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Katie Roiphe

Books

Learn from the Best: 10 Course Syllabi by Famous Authors

By Emily Temple on

Every once in a while, one of eminent professor and author David Foster Wallace’s syllabi emerges on the Internet, and countless devotees head to their local bookstores. In case you’ve already read through DFW’s favorites (or want another look), we’ve taken this opportunity to pull together a series of famous authors’ syllabi and reading lists for your convenience. Hey, who needs to go to college when you’ve got a list of texts from the best and a public library (you should still go to college)? After the jump, read through ten syllabi from famous writers — who knows, you might just learn something. … Read More

Books

The Most Interesting Writing About Sylvia Plath on the 50th Anniversary of Her Death

By Emily Temple on

Fifty years ago today, Sylvia Plath killed herself, at the painfully young age of 30, and just a few weeks after the publication of her first and only novel, The Bell Jar. Needless to say, we’ve spent much of the day reading about the famed poet, whose literary legacy and personal mythology is as strong as ever, and discovering things we didn’t know. Just in case you don’t have the time to pour over tons of articles today, we thought we’d point you towards some of the most interesting pieces on the poet. Check them out after the jump, and if we’ve missed a gem of an article, link us to it in the comments! After all, you can’t have too much Sylvia. … Read More

Books

Bad Romance: History’s Ill-Fated Literary Couples

By Kathleen Massara on

Writers who marry or woo other writers — it’s a bold move, considering the egos involved and the social isolation necessary to get a decent amount of good work done. And yet the authors below tried to make it work; some stayed together for months and some were even able to make it last years. Many of the following authors even acted as mentors to their younger paramours, giving their careers a boost by introducing them to editors and other important members of literary circles. If you’re interested in learning more about writers’ affairs of the heart, Katie Roiphe details some of the following relationships in her book, Uncommon Arrangements: Seven Marriages. So read on, dear readers, and tell us which couples we missed in the comments section below. … Read More

Books

Required Reading: Revisiting Gender Outlaws

By Kathleen Massara on

Most of us read “serious books” about feminism in high school and college, but how many of us have gone back and read The Second Sex as adults? Stephanie Staal recently revisited the writers that made her start thinking differently about the world when she decided to take a college course on feminist theory at Barnard. She even includes the reading list in her book, Reading Women: How the Great Books of Feminism Changed My Life and will deliver excerpts from it tonight at Book Court in Brooklyn. The following are some of the books Staal explores in her studies, as well as a few others worth considering. … Read More

Web

What’s On at Flavorpill: Links That Made the Rounds in Our Office

By Caroline Stanley on

Today at Flavorpill, we wondered if Jay Leno’s return to an 11:30 time slot means the end of the road for Conan O’Brien — or even worse, Jimmy? We visited a lost Amazon complex and looked at some “wrapped” glaciers in Switzerland. We decided that certain New Year’s resolutions should remain… Read More

Books

Too Cool for Sex: The New York Times Castrates Hipster Male Authors

By Emily Temple on

Katie Roiphe’s recent essay in the New York Times entitled “The Naked and the Conflicted” calls out contemporary authors for being prude snugglers and praises mid-century males for being pervy sex-fiends. The article, complete with handy graphs, decries the current generation of literary greats as too obsessed with irony and ambivalence to let their characters (or themselves, she hints somewhat heavily) enjoy sex or their own virility. Citing David Foster Wallace, Jonathan Ames, Jonathan Franzen and Michael Chabon, among others, she… Read More