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Cormac McCarthy

Design

Clever Posters Chart the Colors in Famous Novels

By Emily Temple on

What colors are the insides of your favorite novels? Well, sure, the off-white of a book page — but what about the worlds they create? In artist Jaz Parkinson‘s color charts project, he has created graphic signatures of novels’ visual content, building mini rainbows that correspond to classic works. Needless to say, there’s a lot of red (blood) and white (milk) in A Clockwork Orange, and miles of black in McCarthy’s The Road. … Read More

Books

Rare Footage of Famous Authors

By Alison Nastasi on

Savoring a book for weeks, months, and sometimes years inspires a natural curiosity about the person behind the words. Several scribes have reached cult celebrity status with voracious audiences, but others remain an enigma — their voices and image seldom captured, often due to lapses in technological advancement. After spotting a rare video featuring Nineteen Eighty-Four author George Orwell on Open Culture, we realized how many writers have evaded their close-up — by choice and by fate. Watch the rare footage of famous authors that we found after the break. The videos offer an intimate glimpse of literature’s most amazing minds. … Read More

Books

10 Male Writers on the Perfect Woman

By Emily Temple on

This week, we listened to Slate’s Gentleman Scholar advise a Miss Bianca on how to attract a writerly boyfriend. Though his response was clever indeed, we’re not sure it was overly helpful, so we thought we’d lend a hand by going straight to the source, and finding out what writing men have to say about their ideal women. Now, bear in mind: some of these quotes come from the mouths of characters, and as such must be taken with a grain of salt. That said, we all know that everyone’s characters spring from some part of themselves, so their words bear repeating here. Straight from the horse’s mouth, then: ten male writers on what they look for in a female mate after the jump. Just be warned — the results may make you think twice about wanting to date a literary man. … Read More

Books

The Fascinating Self-Portraits of 20 Famous Authors

By Emily Temple on

They say writing is a form of self-expression — but it’s not the only one. And if we had to guess, we’d bet that many of our favorite authors have a little bit more going on in their heads than the average person, so it makes sense to us that their creativity might spill out into other mediums. To that end, we’ve curated a small selection of wonderful visual self-portraits by famous authors — from scribbles to full-on oil paintings, from cheeky one-offs to serious painterly studies. Did we miss your favorite? Let us know in the comments. … Read More

Books

15 Movie Tie-In Book Covers That Make Us Sad

By Emily Temple on

Yesterday, we spotted the cover for Scribner’s upcoming republication of The Great Gatsby, in concert with the film adaptation’s May release. The Great Gatsby is one of those books with a cover so iconic that any change to it offends our delicate sensibilities, but even with that self-awareness, the image got us thinking about other movie (and TV) tie-in editions of books, and how truly awful — not to mention unfaithful to the original text — they can be. That said, there’s no denying that movie tie-in editions sell books, so we guess there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. We just wish there were another way. … Read More

Film

Will These 10 Films Be Next Year’s Oscar Nominees?

By Jason Bailey on

After months of hype, after hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaigning, after endless precursor award ceremonies leading to the big night, the Oscars are over. So, what’s next? We took a look at the films slated thus far for release this fall — traditionally the time when Serious Oscar Movies are unleashed — and inventoried their Academy-friendly elements to come up with our picks for next year’s most likely… Read More

Books

10 of the Most Divisive Authors in Recent History

By Emily Temple on

Recently, we stumbled upon an article over at Open Letters Monthly that asked, “Is Cormac McCarthy a Terrible Writer?” The author, Rohan Maitzen, discusses McCarthy’s particular prose style in The Road, which has been celebrated by some and roundly reviled by others. We’ve always been interested in the idea that many of the greatest writers also seem to have the most detractors, so to explore further, we’ve rounded up a few of the most divisive authors in recent… Read More

Books

10 of the Most Gloriously Frustrating Endings in Literature

By Tom Hawking on

While some readers may not agree, here at Flavorpill we love a good ambiguous ending. Here, a few favorites that we’ve found thrilling, maddening, or just thought-provoking — what are… Read More

Books

10 Notorious Literary Slogs That Are Worth the Effort

By Emily Temple on

There has been much discussion over the years as to whether Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick is The Great American Novel, simply A Great American Novel, or is just a lengthy collection of complaints about whales (not that many people admit to thinking the latter). But if you’ve been meaning to read it for years and have never quite gotten up the nerve (or the time), an awesome marathon reading begins tonight at WORD in Greenpoint, which also happens to be one of our very favorite bookstores. To celebrate the event, we’ve put together a list of notorious literary slogs — long, difficult, and/or complicated enough to scare even the strongest reader — that are definitely worth the effort. Read our list after the jump, and add on your own favorites in the comments! … Read More

Books

A Highbrow Halloween Reading List

By Emily Temple on

Halloween is a time for spooky reads, and it’s also one of those days when we feel fine with letting our standards go out the window and reading some terrible-but-amazing fright tales. But what if you want to smarten up your Halloween reading list? Can zombies, werewolves and monsters go highbrow? Why yes they can, and for those of you who prefer your chills to come in a loftier package, we’ve got you covered. After the jump, find ten highbrow Halloween reads, from everyone’s favorite Shakespearean ghost story to poetry about zombies — and since we’re already mourning the ghosts of the books we had to cut from this list, resurrect any of your favorites we missed in the comments. … Read More