Science fiction author and MacArthur genius grantee Jonathan Lethem had a stupendous article on copyright and plagiarism in last month's Harper's (be sure to read it right through to the end!).
Now, Siva Vaidhyanathan writes in with the news that, "Tonight on the PRI show 'Radio Open Source,' Christopher Lydon will interview novelist Jonathan Lethem, author Siva Vaidhyanathan, and musicians Mark Hosler (of Negativland) and Mike Doughty (of Soul Coughing) about the politics of plagiarism and originality. — Read the rest
Siva sez, "Jonathan Lethem, author of Fortress of Solitude, Motherless Brooklyn, and a bunch of other great books and stories, has offered some of his stories for remixing and adaptation. Check out the current Harper's Magazine, in which Jonathan copies and pastes together a series of sentences and paragraphs from such notables as Lewis Hyde, Lawrence Lessig, Kembrew McLeod, and Siva Vaidhyanathan to make an argument for Free Culture. — Read the rest
Novelist Jonathan Lethem, author of Fortress of Solitude and avid Brooklynite, has written a stirring open letter to the architect Frank Gehry over plans to create a towering "neighborhood from scratch" in the middle of the low rise, homey buildings of Brooklyn. — Read the rest
NYU Humanities is throwing a copyright symposium with everyone from Larry Lessig to comics giant Art Spiegelman (Maus), McArthur-winning science fiction writer Jonathan Lethem (Fortress of Solitude), Judge Alex Kozinski, Siva Vaidhyanathan and the head of the Andy Warhol Foundation:
A Search for Comity in the Intellectual Property Wars
Friday, April 28 through Sunday, April 30, 2006
Free and open to the public
Jonathan Lethem, an sf writer who has crossed over to mainstream literary cred has just attained a rare honor — receiving the Macarthur "genius" fellowship, which comes with a half-million dollar cash prize. Previous winners of note include Richard Stallman and Octavia Butler. — Read the rest
Jonathan Lethem is a hell of a novelist. Ever since his Gun, With Occassional Music (the inspiration for me inserting a character who's "always self-identified as an ewok" in my most-recent novella), I've been an enormous fan. Now his new book, Fortress of Solitude is out — and Salon has a great feature review of it. — Read the rest
"Welcome to punk rock literary criticism!" says Philip K. Dick scholar David Gill who is launching a new online course starting January 30 all about the strange, prophetic, and influential author of dozens of essential novels including Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Ubik, and A Scanner Darkly. — Read the rest
A wonderful friend began sending me Bob Eckstein's watercolor postcards of famous, still existing, and no longer existing, brick-and-mortar bookstores from across the globe when I was laid up for a few months from an injury last year. Each postcard includes the year the store was opened. — Read the rest
This week on the Cool Tools podcast I interviewed Duane Swierczynski. Duane is an award-winning author of crime novels, comic books, audio dramas and other violent amusements. His story "Lush" was included in last year's Best American Mystery Stories, edited by Jonathan Lethem and Otto Penzler. — Read the rest
For years, it was just about impossible to see a film that Ed Norton didn't have something to do with. Then, just like Kaiser Soze, poof, he was gone. Except now he's back! Given that Norton will wrote, directed and is staring in Motherless Brooklyn, his absence from the big screen is totally understandable—that's a lot of work to shoulder. — Read the rest
The MacArthur Foundation has announced its 2018 Fellows (AKA the "MacArthur Genius Prize winners"), a list of 25 remarkable people from all disciplines, including the incomparable Kelly Link (previously), who joins other science fiction writers who won the prize, including Octavia Butler and Jonathan Lethem. — Read the rest
It's been two years since Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke lost a lawsuit brought by Marvin Gaye's descendants, who argued that their song "Blurred Lines" infringed Gay's 1977 song "Got to Give It To You," not because it copied the music per se, but because it copied its "vibe."
On April 29-30 at Cal State Fullerton, fans, scholars, authors, and artists will celebrate surrealist science fiction author Philip K. Dick with an extravaganza of talks, panels, and exhibits! Special guests include Dr. Ursula Heise, Jonathan Lethem, Tim Powers, and James Blaylock. — Read the rest
It's that time of year again! Welcome to Boing Boing's 2015 Gift Guide, where you'll find toys, books, gadgets and many other splendid ideas to humor and harry your friends and family! Scroll down and buy things, mutants!
It's hard to imagine what contemporary culture would be like without the existence of the comic, graphic novel, and low-brow art publishers Last Gasp, Fantagraphics, and Canada's small press darling, Drawn & Quarterly. In Drawn & Quarterly: Twenty-five Years, D&Q are given their due. — Read the rest
Wink is a site that's dedicated to the unique and glorious qualities of the print book. Similarly, The Thing The Book celebrates all aspects of this amazing medium that revolutionized the world. Created by John Herschend and Will Rogan, the Bay Area artists behind one of my favorite subscription-based art projects, The Thing Quarterly, The Thing The Book gathers together over 30 well-known writers, artists, photographers, and thinkers, and asks them to riff on some traditional element of the book: cover, bookplate, table of contents, footnotes, endnotes, index, endpapers, etc. — Read the rest
The major US writers' group, the Authors Guild, claims to represent all writers when it sues over library book-scanning and other fair uses; a new group, the Authors Alliance, has been launched by leading copyright expert Pam Samuelson to represent the authors who like fair use, users' rights, and who reject censorship and surveillance. — Read the rest
