Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
With the Nobel Prize in Literature going to someone other than a Giant Robot staff writer, we’re now trying to jump on the band wagon and support the actual winner, Mo Yan of China. Yet where does one start? There’s plenty of books and although cinema has always been a strong point of culture in China, it’s literature is lesser known. Some of the great writers novels have become movies. We just don’t know about them. Red Sorghum, the epic film by Zhang Yimou starring Gong Li, yes, Mo Yan wrote that one. The WSJ offers a great place to start with a list of 5 novels. (WSJ – China Novels)
Continue reading
His odds are among the highest to win. With 46 new entrants in the running for the first time and some close runners up from the past, it’s not a safe bet. Murakami’s novel IQ84 was his most recent. (GuardianUK – Haruki Murakami)
Continue reading
Again, this year it seems every form of mainstream media has sent a reporter to Comic-Con without even realizing why. Oogle the scantily clad cosplay girls. See the freaks. That’s it for another year. Back to the studio. What media usually fails to explain, it took best-selling author-turned-comic book writer Scott Snyder to break it down for everyone: “I know there’s a perception of comics; that they’re bombastic and fun, and there are those comics, but for a lot of us, comics are also a place where I bring everything I ever brought to anything literary,” Snyder says. “The only reason I’m happy doing comics and I don’t miss literary fiction is because every kind of dark and fascinating, exciting thing that I was able to explore in that medium, I’m exploring here. ” But you knew that all along, right? Another way of defining “pop culture” is new art and the new literature. Read more at NPR ~ Comic-Con: ‘Batman’ writer Scott Snyder on why comics still matter and why NPR listeners should care SDCC runs through Sunday at the San Diego Convention Center. Visit GR’s booth #1729.
Continue reading
Donald Keene is moving to Japan and this piece by Slate Magazine is also a moving piece. After teaching for 50 years at Columbia University, he’s packed it up and at 89 is calling Japan his home. If you don’t know him, he’s been a savior, slave, and artist himself to Japanese culture. He’s penned, translated, lectured, and stood for many facets of Japan. Film, poetry, literature, and more. We’d have to guess that he started off as a fan. (Slate – Donald Keene)
Continue reading