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One writer, fantasy author N.K.
Below, six dispatches from the deckled edge.
Meaning to call out all the misogyny of dead white men (T.S.
Three of the four event judges were women novelist Tayari Jones, comedy writer Christine Nangle, performerNatalie Walker.
(The other, looking a bit bemused, was Comedy Central starJordan Klepper.)
(After the show,she tweeted: Rape jokes are never funny.
I can never just let it go.)
Later, Walker had her own stumble, confusing Aretha Franklin and Patti LaBelle.
Walker latertweetedout her abject embarrassment.
All in all it was a rocky (though rollicking) show.
Weve witnessed a mass extinction of book reviews, Garner said.
It used to be a new book would get 90 reviews.
Then it was 14 or 15.
Now its more like three or four.
It makes it harder to be idiosyncratic, Sehgal said.
The loss of critical language is a blunting of the senses.
Sehgal also bemoaned the lack of experimentation in literary fiction, but citedJenny OffillsDept.
of Speculationas an exception.
Garner praised other examples of the new generation of autofiction as a fresh way of telling stories.
(Though he also gave a one-word preview of hisreviewof Karl Ove Knausgaards lastMy Strugglebook: life-sucking.)
Its not just the reviews that these critics miss, but also the readers.
I miss seeing people read books on the subway, Garner said.
Now everyones on their phone.
I hadnt seen that in a while.
Theyliketo see people get killed!
Myles, the feminist poet and the mystic of the group, called dogs a doorway to the afterlife.
In Myless memoirAfterglow, Rosie gets credit for much of the poets work.
Myles explained: She literally took me places I would not have gone.
Theyd go out for a walk with a pen and notebook.
She amplified and amended my surroundings.
Maybe we should stop eating bacon and start writing pig fiction.
Has Myles heard of E.B.
James Baldwin Sexist?
Egan delivered insights on her (outline-less!
Her latest novel,An American Marriage, centers on a couple tested by the mans wrongful 12-year incarceration.
Its not surprising that that book was written by a man, is it?
The woman inBeale Streetis kind of … support staffy, she said.
She doesnt have a lot of textual independence.
Joness book has itself been a little polarizing.
People expected this story to be about one womans brave struggle to free her man, she said.
One book club in L.A. literally came to blows.
I was like, Ladies, ladies.
What Do We Do With All These Men?
Also on the dais wereTimesmovie critic A.O.
Scott, producer Tanya Selvaratnam, and New Museum research fellow Maggie Mustard.
(He was compared to Stalin for writing the piece.)
The panel had a lot to say about recent dilemmas, of course.
She advocated for something in between.
But much of the talk focused on the comebacks of alleged offenders, from Louis C.K.
at the Comedy Cellar to John Hockenberry and Jian Ghomeshi in distinguished magazines last week.
So what is to be done?
Maybe its a start.
But Seriously, What Do We Do With All These Men?
Building her dystopia,Zumas looked no further than actual bills supported byMike Penceand Paul Ryan.
The most notable: a Personhood amendment to the Constitution that would outlaw abortion.
(Another proposed law would only allow straight married couples to adopt children.)
I initially thought these were fringe ideas, Zumas said.
She was so depressed after Trumps election that she had to stop working on the book.
Tamblyn, too, took a break from writing after the election.
The result, inAny Man, is a monstrous predator.
I hope the book re-centers the conversation, Tamblyn said, and de-genders readers.
In trying to help, a lot of well-meaning white people add to the problem, she said.
Meanwhile, Kavanaugh lies in wait.
