{"id":5558,"date":"2010-08-27T06:20:11","date_gmt":"2010-08-27T10:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=5558"},"modified":"2010-08-27T06:26:54","modified_gmt":"2010-08-27T10:26:54","slug":"unrequired-reading-august-27-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-august-27-2010","title":{"rendered":"Unrequired Reading: August 27, 2010"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s been a long week at work, dear readers, but that won’t stop me from bringing you an awesome collection of weird links.<\/p>\n

Let’s start off this week’s installment with a bang<\/a>!<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Let’s go from near-death in a lab to death in a classroom<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

I adored Adam Kirsch’s book reviews when the New York Sun<\/em> was in print. Here’s his obit\/tribute to Frank Kermode<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

I don’t have a problem with Kermode exemplifying “the ideal of the literary critic as the humanist par excellence.” I do, however, have a problem with the bloated self-importance of contemporary ‘literary’ fiction as exemplified by editor Lorin Stein<\/a>. (My pal Tom objects, too, as seen in the third item in this post<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

My antidote for that? Another Frank Santoro post, about romance comics and the romance of comics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Galactic Supervolcano<\/a>: not a Soundgarden album title. Yet.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

I really enjoyed Eric Baker’s Today<\/em> series of web-found images, but he just posted the last one<\/a>. Check out the archives after that post; you won’t be disappointed.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

The magic of Yes and the voice of Toto<\/a>? You’re talking to a guy who’s first concert was Asia (Brendan Byrne Arena, 1983, Alpha Tour).<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Abandon all hope upon entering here. Also, can you make the logo bigger<\/a>? (h\/t Brand New<\/a>)<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Let’s end this week with two gems from the mind of C.C. Beck. First, Armagideon Time explores the phenomenon of the garrulous everytiger, Talky Tawny<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And then we have the definitive statement on anger management:<\/p>\n

\"sivanabash.jpg\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s been a long week at work, dear readers, but that won’t stop me from bringing you an awesome collection of weird links.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[793,26,4,40],"tags":[295,1128,1129,974,1130,1132,174],"class_list":["post-5558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-classic-comics-criticism","category-comics","category-literature","category-music","tag-adam-kirsch","tag-c-c-beck","tag-frank-kermode","tag-frank-santoro","tag-lorin-stein","tag-talky-tawny","tag-tom-spurgeon"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-1rE","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8463,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/podcast-the-hollow-man","url_meta":{"origin":5558,"position":0},"title":"Podcast – The Hollow Man","author":"Gil","date":"December 29, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show: The Hollow Man It's the ONE-HUNDREDTH EPISODE\u00a0of The Virtual Memories Show!\u00a0And they said it would never last!\u00a0To celebrate hitting the century mark, I asked past guests, upcoming guests and friends of the show to interview me this time around! This special episode includes questions and recorded segments\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Podcasts"","block_context":{"text":"Podcasts","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/podcasts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=voyantpublishing&l=as2&o=1&a=B002SQJLA4","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10086,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-197-the-guest-list-2016","url_meta":{"origin":5558,"position":1},"title":"Episode 197 – The Guest List 2016","author":"Gil","date":"December 12, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show: The Guest List 2016 It's time for our year-end Virtual Memories Show\u00a0tradition: The Guest List! I reached out to 2016's pod-guests and asked them about the favorite book(s) they read in the past year, as well as the books or authors they're hoping to read in 2017!\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Comic books & strips"","block_context":{"text":"Comic books & strips","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature\/comics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/Scribners-620x504.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/Scribners-620x504.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/Scribners-620x504.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8130,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/podcast-critical-mass","url_meta":{"origin":5558,"position":2},"title":"Podcast: Critical Mass","author":"Gil","date":"August 18, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show: Frank Wilson - Critical Mass \"We were taught with the idea that these books meant something, that it was something vital to your life, that if you read these books you could understand what was going on around you better than you could if you didn't. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=voyantpublishing&l=as2&o=1&a=B002SQJLA4","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8414,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/podcast-the-guest-list-2014","url_meta":{"origin":5558,"position":3},"title":"Podcast – The Guest List 2014","author":"Gil","date":"December 16, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show: The Guest List 2014 Two years in a row? That makes The Guest List a Virtual Memories Show tradition! I reached out to 2014's podcast guests and asked them about the favorite book(s) they read in the past year. More than 30 of them responded with a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"liberry","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/liberry-620x353.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/liberry-620x353.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/liberry-620x353.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10067,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/fanta-pods","url_meta":{"origin":5558,"position":4},"title":"Fanta-pods","author":"Gil","date":"December 12, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Fantagraphics is celebrating its 40th anniversary and holy crap have I interviewed a ton of their cartoonists and writers: Peter Bagge \u2022 mp3 MK Brown \u2022 mp3 Ivan Brunetti \u2022 mp3 Jules Feiffer \u2022 mp3 Mary Fleener \u2022 mp3 Drew Friedman 2013 \u2022 mp3 Drew Friedman 2014 \u2022 mp3 Josh\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/12650933_10153906782188069_7522455933169836573_n-440x440.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13375,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-372-tom-hart","url_meta":{"origin":5558,"position":5},"title":"Episode 372 – Tom Hart","author":"Gil","date":"May 14, 2020","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 372: Tom Hart \"For my next book, I'm looking for a new form. Everything feels like the old form. I'm giving myself that luxury. I don't owe this to anybody but my own creative satisfaction.\" Cartoonist and educator Tom Hart joins the show to talk about how\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/tomhartcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C389&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/tomhartcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C389&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/tomhartcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C389&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/tomhartcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C389&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/tomhartcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C389&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5558"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5561,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5558\/revisions\/5561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}