The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Gunner

The omnipresence of drones in the world’s skies—haunting Afghanistan, hovering over Yemen, delivering your tacos—has lately found its equivalent in world culture and art. Thinkers and creators in many genres have been wrestling with the unsettling implications of this new aerial technology, with its pilotless cockpits and all-seeing eyes. The French philosopher Grégoire Chamayou’s A Theory of the Drone, published last year and recently translated into English—you can read a four-chapter excerpt here—is an unabashedly polemical investigation of the historical, geopolitical, and ethical questions raised by remote-controlled high-tech war. (Chamayou has in turn been criticized, in articles nearly as linguistically dense as A Theory of the Drone itself, for things like stacking the evidentiary deck in his own favor and romanticizing the myth of the boots-on-the-ground “noble soldier.”) In a much-reproduced series of tweets billed as “seven short stories about drones,” the novelist Teju Cole mordantly imagined seven great protagonists of world literature destroyed by fire from the sky before their stories could even begin. At New York’s Public Theater, Anne Hathaway is starring in Grounded, a one-woman show directed by Julie Taymor in which Hathaway plays an alienated former F-16 pilot going slowly insane as she wages remote-controlled war in Afghanistan from in front of a screen in Nevada. Slate’s war correspondent Fred Kaplan recently wrote of Grounded: “As drama, it’s... Continue reading at 'Slate'

[ Slate | 2015-05-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
News tagged with: #public theater #anne hathaway

Other Publishing stories related to: 'The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Gunner'


Don’t count on the Dodgers’ flirtation with Bryce Harper to end up in a long-term deal

The timing was perfect and the symbolism entirely appropriate: a Brinks truck pulling into the parking lot of the Dodgers’ spring training facility soon after team executives returned from a meeting in Las Vegas with free agent Bryce Harper. The question the Dodgers have to answer isn’t whether... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2019-02-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #bryce harper #parking lot #las vegas


24-hour pre-empt from Sceptre for loneliness book

Sceptre has pre-empted economist Noreena Hertz’s “game-changing” book, The Lonely Century: How Isolation Imperils our Future, within 24 hours of submission Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-01-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #24-hour pre-empt


It hasn't taken long for USC sprinter Twanisha Terry to become elite

The notebook is red, with the word “elite” printed across the front in black. It is here where USC sophomore sprinter Twanisha Terry records her goals like a checklist. When she arrived at USC the summer before her freshman year, Terry looked up school records for each event she runs and wrote... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2019-01-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Why Books Matter for the Long Run

Book publishing is a business and increasingly a technical one, but at its heart it is an art, writes Peter J. Dougherty from Princeton University Press in this opinion piece. Continue reading at Knowledge@Wharton

[ Knowledge@Wharton | 2018-12-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #long run #book publishing #opinion piece


Move from iconic Long Acre flagship will put Stanfords on the map, Godfrey says

The new c.e.o. of the venerable 165-year-old travel specialist says the move from its Covent Garden home is an opportunity to realign the business to the modern-day physical retail landscape. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-11-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, Long-Serving Times Book Critic, Dies at 84

Christopher Lehmann-Haupt in 1979. Readers and colleagues called him a judicious, authoritative voice on fiction and a seemingly boundless array of subjects, from Persian archaeology to fly fishing. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2018-11-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Long, hot summer proves good for books

Despite the heatwave and the World Cup in Russia, the UK print market sold 42 million books for £344.2m between the first week of June and the third week of August, via Nielsen BookScan's TCM. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-09-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #world cup #nielsen bookscan


Kelley's 'long lost classic' scooped by Quercus after seven-way auction

Quercus has given all staff the day off to read William Melville Kelley's "important and impactful" novel A Different Drummer, recently acquired by the publisher in a seven-way auction. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-08-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #recently acquired


The English patient: bestseller Jin Yong’s long wait for English-language publication

It has been a long road to publication in the English language for Jin Yong, one of China’s most renowned writers, whose footprint on the nation’s cultural landscape is vast. But it may prove to have been worth the wait... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-08-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #long wait #english patient #long road #english language #cultural landscape


So long and thanks for all the clicks | Dean Burnett

After six years exactly, Dean Burnett’s Brain Flapping blog is coming to an end. It’s been emotionalOn 31 July, 2012, the very first Brain Flapping post appeared on the Guardian website. Exactly six years to the day later, here’s the very last one.To confirm, the Guardian is shutting down the... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2018-07-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #guardian website #day job #book deals


Porochista Khakpour's long struggle with being 'Sick'

The path to Porochista Khakpour’s memoir “Sick” was not easy. The book, about her long battle with Lyme disease, was delayed after she was in a car crash that left her with a brain injury – and then a Lyme relapse. After these events, she decided to change the focus of what she calls a “miracle... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2018-06-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #porochista khakpour #long struggle #long battle #car crash


Books: Rachel Cusk, the long literary life of the Replacements and more book news

Hi, all! Carolyn Kellogg, books editor here, back from a trip to Helsinki, Stockholm and Paris with the not-at-all groundbreaking news that these are delightful cities. Yes, I shopped at Paris’ Shakespeare and Company, but not enough — when decided I needed to return for more books, I couldn’t... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2018-06-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #books editor #rachel cusk #book news #carolyn kellogg


Long scoops Welsh children’s literature award

YA author Hayley Long has won the Tir na n-Og Children’s Literature Award for The Nearest Faraway Place (Hot Key Books). Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-05-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #literature award


BIEF’s Nicolas Roche on French Publishing in the World: ‘Meetings All Year Long’

About six months into his new role as managing director of the Bureau international de l'édition française, or BIEF, Nicolas Roche is leading the French publishing industry's outreach program to open new markets and develop new readership for France's literature. The post BIEF’s Nicolas Roche on... Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2018-04-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #french publishing #year long


Kendrick Lamar’s work has long alluded to other Pulitzer Prize winners

Kendrick Lamar’s achievement as the first rapper to win a Pulitzer Prize for music is an epochal achievement in hip-hop, and in Pulitzer history for acknowledging the genre’s importance in American cultural life. But there is some precedent and narrative behind this particular award. It’s not the... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2018-04-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #kendrick lamar #pulitzer prize


The Rundown: Google AMP has short-term appeal but potential long-term costs

Publishers, still smarting from blows inflicted by Facebook and its ever-changing news feed, have found some comfort in the warm embrace of Google. The post The Rundown: Google AMP has short-term appeal but potential long-term costs appeared first on Digiday. Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2018-04-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #google amp


Long Bright is right for Hutchinson

Hutchinson has splashed out a six-figure sum for UK and Commonwealth rights to 2014 Rome Prize in Literature recipient Liz Moore’s "gritty, compelling, cleverly constructed novel" Long Bright River. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-04-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #six-figure sum


Publishing in the Baltic Region 2018: Long Live #IAmIntrovert!

Latvia's quirky campaign to promote its writers has attracted a following of fans. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-03-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


The long-suffering news business keeps getting big promises from Big Tech

With Google under pressure to clamp down on YouTube conspiracies and low-quality clickbait, the search giant is launching a major new effort aimed at strengthening its relationship with news publishers–and perhaps keeping them from going under. At an event in New York today, the company... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2018-03-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #search giant #news publishers #company announced #digital age


Joan Silber, Frances FitzGerald, Layli Long Soldier Among NBCC Winners

Joan Silber won the fiction prize, Frances Fitzgerald won the nonfiction award, Layli Long Soldier won the poetry award and John McPhee was awarded the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award at the NBCC's award ceremony. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-03-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #frances fitzgerald #fiction prize #nonfiction award #poetry award #award ceremony