The Culture Gabfest, “Who Cares Who Killed Roger Ackroyd?” Edition
Listen to Slate's show about literary vs. genre fiction, the mobile publishing platform the Atavist, and the New York Times’ Vows column.
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The Slate Culture Gabfest is coming to the Greene Space on May 31 to team up with Movies on the Radio’s David Garland. We’ll be talking about music and the movies. The show is sold out, but you can still hear the conversation at 7 p.m. on the live video webcast at www.wqxr.org/gabfest.
In this week's Culture Gabfest, our critics discuss Arthur Krystal’s New Yorker piece on the distinctions between genre fiction and literary fiction, and Lev Grossman’s response in Time. The Gabfesters then discuss the mobile publishing platform Atavist and the future of long-form journalism. Finally, they consider the role of the New York Times’ Weddings/Celebrations section and “Vows” column over the last 20 years in both culture and brunch sport.
Here are some links to the things we discussed this week:
- Arthur Krystal’s New Yorker article, “Easy Writers” (paywall).
- Lev Grossman’s “Literary Revolution in the Supermarket Aisle: Genre Fiction is Disruptive Technology by Lev Grossman.”
- Lev Grossman’s 2009 novel, The Magicians.
- George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones series.
- Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe.
- Freedom by Jonathan Franzen.
- The work of Graham Greene, Patricia Highsmith, Dan Brown, and Thomas Harris.
- Edmund Wilson’s 1945 essay “Who Cares Who Killed Roger Ackroyd?”
- W.H. Auden on Raymond Chandler and the detective story.
- The Atavist’s December 2011 piece “Baghdad Country Club.”
- Amazon’s answer to longform journalism online, Kindle singles.
- Noreen Malone’s interview with Lois Smith Brady.
- Lois Smith Brady’s reflections on 20 years of the Vows column.
- David Brooks on the rise of the “cognitive elite” and the New York Times wedding page.
- Timothy Noah for Slate on whether the New York Times wedding section has truly become a meritocracy.
- The number crunching on the odds of getting into the New York Times wedding section.
Endorsements:
Dana’s picks: BBC Radio 4’s podcast Shakespeare’s Restless World.
Julia’s pick: The game Cornhole.
Stephen’s picks: The movie Tommy Boy and the band Chairlift.
Outro: “Bruises" by Chairlift.
You can email us at culturefest@slate.com.
This podcast was produced by Mark Phillips. Our intern is Sally Tamarkin.
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