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The Wildest Teenagers in Literature

By Emily Temple on

In Wild Girls, Mary Stewart Atwell’s new debut novel, the young ladies of Swan River are changing. The “wild girls,” teenagers suddenly imbued with supernatural powers that give them both the ability and the will to murder, menace the town while Kate Riordan tries to hang on to both her life and her sanity. Inspired by this impressive debut, we’ve put together a list of what we consider to be some of the wildest teenagers in literature — from gang members to errant soldiers to kids making the best of a bad situation by going feral. See our choices after the jump, and if we missed your favorite literary teen on a rampage, be sure to add to our list in the comments. … Read More

Books

The Flavorpill Guide to DIY Pop Culture Halloween Costumes: Books

By Emily Temple on

Halloween: It’s always more complicated than you want it to be. Even if you’ve got your plans set, it’s a struggle to find the perfect costume — without resorting to the same crappy, overpriced, pre-packaged getups everyone else will be wearing. Thankfully, just as we have done for the past two Octobers, Flavorpill is helping you out with a series of easy DIY costume guides tackling various pop-culture realms. Don’t worry — there’s no sewing involved.

Last week, we took you through a few easy-as-pie options in the realm of television, giving our suggestions on channeling everyone from Hare Krishna Paul Kinsey to Evil Abed, but if you spend more time with your nose in a book than you do catching up on the latest shows (or just want to seem like you do), this week’s installment is or you. While we’re sure this Halloween will see its usual abundance of Poes and Plaths and Maxes from Where The Wild Things Are, we’ve put together a few slightly more original costume ideas inspired by the ups and downs of this year in the book world. Detailed instructions on how to channel a few authors, characters and even entire books after the jump. … Read More

News

Lindsay Lohan and James Deen Go Grindhouse in ‘The Canyons’ Trailer

By Alison Nastasi on

When we caught an early peek at writer Bret Easton Ellis and director Paul Schrader’s The Canyons, it looked like a lame compilation of shots from The Hills. A new teaser for the contemporary LA noir tale written by the American Psycho scribe reveals a retro vibe. The Playlist shared a new clip promoting the movie about Lindsay Lohan and porn star James Deen’s dalliance with sexual obsession and professional paranoia, and it’s cut grindhouse-style. In the clip, we get to see the first real footage of the upcoming film, hinting at the trashy, drug-fueled storyline.

The Canyons hasn’t locked down a release date yet, but the official Facebook page indicates that Lohan was shown a cut of the movie. “Showed LL the film tonight. She saw and she understood. What a wonderful moment for her. Some tears, some hard words, some kisses but that’s life in Lindsayland. Sometimes the movie gods smile. Sometimes you get lucky. LL and I got lucky.” Now that we know Ellis won’t be writing the upcoming Fifty Shades of Grey remake, maybe he’ll have more time on his hands to share a Canyons preview with actual dialogue. We shudder to think what that might be like, but we’re truly hoping for the best. Click through for the trailer. … Read More

Books

15 Scathing Early Reviews of Classic Novels

By Emily Temple on

There are some literary classics that are near unimpeachable. We’re thinking Lolita, Ulysses, The Great Gatsby: the best of the best. Except that they’re decidedly not unimpeachable — or at least they weren’t when they first hit bookshelves. These books and many others that are now considered masterpieces got their fair share of scathing reviews when they first came out, and in reputable publications no less. Sure, hindsight is 20/20, but we can’t help having this to say to these brutal reviewers: ha, ha. Click through to read 15 harshly negative early reviews of classic novels, and feel free to register your outrage (or your agreement) in the comments. … Read More

Pop Culture

10 Literary Authors Who Have Written for TV

By Emily Temple on

This week, were excited (and somewhat skeptical) about the news that Bret Easton Ellis, author of teenage-ennui classic Less Than Zero and bourgeois-ennui classic American Psycho, is working on writing a new drama series for the CW about monstrous high schoolers entitled Copeland High. Though television is often considered the junk food to the nourishing meal of literature, Ellis’s project reminded us very fondly of the authors who have turned their literary chops to writing for television — whether for good or for ill. Click through to read our brief survey of novelists who have written for TV (and usually improved it in the process), and let us know if we’ve missed your favorite multi-faceted writer in the comments. … Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. Thanks to an accidental tweet from Def Jam France, we now know that Rihanna has a new record coming out in November, and the first single is due out this Monday. [via NME]

2. The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute has announced that next spring’s big show will be “Punk: From… Read More

Books

David Foster Wallace’s Formative Reading List

By Daniel Roberts on

The newly released big biography of David Foster Wallace, entitled Every Love Story is a Ghost Story and written by New Yorker scribe D.T. Max, gives a nitty-gritty look at Wallace as a troubled, tortured artist and human being. But DTM on DFW is also a primer on the growth of this particular writer — throughout the text we get mentions of the exact books Wallace read, and when, and how they formed his style. Here are just eight of them (one is a short story), along with the relevant excerpt from Max’s book. Follow along to become the next David Foster Wallace — or maybe just a little more well-read. … Read More

Books

Bret Easton Ellis’ Vendetta Against David Foster Wallace, Explained

By Judy Berman on

If you follow the book publishing news cycle, which seems to make a story out of Bret Easton Ellis’ every tweet-storm, then you’ve probably read about the author’s recent fulmination against David Foster Wallace. But in case you missed it, here’s a delightful sample: “DFW is the best example of a contemporary male… Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Judy Berman on

1. Philip Seymour Hoffman has been offered a role in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. And no, it isn’t Finnick, wise guy — it’s Gamemaker Plutarch Heavensbee. Sure, we’ll buy that. [via Slashfilm]

2. In other, stranger casting news, Lindsay Lohan and porn star James Deen (aka “The Ryan Gosling of Porn”) have… Read More

Books

The 10 Grumpiest Living Writers

By Emily Temple on

This week saw the release of Farther Away, Jonathan Franzen’s newest collection of essays and speeches, covering the last five years of his non-fiction output. Well, in those last five years, he has become increasingly grumpy, griping about things like Twitter and ebooks, and building a reputation as an unrepentantly prickly author with a constant bone to pick. To celebrate the release of another book filled with Franzen’s complaints, we’ve put together a list of the ten grumpiest, crankiest and most cantankerous authors still living today. Click through to read about the exploits of our favorite literary curmudgeons, and let us know — as un-crankily as you can, please — if we’ve missed anyone in the comments. … Read More