I stumbled onto Sheila O’Malley’s blog this afternoon, and instantly knew I need to read everything she’s ever written. Especially the book reviews — e.g. on Harriet the Spy, Brideshead Revisited, Notes from Underground, and above all this essay on love and AS Byatt.
Talking of Byatt, The Guardian have a wonderful video interview with her; I assume they’ll eventually turn in into an article, but they’re taking their time about it. What’s particularly delightful is how it works as a conversation rather than a potted Q&A. She covers several topics — social realist novels, facebook, religion, big brother — but keeps returning to a central theme of the limitations of culture concerned entirely with reality and people, where
interest in life as it is has supplanted religion
. Also, as one of the comments points out, it’s somewhat intriguing that she has a roll of tape balanced on her knee throughout.
More superficially:
-
The Spectator on Michael Moorcock: “
He is generally sound on religion and politics
“. Yes, really. - A plea for intergenerational peace from Rhian
-
Remember the park benches in
Transmetropolitan
? A park in China tries doing it with spikes [NB:
Quirky news from China, hence probably exaggerated or downright false
]