literary
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Apple may become the new sponsor of the UK's Orange Prize for Fiction
The Orange Prize for Fiction is a prestigious literary award in the UK that goes to one outstanding female writer every year. Until this past May the award, officially called the Women's Prize for Fiction, has been sponsored by UK telecoms provider Orange. However, after T-Mobile's merger with Orange earlier this year, the company decided to drop its sponsorship of the prize. Now, according to The Sunday Telegraph, Apple is looking to take over sponsorship of the literary award. The Telegraph story points out that UK sponsorship by Apple is a rare thing. The Cupertino company has only lent its "iTunes" name to a music festival and an iTV2 music show. But the paper speculates that Apple's presumed interest in the literary prize is to drum up more interest in reading ebooks from its iBookstore. In fact, instead of just switching fruit names from Orange to Apple, should it win the sponsorship, Apple might forgo the "Apple Prize for Fiction" name all together and could presumably call it the "iBooks Prize for Fiction." The company could then also promote the prize through the iBookstore. The Sunday Telegraph doesn't provide many more details besides their sources confirming that "Apple has had talks with the award organisers" and that also "a number of companies, including Kobo, the ebook producer, had also indicated their interest but that discussions with Apple were the most advanced." The Orange Prize for Fiction originated in 1996. You can see a full list of winners here.
Wolfram Alpha now does literary analysis, breaks down the Bard's work
Literary geeks rejoice! Wolfram Alpha has given you the tools to examine the works of William Shakespeare in ways you've never cared to imagined. Ever wondered how many words are in the second act of Othello? Or what the longest word is in A Midsummer Night's Dream? The answers to such (largely unasked) queries are now mere keystrokes away, and not just for the Bard's writings, either. That's right, folks, computational analysis of the works from such luminaries as Melville, Dickens, and Twain are on tap, too. The folks at Wolfram Alpha are also looking to increase the number of supported titles, so head on down to the source link and let them know which ones you want to see.
Brooklyn theater putting on plays inspired by video games
Just because we're video game fans here at Joystiq doesn't mean we don't appreciate the more classical forms of art -- as long as they're related to video games, that is. Like this series of shows at the Brick Theater in Brooklyn, NY, for example. It's a whole month of some quality live drama, all driven and influenced by video games. There's Grand Theft Ovid, which tells some of the Roman poet's tales using everyone's favorite carjack simulator (along with a few other popular games). Modal Kombat features a set of guitar controllers that are used to play non-music games. The best, though, might be the Theater of the Arcade, which takes old games like Duck Hunt and Donkey Kong and presents them, re-imagined, as short theatrical vignettes. O Mario, Mario, wherefore art thou? The shows are going on at the Brick through the rest of July. Performances are just $15, plus there's also a Rock Band Karaoke night and a few other game-related events sprinkled throughout the run. If your significant other is complaining that you're spending too many nights in front of the TV and not enough out enjoying the arts, this seems like a perfect compromise. [Thanks, Edward!]
Forum Post of the Day: Great Warrior literature
This thread, sent to us by reader Talmar (thanks!) is probably the best QQ thread I've ever read. Not because it's full of substantive criticism about the class, but just because it's got lots of references meant for literary nerds like me. The styles of Kafka, Shakespeare, Camus, Wilde, and Douglas Adams (who fits in that crowd, right?) all make appearances as players combine old literary quotes with the plight of Fury Warriors.And when Pynchon shows up on page 3, then the rails really go off the tracks. But it is a lot of fun. Because if you're going to QQ, you might as well do it in style, right?"Ghostcrawler believed in the perfect Fury build, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter -- tomorrow we will run faster, stretch our arms our further... And one fine morning --So we grind on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."
