July 2009 Archives

In a recent Slate article, Grady Hendrix argues that vampires in contemporary literature and mass media seem even paler than usual.  What was once portrayed as a bloodthirsty -- and even evil -- creature (largely in part to Bram Stoker) is now a "brooding, crying-on-the-inside, leather-jacketed emo boy" who no longer always shuns sunlight, but most definitely shuns human blood. 

Pointing a finger at Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Angel and Twilight's Edward Cullen, Hendrix claims that this growing "sensitive-vampire industry" may send teens, especially young women, conflicting messages about gender roles, sex, and relationships.

In his Slate article, Jonah Weiner argues that three things have helped spur on the "music-mag death march":

1. The shrinking pool of monolithic stars
2. The professional music critic's demise in status
   
3. The increased use of social networking media to distribute and comment on music and music movements
   

This year celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of the audacious "little book," The Elements of Style. 

Noted linguist and grammarian Geoffrey Pullum wrote a pretty scathing review of the book in the Chronicle of Higher Education, needling away at Strunk's more ambiguous, if not downright inaccurate, directives which have caused "grammatical angst" for college students and graduates for decades. Subsequently, Pullum contends that

English syntax is a deep and interesting subject. It is much too important to be reduced to a bunch of trivial don't-do-this prescriptions by a pair of idiosyncratic bumblers who can't even tell when they've broken their own misbegotten rules.

Mignon Fogarty, aka Grammar Girl, highlighted her own beef with Strunk & White, noting that the little book is "the only grammar book so many people have ever studied."  And because of this, those prickly stylistic suggestions have taken on the vaunted status of hard-and-fast rules.  How true! 

I was introduced to Strunk & White in my high school composition classes.  Days were set aside where the class broke into small groups and completed handouts devoted to sections of the book.  I remember having to revise sentences according to the "rules of usage" and "principles of composition," as well as explain why "effect" was preferred over "affect."  I wasn't seriously introduced to another grammar book until graduate school when I had to use Lunsford & Connors' The Everyday Writer in the freshmen composition courses I taught.  Yet, by that time, Strunk & White's recommendations were what I knew and thought to be true.

I'm left wondering how much exposure today's college students have in terms of grammar books.  A quick glance in my library's reference collection reveals citation style manuals galore (MLA, APA, Chicago, Turabian, AMA, etc.) but few grammars.  Two that did catch my eye: Strunk & White's The Elements of Style (4th ed.) and Shertzer's The Elements of Grammar.   

Quirk Books, the publisher of this year's surprise hit Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, has announced that the new title in its series will be Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, to be published on September 15th.

In this mash-up, the Dashwood sisters battle giant lobsters, rampaging octopi, two-headed serpents, and other ferocious sea monsters as they set out on their quest for love.  Check out the book trailer below.

Other publishers are also joining in on the seeming literary mayhem: Orion plans to publish I am Scrooge: A Zombie Story for Christmas this autumn.

As a follow-up to my earlier post, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies has sold over 50,000 copies in the UK and 600,000 in the US since its publication in April.

More than 1,500 historic TV commercials from the Duke University Special Collections Library are available on iTunes U in a collection called “AdViews.”

The commercials span across the past 60 years (most are from the 1950s and 1960s) and pitch everything from shampoo and toys to dog food and coffee. New York ad agency D’Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles (DMB&B) originally produced the ads for iconic American companies such as General Foods, Texaco and Kraft.

The AdViews collection of commercials shows not only what products Americans have bought through the decades, but also tracks changes in advertising strategies.

Amidst the books and scholarly journals, the library has a growing comics and graphic novels collection.  From Neil Gaiman's Sandman series and the Hernandez brothers' Love and Rockets stories to the history of comics, there's something for everyone to enjoy.

Fans of the genre can find comics, graphic novels, and manga located in the Leisure Reading Collection as well as the New Books areas.  Even more are tucked away on the third floor of Paley Library in the PN 6700 call number area.

Search online for titles using Diamond.  Try a keyword or genre heading search using terms like "graphic novels" or "comic books, strips, etc."

Film versions for many titles can also be found in Media Services.

Happy Reading!