Treehouse

compiled by Rachel Bondurant

First off, a hearty thanks to Michael Chaney for mentioning us on his blog. We published his piece “Futility Company” last winter and immediately followed it with his highly unique addition to our 5 Things series, which he goes out of his way to praise.

Slate just blogged about introverts and why they’re so awesome (according to the Internet, at least). I’m including this almost exclusively so I can also mention the hilarious and not-at-all uncharacteristic response in defense of extroverts.

Equally hilarious are these notes from William T. Vollmann’s FBI file, amassed during the time period he was suspected of being the Unabomber. To be fair, the FBI had this overwhelmingly compelling evidence from which to draw their conclusions: both Vollmann and the Unabomber counted their written works by word (Hey, they both write and that’s a writer thing!); they both dislike the idea of editing their work (Such unconscionable hubris – only these two individuals could have the gall to think such things!); and Vollmann may or may not own a flamethrower (Oh, well, um, fair point, FBI). I’m sold. I think we can call this one.

This is probably the best argument for the humanities I’ve heard yet.

This week I’m recommending you read the work of a former contributor of ours: Michael Landweber. He has a novel coming out September 1st called We that, sight unseen, looks completely worthy of reading and recommending (I’ll be ordering it from Amazon). And if you don’t believe me, read his story “Climate Change” which we published with pleasure this past February. We were right about that one, weren’t we?