Miscellanea #19

A continuing series of noteworthy tidbits gleaned from all over.

Sad news from Santa Monica:
The recently reopened Midnight Special bookstore is shutting its doors. For good…. (CaliforniaAuthors.com/CaliforniaWriters.com)

Homer vs Hollywood
What may surprise is that the oldest author in Western literature, Homer, was way ahead of Hollywood. Of all the great writers, Homer was perhaps the most cinematic. He writes like a movie camera: Written details play in our minds as if we were seeing them on a screen. In Homer’s Iliad, when the Trojan warrior Hector has killed one of his Achaean (Greek) enemies, he ‘planted a heel against Patroclus’ chest, wrenched his bronze spear from the wound, kicked him over flat on his back.’ That’s cinematic…. (Arts and Letters Daily - ideas, criticism, debate)

They’re young, they’re hip, they…garden
The New York Times House & Home Section reports breathlessly on ‘a certain segment of culturally plugged-in urban 20-somethings and early-30-somethings’ who like growing plants…. (WorldChanging)

Slanted book festival ?
In the National Review Andrew Leigh writes about the City of Liberals, wondering: Where are all the conservative writers? He apparently had great trouble finding any at the recent Los Angeles Times Festival of Books…. (the Literary Saloon)

The ‘English disease’
Arts: Bob Dylan hated nostalgia. Dennis Potter called it dangerous. Yet the charts show that we can’t stop looking back. Gordon Burn investigates. (Guardian Unlimited)

‘End of Oil’ Author Paul Roberts
The demand for oil increases each year, but the supply is not inexhaustible. Experts predict that within 30 years our oil energy sources will be depleted. In his book, The End of Oil: On the Edge of a Perilous New World, Roberts looks at the implications for the world in terms of the economy, politics and the environment, and what alternatives exist for oil. Roberts writes about the energy industry for Harper’s magazine and for other national publications. (Fresh Air)