Do you ever think about how different the college experience would be today? Maybe we’re aging ourselves here, but just the thought of taking notes on a laptop — or an iPad! — is mind boggling to us old-fashioned spiral notebook types. Well, we’ve surveyed the slightly younger generation, and apparently not much has changed as far as college dorm decorations are concerned. You’ve gotta be kidding. Well, alright. Let’s hit up some dorm rooms and delve into the (still) most cliched and popular posters and the art therein. Girls! Van Gogh! And other usual suspects! Which ones did you have? ‘Fess up. … Read More
Hunter S. Thompson
25 Writers, Artists and Critics on James Joyce
In case you haven’t been trolling the literary blogs in the past week, we are happy to inform you that today is Bloomsday, the unofficial international holiday dedicated to canonical Irish writer James Joyce, and more specifically, to his most famous work, Ulysses. Though he has many enthusiastic fans (the man died over 70 years ago and still has young ladies dancing in the streets once a year to celebrate his life), he has always been a controversial figure in critical and social circles. For our own mini celebration of Bloomsday, we’ve put together a collection of some of our favorite quotes about the great writer and his work — some so flattering they read like silver-tongued worship, and some, well, significantly less flattering. Click through to read a cacophony of famous figures sounding off on James Joyce, and then get out there and decide on his merit for yourself. … Read More
The Childhood Homes of 20 Famous Authors
Famous authors — they’re just like us. Or at least they used to be. Recently, on a whim, we started investigating the childhood homes of some legendary authors, and their early homes are just as varied as their writing styles — from cottages to apartments to antebellum townhouses. We think it’s rather fascinating to peer at some of our favorite authors’ earliest dwellings and think about the formative experiences they had there, whether for good or ill, and the way those houses and neighborhoods might have influenced their writing. Also, it’s just fun to pry. Click through to check out our collection of famous authors’ childhood homes, and if you like, add to our collection in the comments. … Read More
Take a Dip: Literary Greats In Their Bathing Suits
[Editor's note: Your devoted Flavorwire team is taking Memorial Day off, but we've left you with some of our favorite summer-related features that you may have missed the first time around. This post originally ran June 26, 2011. Enjoy!]
We don’t know about you, but now that it’s officially summertime, we want to spend as much time in our bathing suits as humanly possible, and so, it seems, did many of our favorite writers. After all, even the moodiest of authors needs a little sunshine now and again to chase the pain away. Whether that works or not is a whole other story. Click through for our gallery of literary greats in their bathing suits, but be warned — they’re not all pin-up shots. Sure, Sylvia and Anne are bathing beauties in addition to being quality wordsmiths, but old Ernest looks decidedly doughy around the edges. Oh well, he had other talents. All we wonder is, what were they reading on the beach? … Read More
Minimalist Pop Culture Caricatures
Chances are you’ve seen at least one image from award-winning illustrator Stanley Chow before. The English-born artist started his career in fashion illustration and as a storyboard pro. Since then, his work has appeared in numerous advertisements, animations, and other design-savvy publications. We ran into his creations on Geek-Art and had to share his pop culture portraits. They have an interesting and elegant Art Deco twist, while still being contemporary. The works are refreshingly uncomplicated, but Chow manages to capture each character and star’s iconic expression or look in a unique way. We’ve shared a gallery of his work past the break. After you browse, be sure to head to the artist’s print shop to check out the rest of his delightful illustrations. You can see Chow’s work in person at an upcoming retrospective show in Manchester. … Read More
Curiouser and Curiouser! 10 of Literature’s Trippiest Books
Today is the birthday of the venerable Lewis Carroll, creator of what is arguably the best-loved children’s tale of all time, Alice in Wonderland. He’s also the author of one of the trippiest, most psychedelic books of all time, which is, um, also Alice in Wonderland. To celebrate the occasion of his birth (he would be 180 years old today), we’ve collected the texts that we consider to be the trippiest books of all time, “trippy,” in this case, being defined as “resembling or inducing the hallucinatory effect produced by taking a psychedelic drug.” See, kids: why take drugs when you can just read these crazy books? They are much less likely to do you any permanent damage — though we can’t make any promises. Click through to read our list, and let us know if we’ve left off your favorite trippy tale in the comments! … Read More
Johnny Depp Reads You His Personal Letters from Hunter S. Thompson
We’re always pleased to get two of our favorite things — in this case, Hunter S. Thompson’s prose and Young Johnny Depp — in one go. It’s the concept behind peanut butter & jelly, after all. These videos, which we spotted over at Open Culture, feature Johnny Depp reading from letters written to him by Hunter S. Thompson before and during his work on the film adaptation of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, the project that made the two such fast friends that Depp ended up footing the bill for Thompson’s grandiose funeral. The videos aren’t new, of course, but even if you’ve seen them before, they’re well worth a revisit. Click through to watch, but be warned: these are letters written by Hunter S. Thompson, and thus are obviously rather NSFW. … Read More
Hells Angels Photos and Self-Portraits by Hunter S. Thompson
In 1965, the legendary Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson scored his first big break. As an assignment for The Nation, Hunter lived with the most notorious motorcycle gang in the United States. Random House published Hells Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs in 1966. Hunter’s year with the club ended in a “stomping” — the Angels beat him up, allegedly when his editor wouldn’t share the profits from the story.
Check out some casual shots of the outlaws setting off for a ride, dusted in brutal bravado and motorcycle exhaust, taken by Hunter himself. Observe Hunter’s self-portrait with his Hell’s Angels black-eye. Then, take a short trip to Big Sur in picturesque California, where the literary rebel worked as a security guard and penned The Rum Diary after returning from Puerto Rico and his long jaunt as a traveling journalist working for US publications abroad. These are just a few pages from the icon’s storied existence, but they’re pretty exciting. … Read More
12 Hangover Cures from the Boozy and Famous
Playboy recently shared its colorful history of correspondence with gonzo legend Hunter S. Thompson. Amongst the letters and other notes in the collection was a wild cure for a hangover that suits the over the top writer’s uninhibited style. The note reads:
P.S. — inre: Oui’s request for “my hangover cure” — it’s 12 amyl nitrites (one box), in conjunction with as many beers as necessary.
OK H
While the idea of poppers and beer soothing your sorry head might not be the right cure for you, fear not — we’ve uncovered 12 other hangover remedies from famous booze hounds. With the holidays right around the corner, we figured you could use a little help. Click through to find out what Hemingway, Faulkner, and other big drinkers suggested after an evening of overindulgence. … Read More
TV Characters and Their Literary Counterparts
When you spend your days writing about culture, broadly defined, the strangest juxtapositions start to present themselves. Here at Flavorpill, where we might hop from Katherine Mansfield to Katy Perry in the space of a single post, we’re always noticing the ways in which high culture and pop culture complement each other. That, perhaps, is why it recently occurred to us that Ron Swanson and Ernest Hemingway must have wildly similar personalities — which led us to the thought experiment below: TV Characters and Their Literary Counterparts. Follow along with us after the jump, where we compare modernist authors to fictional teenagers and great humorists to fake-news hosts, and add your own pairings in the comments. … Read More
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