lit randomness: hobart, christopher miller, china underground & more

We try to do Lit Randomness every Mon. and Wed. Persistence in randomly set dates is a virtue!
NEW WEBSITE=6 DAYS

Games Issue: At Hobart.
If you haven’t checked out the bonus material for Hobart’s Game Issue, it’s a damn-fine treat, perhaps a blessing that’s not in disguise, but right there out in the open. Pieces on Ninja Hunter, Magic the Gathering and less nerdy stuff too, if that’s stuff is nerdy. Hobart is awesome as always.

Fav. fiction about authors, by an author (Christopher Miller) who has a fictional book (Cardboard Universe) coming out about an author: At Conversational Reading.

China Underground Intro by Zachary Mexico: At Pop Matters.
Looks promising. Soon to be out from Pop Matters/Soft Skull

Bookshop conversation about Word in Brooklyn: At Bookslut Blog.

a declaration, a rant: Newspapers have had the longest wake ever

The other night I watched the movie The Paper for the first time. It’s by Ron Howard, so there is some sap squeezed from the tree as the lead character played Michael Keaton fights for truth in a world only concerned with bottom lines and he makes his child’s birth despite his wife’s doubts about his priorities. I’m not as concerned about the narrative tension as the moment in time. It’s 1994. Only a couple of people in the movie have cellphones. Layout is done on the computer, but there is no Internet. And in a moment of pure nostalgia from the 2009 vantage point, Glenn Close, playing a harried newspaper exec, exclaims–“I only have 350 (reporters) when the Daily News has 700!” Oh, the tragedy. 15 years later and a staff of 350 is the luxury and 50 (or less) is the norm for standard newsroom procedure.

What I’m writing has been written a million times before but only by other newspaper people–the newspaper is dying and they’ve had the longest wake ever. Except no one cares. Their death has been extended and exaggerated by worried columnists who’ll freak if their stuff isn’t printed on paper but instead read by thousands more on a computer screen. Jack Shafer in a Slate piece yesterday writes about the New York strike in the 60s and uncovers that while newspapers were desired, other media stepped into the void. We’ve already seen that happen, especially as newspapers missed their cultural moment to adapt and survive. More after the jump…