Suspend Your Disbelief

Posts Tagged ‘lit and television’

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What Don Draper is reading…

by Celeste Ng

I am an unabashed Mad Men fan, and this past season was possibly the best—but I will admit that a few times, I was able to tear my eyes from Don Draper in PJs to look at the book in his hands. You know you’re a word-nerd when you watch TV and realize you’re scoping out what the characters are reading. Leave it to Flavorwire to compile the actual reading lists of Rory Gilmore, Don Draper, Daria (whoa ’90s flashback) and more. Rory reads The Bell Jar. Don reads The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. Daria reads Being […]


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Richard Ford on the Colbert Report

by Celeste Ng

Why don’t we have more writers on talk shows? (Except when they’re begging Oprah’s forgiveness?) Stephen Colbert tackles this issue, and many others, with writer Richard Ford. Watch below to learn why fiction isn’t the same thing as lying, why Ford’s latest novel is called Canada,, and why he keeps his manuscripts in the freezer (hint: it keeps the ideas fresher). The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c Richard Ford www.colbertnation.com Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive Further Reading: Also rocking the Colbert Report: Ann Patchett Oh, AND Maurice Sendak. You know, given […]


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A Public Service Annoucement About Book Suicide

by Celeste Ng

So we know how books are born, how they fall in love, and what they’re up to after the bookstore closes for the night. But did you know that books sometimes think about ending it all? It’s sad but true. What drives them to despair? This display I spotted in Porter Square Books has the answer: The Origami Poems project suggests a poem as a cure—but perhaps you’d better add a short story too, just to be on the safe side? Further Reading: Jersey Shore a la Oscar Wilde Lit and TV have a clandestine affair at the brilliant Slaughterhouse […]


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Maurice Sendak on The Colbert Report

by Celeste Ng

Earlier this week, Stephen Colbert interviewed the fantastically curmudgeonly Maurice Sendak on the Colbert Report. If you like either Colbert or Maurice Sendak, you’ll enjoy it. Like both, and you’ll be chortling with joy. Part 1: The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c Grim Colberty Tales with Maurice Sendak Pt. 1 www.colbertnation.com Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive Part 2: The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c Grim Colberty Tales with Maurice Sendak Pt. 2 www.colbertnation.com Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive


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Slaughterhouse 90210

by Celeste Ng

As you might guess from its name, Tumblr site Slaughterhouse 90210 pairs stills from TV shows with literary quotes—with both hilarious and thought-provoking results: If you think about it, My So-Called-Life and Anne of Avonlea are indeed thematic soulmates. And Mad Men and Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook make an inspired match. Still need convincing? “She felt, in every way it was possible, astonished that she had slept with him.” —Lorrie Moore, Like Life ‘Nuff said. Go check it out.


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"Jersey Shore" Gone Wilde!

by Celeste Ng

That’s the title of a hilarious video series by the cast of “The Importance of Being Earnest” on Broadway at Roundabout Theatre Company. They ask an important question: What if the characters of Broadway’s “The Importance of Being Earnest” traveled through a time warp and woke up on the beach with Snooki, The Situation and the rest of the gang of MTV’s “Jersey Shore”? In an exclusive video series created for Playbill by “Earnest” stars Santino Fontana and David Furr, the Roundabout Theatre Company cast puts “Jersey” in the mouths of Oscar Wilde’s famed Britons. Think of it as a […]


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Best. Literary Cameos. Ever.

by Celeste Ng

GalleyCat reports the mashup of two of my favorite things: literature and The Simpsons. Sometime in the upcoming season, novelist Neil Gaiman will be an animated guest star on the long-running TV show. In a blog post, Gaiman notes: I play myself. I play a very different version of myself to the me I played in Arthur, though. For a start, I do not appear in anyone’s falafel. Also, I expect I will be yellow. The Simpsons has a long history of literary references, from a rendition of Poe’s “The Raven” to a spoof of Lord of the Flies in […]


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Famous People: Can They Write?

by Celeste Ng

For some reason, I don’t think of celebrity authors as emerging writers. After all, they’ve got well-established careers of their own acting, directing, or being beautiful/audacious/infamous. It’s hard to think of someone like James Franco—who seems to be everywhere this year—as an “emerging” anything. But Franco recently published his first collection of short stories, Palo Alto, which officially makes him an emerging writer. He seems to be taking it seriously: according to Wikipedia, Franco “simultaneously attend[ed] graduate school at Columbia University’s MFA writing program, New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts for filmmaking, and Brooklyn College for fiction writing, […]


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Reading Rainbow Resurrected?

by Celeste Ng

Six months ago, we here at FWR (and many others) mourned the end of long-running PBS show Reading Rainbow. Now, rumor has it that Reading Rainbow may make a comeback. Host LeVar Burton recently tweeted: You heard it here first… Reading Rainbow 2.0 is in the works! Stay tuned for more info. But, you don’t have to… If you can complete that sentence, you’re probably one of the millions who can’t wait to see this show—which encouraged kids to love books and reading—back on the air. No further details have been released yet, but we can hope, right? Via.



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