TOP 100 BOOK SITES
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| Stephen King publishes poem in Playboy The Bone Church, a narrative work about an ill-fated jungle expedition, appears in November editionMarge Simpson's appearance as its cover girl has attracted a frenzy of media attention, but this month's edition of Playboy magazine contains another, almost equally unexpected celebrity appearance: from author Stephen King, making a very rare outing as a poet."When travelling to the heart of darkness, terror is not an emotion β it's a destination," writes King in the issue, out now, before launching into The Bone Church. Told by a man in a bar, the poem is the story of an ill-fated expedition into a jungle. "There were thirty-two of us went into that greensore / and only three who rose above it," writes King. "We were thirty days in the green, and only one of us came out."The team is killed off, variously, by snakes, leeches ("Dorrance tried to kiss him back to life / and sucked from his throat a leech as big as / a hothouse tomato") and fevers, until three finally arrive at the bone church, "a million years of bone and tusk, / a whited sepulchre of eternity, a thrashpit of prongs / such as you'd see if hell burned dry to the slag of its cauldron". Things, unsurprisingly enough, don't end well, as "mammoths from the dead age when man / was not" start to thunder past in "endless convulsions of tumbling death".Playboy has a perhaps surprisingly strong literary background, publishing works by authors including John Irving, John Updike, Vladimir Nabokov and Margaret Atwood. This summer, literary editor Amy Grace Loyd acquired first serial rights in Vladimir Nabokov's final, unfinished novel TheOriginal of Laura for its December issue. It has also enjoyed a lengthy relationship with King, interviewing the author back in 1983."The protagonist of Salem's Lot, a struggling young author with a resemblance to his creator, confesses at one point, 'Sometimes when I'm lying in bed at night, I make up a Playboy Interview about me. Waste of time. They only do authors if their books are big on campus.' Ten novels and several million dollars in the bank later, your books are big on campus and everywhere else," the interviewer said to King.The author replied that the passage reflected his state of mind in the days before he sold his first book, Carrie, when nothing seemed to be going right. "When I couldn't sleep, in that black hole of the night when all your doubts and fears and insecurities surge in at you, snarling, from the dark β what the Scandinavians call the wolf hour β I used to lie in bed alternately wondering if I shouldn't throw in the creative towel and spinning out masturbatory wish fulfilment fantasies in which I was a successful and respected author. And that's where my imaginary Playboy interview came in," he said.King's fans have been steeling themselves to buy the new issue of the magazine. "Since I have never purchased a magazine of this calibre in my life, my wife was kind enough to purchase me a copy. She knew I would feel like a perv when paying for it and was kind enough to spare me," wrote one at StephenKing.com. "I just hope Marge's pictures aren't too explicit or my wife might not let me get the issue," said another.Fans will perhaps feel less awkward buying the 9 November issue of New Yorker, out this week, which features a new short story by King. Set in Castle Rock β a frequent haunt for King's characters β Premium Harmony is the story of the unhappy ending to an arguing couple's trip to buy a purple ball.And the prolific author's new novel, Under the Dome β a 900-page epic he first tried to write in the 1980s β is published next week on 10 November. With a cast of more than 100 characters, Under the Dome tells of a Maine town sealed off from the world by an invisible force field.Stephen KingScience fiction, fantasy and horrorPoetryAlison Floodguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds feeds.guardian.co.uk |
Palin launches book tour in Michigan Sarah Palin launched her book tour here Wednesday in what her fans hope will be the first stop of the 2012 presidential contest. rssfeeds.usatoday.com |
Paperback Trade Fiction Top 5 at a Glance1. PUSH, by Sapphire2. THE PIANO TEACHER, by Janice Y.K. Lee3. THE SHACK, by William P. Young4. THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, by Stieg Larsson5. BED OF ROSES, by Nora Roberts feeds.nytimes.com |
Beatrix Potter classics get revamped TV animation deal Chorion's reworked TV cartoon series featuring Peter Rabbit and Jemima Puddle-Duck will hit the screens in 2011Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddle-Duck and their friends are getting a 21st-century makeover for a new TV animation series in a deal aimed at winning over a new audience of young fans for Beatrix Potter.Potter's publisher Frederick Warne and its licensing agent Chorion plan to update the characters from the writer's original little white books for a series set to hit screens around the world in 2011."Our aim will be to introduce Beatrix Potter to a new generation of children and make her characters as loved today as they have been in the past," said Chorion chairman Waheed Alli."At the moment they are the top end. So posh people buy them in America and posh to middle class people buy them here. Our job is to take them from the high end to allow all children to buy into it. It's about democratising the brand."The company behind Mr Men, Noddy and The Very Hungry Caterpillar has enjoyed rising sales during the economic downturn, putting much of the success down to parents returning to brands they know. Alli believes Potter's characters will tap into that trend particularly well. "Parents want to see the things they grew up with in the hands of their kids."In the new series, Peter Rabbit will remain the central character in a cast that will return to what Alli calls the "bolder palette" of Potter's early drawings. The likes of Tom Kitten will retain their mischievous personalities but the storylines will be new and "appropriate" for the next generation."Peter Rabbit's father being caught by the farmer and being baked into a pie is not going to be our first episode. We'll be skipping over some chapters," said Alli.Penned as a letter in 1893, The Tale of Peter Rabbit book has never been out of print and Potter's titles still sell at a rate of four per minute. Potter merchandise is also big business and The World of Beatrix Potter licensed property rakes in $300m (Β£186m) in global sales every year. Peter even has his own website and can be followed on social networking site Twitter.A raft of new merchandise based around Peter and other Potter favourites such as Benjamin Bunny and Mr. Jeremy Fisher will be developed by Penguin-owned Frederick Warne Chorion and is likely go on sale in spring 2012, once the TV show has become established. Alli said Chorion was mindful of the fact his company was "guardian" rather than owner of all the characters in its portfolio, which also includes Paddington Bear and Miss Marple.Waheed AlliPublishingThe news on TVAnimationChildren's TVKatie Allenguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds feeds.guardian.co.uk |
Is William Blake Britain's best artist? | Jonathan Jones We might not boast a Titian, Rembrandt or Picasso - but we do have William Blake. The Tate's recent purchase of the artist's work is a blessing for the nationIt is wonderful that eight newly discovered works of art by William Blake have been purchased by Tate Britain. Wonderful, just, and heartwarming, because Blake is an artist who does not always get his due. Loving Blake is natural when you're a teenager. Some people turn against him later on and see him as a hamfisted draughtsman, a Hanoverian hippy. In reality Blake is the essential British artist. He is the only one we have ever produced who really captures the national genius. This is because he was a writer as well as an artist β and the English language is Britain's true cultural achievement. We are not, repeat not, a nation of artists. The lack of great artists in our history is hilarious when you set it aside most other European nations. We have no Titian, Rembrandt or Picasso. We don't even have a Dali. But we do have William Blake.It is the conceptual quality of Blake's art that raises it above the run of British visual achievement. In a work such as The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, his illumination of his own words is like a fire of free throught blazing on the paper. In his sweet decorations for his Songs of Innocence and Experience we glimpse the lineaments of a lost folk art. In the powerful and intense hand-coloured prints now purchased by Tate, we see how real colouristic brilliance, as well as a magnificent graphic boldness, enabled Blake to impose his unique vision on history. Blake walked among angels and saw with their eyes. His rapturous mind lives on through these magnificent works. What a gain for the nation.William BlakePaintingTate BritainJonathan Jonesguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds feeds.guardian.co.uk |