Just remember to be interesting, and different from other people. Amateur photos of food and clothing are boring, don’t you think? You can fly on anything, not just a broomstick. Be creative!” Indeed. After the jump, a few of our favorite shots from Halno’s collection, and check out more of his work over at his Instagram page. … Read More
5 of the Greatest Urban Legends As Told by Albert Jack
We all love a good story — whether it’s true, or not so true. Today marks the release of Albert Jack’s Phantom Hitchhikers and Other Urban Legends, an excellent little volume that collects some of the weirdest, best, and most rampant urban legends bouncing around the cultural consciousness. Luckily, Jack has written about a few of his favorite legends for us here.
“Urban legends are not always easy to spot, as they often have a ring of truth about them,” Jack told us over email. “The events they describe could happen or might have happened to any of us. Each of us could have been as unfortunate or stupid as the character(s) in the story, and that is one of the reasons we all enjoy urban legends so much: that the misfortune involved didn’t happen to us in the end but to somebody else. And that makes us laugh. The stories come in many different forms. Some involve ghostly goings on, some are about love found or lost. Some center on plain stupidity and some on unfortunate coincidences, although some do have happy endings.” … Read More
Adorable Gender-Swapped Fairy Tale Princes by Yudi Chen
We’re suckers for anything fairy tale related — especially when it’s a little bit twisted — so of course we fell for Yudi Chen’s charming gender-flipped princes when we spotted them over at io9. After all, “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your beard!” does sort of have a nice ring to it. Now all we want is an accompanying story to go with each image — any volunteers? After the jump, see what our picture books might look like if Cinderella was born a man, and then head on over to Chen’s Society6 to buy a print for yourself. … Read More
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