Here’s how Jen Chaney, the Washington Post’s movies editor, views the vampire phenomenon:
“My generalized guess is that there is an element of fantasy escapism here that is really appealing to people. And there may be a joining-the-crowd element as well. If you got into the books, then realized a close friend also was secretly reading them as well, I bet you started chattering about them like crazy. Then ‘Twilight’ became something the two of you always talked about, which made you share things you saw on the Internet with your friend, which made you want to find even more Twilight-related things on the Internet, which then made you join a Twilight Facebook group and … well, you see where this is going. Next thing you know, your whole life has gone by.”
Okay, so maybe that’s not the total explanation, but it’s not too shabby an attempt.
You can find WP critic Chaney and readers further discussing vampires, “New Moon” and “Twilight” here.
POPS
A Life of Louis Armstrong
By Terry Teachout
Illustrated. 475 pages.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. $30.
Today, the NYT reviewed a new biography of legendary musician Louis Armstrong: “With ‘Pops,’ his eloquent and important new biography of Armstrong, the critic and cultural historian Terry Teachout restores this jazzman to his deserved place in the pantheon of American artists, building upon Gary Giddins’s excellent 1988 study, ‘Satchmo: The Genius of Louis Armstrong,’ and offering a stern rebuttal of James Lincoln Collier’s patronizing 1983 book, ‘Louis Armstrong: An American Genius.’”
After the highly publicized beating death of a Chicago teenager in September, Attorney General Eric Holder and Education Secretary Arne Duncan visited the city and called for a national conversation on youth violence.
More than a month later, Chicagoans are talking. Some teens are spending long hours strategizing about how to stop violence, but still others voice frustration over the attacks that remain a constant in their lives.
Join us at Mighty Writers for a presentation and book signing with acclaimed author and Philadelphia native Solomon Jones. Solomon will be talking about his writing career and reading from his short story collection, Keeping Up With The Jones: marriage, family and life … unplugged.
Solomon is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Payback: The Return of C.R.E.A.M.,C.R.E.A.M., Ride Or Die, The Bridge, and Pipe Dream. He also writes the Weekend Warrior column for the Philadelphia Daily News.
Solomon has been published in Newsday, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Magazine, Philadelphia Weekly and The Philadelphia Tribune. An adjunct professor at Temple University’s College of Liberal Arts, Solomon lives in Philadelphia with his family.
After the highly publicized beating death of a Chicago teenager in September, Attorney General Eric Holder and Education Secretary Arne Duncan visited the city and called for a national conversation on youth violence.
