You may remember that last summer, in the wake of the critical acclaim that attended Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom, there was quite a bit of discussion about the gender disparity in book reviews by The New York Times, with two bestselling female authors, Jennifer Weiner and Jodi Picoult, leading the charge. The case by the numbers: of the 545 books reviewed by the Times between July 2008 and August 2010, 62 percent were written by men and 38 percent by women.
Yesterday, Weiner posted a follow-up on her blog, wondering if The New York Times did any better this past year. Her answer is, basically, not really. She writes, ”To quote Reverend Lovejoy of Simpsons fame, short answer yes with an if, long answer no with a but.” At her count, the paper reviewed 254 works of fiction in 2011, 59.1 percent of which were written by men and 40.9 percent by women. And almost as many female authors’ books were reviewed twice as male authors (21 versus 22). So, improvement! Except that in other areas that Weiner values, such as number of women getting two reviews and a profile (just Téa Obreht, apparently), the Times is still lacking. ”The Times showed improvement,” she writes, “at least in terms of fiction, in the two-review department, but the disparity between men and women who get that coveted two-reviews-plus-a-profile is still shocking.”
You’d think running the New York Marathon today would be project enough (our quads hurt just at the suggestion), but New York Times cartoonist Christoph Niemann is not only running it, but he’s also live-illustrating the race and live-tweeting his illustrations every ten minutes or so. From the looks of it, he’s having a great time interacting with the crowd and making friends with his fellow runners, all while documenting the event with a few markers and a pad of paper. At the time of this posting, he’s likely in about his 18th mile, so you still have time to follow along with his superhuman task (and bring him a banana) on Twitter: @abstractsunday.
We’ve made no secret of the fact that we’re giant Roger Ebert fans here at Flavorwire, so we certainly weren’t going to miss his rare trip from his home turf to ours, for Tuesday night’s installment of The New York Times’ ongoing lecture/interview series, “Times Talks” — “or, in my case, Times Types,” as Ebert mused, via his computerized voice “Alex.” The program allowed the critic to answer A.O. Scott’’s questions via his laptop, and as “Alex” said his words, Ebert would frequently act out his answers, accompanying the robot-voiced words with his own gestures, nods, shrugs, and mugs (frequently calling to mind the great silent clown Harpo Marx — “the most articulate” of the Marx Brothers, according to Mr. Ebert).
Because his responses were literally written, the conversation was more quotable than most. After the jump, we’ve assembled our ten favorite Ebert-isms of the night.
Beginning this weekend, formidable British author Geoff Dyer will begin writing a column for the New York Times Sunday Book Review entitled “Reading Life,” in which (the editors tell us) he will detail “the ups and down of his long relationship with the written word.” Today’s inaugural column, which you can and should read in its entirety over at the Sunday Book Review, is a delightfully witty takedown/celebration/parody of Michael Fried’s Why Photography Matters as Art as Never Before, that is, the kind of writing in which you explain what you are about to do before, after, and while doing it, if you get around to doing it at all. The message we take away is that he isn’t about to hand us a first column that blithely discusses what he might write about in weeks to come, but rather wants to show us, as any author who has listened to their composition teachers knows to do. Reading it, we also remember what a funny and smart guy that Geoff Dyer is, so we’re excited to start reading his column every week. What did you think of Dyer’s first column? Let us know in the comments!
Welcome to Conversation Pieces, where Flavorpill curates five articles from the past week that you should read. Some are long, others are short. Some are from major publications, others aren’t. The only thing all these articles have in common is that they’re interesting. This week we examine The Strokes after 10 years, Dan Savage as America’s moralist, the science behind awful dancing, why rape is a sensitive issue and should remain that way, and more. After the jump, find something exciting to discuss this weekend in the home, at the bar, or on the street.
The New York Times has, it seems, finally admitted (if implicitly) their completely pussy-footed outsiderism when it comes to Brooklyn. This week, their popular 36 Hours travel feature, which has recently covered cities such as Santiago, Lisbon, Valencia, Santa Cruz, and Marrakesh, has turned its gaze on Brooklyn, the borough the NYT loves to awkwardly love. Though they did make some good (if obvious) choices for a hypothetical weekend across the river (Tom’s Restaurant, the Brooklyn Museum and the Botanical Garden) they also left out some serious (and also obvious) draws (the Brooklyn Flea, Roberta’s, the whole of Red Hook). But we know they had to make choices, and not everyone can hang around in Brooklyn forever. However, we imagine that certain parts of the article could be a little obnoxious to Brooklyn natives, as, true to NYT fashion, they kind of miss the mark when it comes to talking about their other half. Click through for the 6 most annoying parts of their 36 Hours in Brooklyn, and our indignant rebuttals.
Attention Sunday Styles devotees: The trailer for Richard Press’ documentary on the New York Times’ intrepid street photographer Bill Cunningham just landed online, and it looks to be just as adorable as the man himself — even Anna Wintour acts like a giddy schoolgirl when talking about him. As Fashionologie reports, when Press first approached Cunningham about the project in 2000: “He just pooh-poohed the idea. He couldn’t entertain it. He said, ‘Why me? There’s no subject here.’” If you need even more reason to love the ever humble, 81-year-old Schwinn devotee (or if you’re just looking to familiarize yourself), check out an excellent profile of him that ran last year in The New Yorker, and click through to watch the trailer.
Often, when we mention the New York Times, it’s to go on at length about one of their ridiculous faux trend pieces. But even we have to admit that, for the Times magazine’s upcoming Hollywood Issue, they’ve put together something totally awesome. “14 Actors Acting” is a video gallery of the year’s most fascinating thespians doing what they do best. The roughly minute-long, black-and-white clips, shot by Norse photographer Solve Sundsbo and scored by the inimitable Owen Pallett, show the actors doing silent, solo scenes with minimal props. In one video, a glammed-up Natalie Portman disrobes (not completely — don’t get excited) after a night on the town; in another, Jesse Eisenberg pulls out a gun and, well, you’ll see. Tilda Swinton, James Franco, Javier Bardem, and Chloë Moretz are among the other actors featured. Watch the clips here.
Although it doesn’t come out in print until Sunday, The New York Times has posted its yearly “100 Notable Books” list online. And while it’s got most of the big names — Ian McEwan, Nicole Krauss, Zadie Smith, and, of course, the literary novel’s pop-culture poster boy, Jonathan Franzen — we couldn’t help but notice how many of our favorite new novels and non-fiction books were left out. After the jump, we right the Times‘ wrongs in a list of 10 more books from 2010 that you need to read, from the tale of an Irish prep school to a handful of excellent memoirs to the real story of riot grrrl.
1. Over 7,000 people in a photo taken at this year’s Glastonbury Festival in England have tagged themselves on Facebook, setting a Guinness World Record. [via Gizmodo]
2. Mel Gibson‘s reported cameo in The Hangover 2 has been canceled. According to director Todd Phillips, “I thought Mel would have been great in the movie, but I realize filmmaking is a collaborative effort, and this decision ultimately did not have the full support of my entire cast and crew.” [via People]
3. The New York Times now has more Twitter followers than they do print subscribers. [via Business Insider]
4. Check out a new Brian Eno track called “Emerald And Stone.” This sleepy piano piece is from his upcoming album, Small Craft On A Milk Sea, which is due out on November 2nd from Warp. [via Stereogum]
5. Netflix is refusing to stock copies of Harmony Korine’s film Trash Humpers (which we reviewed here), even though they carry all of his previous, and arguably, equally controversial, work. [via AV Club]
