Here’s a link to an article which, I’ll readily confess, I’m citing only because I like its opening lines: “Novelists today tend to be pretty bloodless creatures. Look at their bios: They’re mostly workshop professors or M.F.A. hatchlings. They review their peers’ books, sit on grant panels, give readings and interviews, and, during their free time, cook up soft-boiled bores to pay their children’s tuition.”

If you want to read more about Michel Houellebecq, I’d recommend Theo Tait’s fine essay in the London Review of Books. Tait writes: “Houellebecq has established himself as one of the great international brands of popular literary fiction. But there is a great deal of disagreement over whether he’s a genius, a fraud or a reprobate.” Tait argues that, in fact, Houellebecq is all three.

michel-houellebecq-theo-tait

An article in Der Spiegel, on alcohol in Pakistan. “The Politics of Boozing” by Uwe Buse. (Thanks, Robin Khundkar.)

The front line of the struggle against fundamentalism in Pakistan isn’t in the mountainous border regions. It’s in the country’s permit rooms. Alcohol is sold there — and customers dream of the West.

(Charles Bernstein/Photo by Liz Trost)

Here’s an anthem for the universal self-help nation by the very sharp, very funny poet, Charles Bernstein. An excerpt:

Self-Help

Abu Ghraib prisoners tortured. –- Let’s face it, shit happens.

Oscar wins Emmy. –- Award shows are da bomb.

FBI checking your library check-outs. –- I also recommend books on Amazon.

Gay marriages annulled. –- Who needs the state to sanctify our love?

President’s lies kill GIs. –- He’s so decisive about his core values.

Self-help. –- Other drowns.