Notes from the Middleground: On Ben Marcus, Jonathan Franzen, and the Contemporary Fiction Combine
Davis SchneidermanDavis Schneiderman revisits the non-debate between Jonathan Franzen and Ben Marcus, touches on recent flare-ups in the American Book Review and the NOW WHAT blog, and reflects on the economy of book jacket blurbs.
Blank Frank
Joseph TabbiThis review of Ralph Berry's novel Frank and the subsequent exchange between the authors, appeared in the March/April 2006 and July/August 2006 issues of The American Book Review.
Free Culture and Our Public Needs
Francis RavenFrancis Raven reviews Lawrence Lessig's Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity.
Free as in Free Culture: A Response to Francis Raven
Benjamin J. RobertsonBenjamin J. Robertson responds to Francis Raven's review of Lessig's Free Culture. Writing against Raven, he outlines the ways in which Lessig's work is crucial for our current cultural moment.
Of the Cliché and the Everyday
Christopher LeiseChristopher Leise reviews Kenneth Bernard's The Man in the Stretcher and Richard Kalich's Charlie P, a work that is as much interested in the idea of the novel as it is a novel of ideas.
The Importance of Being Narratological
David CiccoriccoDave Ciccoricco responds to Luc Herman and Bart Vervaeck.
Virtual Realism
Luc HermanLuc Herman and Bart Vervaeck review Marie Laure-Ryan's Narrative as Virtual Reality: Immersion and Interactivity in Literature and Electronic Media. They review the essential characteristics of hypertext to suggest more nuanced ways to understand realism in relation to virtual reality.