The biggest news in the book of the week
Here are the titles that have defined the week in the news of the book….
Amazon “accidentally” provides for the book sales event at the same time as the independent day of the bookstore
This Saturday was the day independent of the bookstore, a really fun day to be a book person with access and affinity for an independent bookstore. On April 15, Amazon announced a “weekly book” event that included on the 26th. Several people were not satisfied with this. And I can understand why of course. Amazon says it was involuntary, although of course, if you are an independent bookstore, it sounds pretty hollow. So it was intentional … or that was not the case. In my opinion, or a bad look for Amazon: either they are not the optics that would be bad and just wanted to flex anyway, or he did not understand that the optics would be bad. (The Machiavellian move would have been to have it the week before the day independent of the bookstore to advance all the marginal dollars of purchasing books and affirm: “We did not want to harm India!”).
Christie Estate authorizes Ai Deepfake of the Crime Queen to teach a class on writing
I don’t think, friends. I am not a person never, and I am not a maximalist “yes do everything” either. So I tend to judge use by use and project by project, and this fits outright in the….I don’t want that. It seems to have been with as much care and attention as possible, but have versions of reality reality of real people and do things that they have not said or do not do like that does not seem cool or fun or even particularly interesting. Whether Ian Malcolm.
New letter of snape signs in support of trans rights
Only a few days after John Lithgow expressed his astonishment that anyone wonders if supporting the work of JK Rowling tacitly (at least) also means tolerating (at least) his opinions on trans people, Paape Essiedu, who was presented as Severus Snape in the new production of HBO, joined hundreds of others to sign an open letter to the film and television industry supporting the rights and identity of trans persons and reprimand the Decision of April 17 of the British Supreme Court. I hope that the producers and the powers in place allowed at least that the members of the distribution express their point of view on the issue. Not only is it the right thing to do, but any pressure to soften or silence gestures like this will arouse a real backlash (which could occur anyway).
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The Mellon Foundation announces emergency funding for state councils in the humanities
It is What foundations should do right now. So many people feel helpless and the extent of these excesses of administration is indeed overwhelming. But there is a lot of money on the sidelines and money can do things! It is not because you cannot take ice cream or bring ROE that your targeted marginal dollar cannot support something that is important to you. I wonder if the extremely deep pockets in places like the Ford Foundation could examine extraordinary efforts to support artistic organizations on the ground like this. The atmosphere is less “yes more macArthurs!” And more “protecting local libraries with your body” and maybe dollars could be best spending differently for a while.
John Lithgow surprised by Dumbledore Casting Blowback
The casting of John Lithgow as Albus Dumbledore is probably the fourth most important role in the restart of Harry Potter by HBO. And Lithgow himself said that when the news announced that it will not only be the last major role it plays, but will probably be the first line of its biography from now on. One thing he has not predicted Was not everyone would be happy to see him play the role. Danika Ellis wrote this open letter to Lithgow, the exhortant to reconsider, considering how the Harry Potter franchise is now with JK Rowling Transphobic public comments in progress. This letter apparently returned to Lithgow himself, via a friend with a trans child, and rather than reflecting or even conceding that he could understand this point, he replied:
