It’s about TIME I got a fake TIME cover

Posted on August 12, 2010 by Caleb J. Ross in General News | 1 Comment

It has been 10 years since a living novelist has appeared on the cover of Time (since Stephen King in 2000). So why does Jonathan Franzen get to right this wrong? Why not me? “Because you’ve never had a novel published,” you say. True. Though smell on the street is that travesty will soon to be rectified….more to come on that lovely bit of teasery a bit later.

Until then, come on, you be the judge. I make a damn good counterpoint.

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Peter Griffin does porn and literature

Posted on August 11, 2010 by Caleb J. Ross in Unexpected Literary References | 1 Comment

(part of my ongoing Unexpected Literary References series)

In my continuing hunt for literary references in cartoons, I sometimes forget those that have been with me for years. I’ve long been a fan of Family Guy, and the episode “Peterotica” features some delightfully tacky parodies of contemporary classic novels used as the titles for Peter Griffin’s erotica writings. Enjoy. If you feel so inclined, watch the full episode here.


Angela’s Asses by Peter Griffin	Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt

Shaved New World by Peter Griffin	Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Harry Potter and the Half Black Chick by Peter Griffin	Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K Rowling

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Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” mentioned in The Simpsons

Posted on August 8, 2010 by Caleb J. Ross in Unexpected Literary References | 1 Comment

(part of my ongoing Unexpected Literary References series)

Ever since I made my first “Great Unexpected Literary References” post, I seem to have grown keen to book mentions in cartoons. And to be honestly, none has surprised me more than Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery,” a short story that I assumed was only known among the academic literary cliques. But no. Unless of course Matt Groening, Trey Parker, and Matt Stone were all at one time part of a literary clique. I wouldn’t doubt this; those guys are smart.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone I mentioned regarding “The Lottery,” in my first “Great Unexpected Literary References” post. Today, I bring you a brief mention in Matt Groening’s “The Simpsons,” this one from an older episode called “Dog of Death.”

The Simpsons | “Dog of Death” (the image above is a bit fuzzy. To watch the entire episode, click here)

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Mind effed: Jose Saramago hates on wisdom nuggets, bitches

Posted on August 5, 2010 by Caleb J. Ross in Mind Effed | 1 Comment

Authoritarian, paralyzing, circular, occasionally elliptical stock phrases, also jocularly referred to as nuggets of wisdom, are a malignant plague, one of the very worst ever to ravage the earth. We say to the confused, Know thyself, as if knowing yourself was not the fifth and most difficult of human arithmetical operations, we say to the apathetic, Where there’s a will, there’s a way, as if the brute realities of the world did not amuse themselves each day by turning that phrase on its head, we say to the indecisive, Begin at the beginning, as if beginning were the clearly visible point of a loosely wound thread and all we had to do was to keep pulling until we reached the other end, and as if, between the former and the latter, we had held in our hands a smooth, continuous thread with no knots to untie, no snarls to untangle, a complete impossibility in the life of a skein, or indeed, if we may be permitted one more stock phrase, in the skein of life.

-from The Cave (pg 56)

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The Velvet Podcast, Episode 007: INTERVIEW with Blake Butler

Posted on August 2, 2010 by Caleb J. Ross in Media, Other Writers | 1 Comment

Episode #007 of The Velvet Podcast is now live!

“If I made it I might as well destroy it by eating it” – Blake Butler

In this interview episode of The Velvet Podcast, I interview Blake Butler, author of Ever (Calamari Press), Scorch Atlas (Featherproof Books) and the forthcoming There is no Year (Harper Perennial). Blake and Caleb discuss the impact of eReaders on visual-dependent literature, the novels vs. movies fallacy, and the importance of humility in a predominantly stuffy industry.

Please, give it a listen. Subscribe via Feedburner, Podcast Alley, or iTunes.

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