Listicles, tweets, your ex’s Facebook status, picture of dogs wearing costumes — the internet offers no shortage of entertaining stuff to look at. But there’s plenty of substantial writing out there, too, the pieces you spend a few minutes reading and a long time thinking about after you��ve closed the tab. In this weekly feature, Flavorwire shares the best of that category. This time around: Zadie Smith on J.G. Ballard, southern gothic heavy metal, Lana Del Rey, and more.
“The Eleven Best Metal Songs About Literature” by Ben Apatoff, Electric Literature
Did you know Corrosion of Conformity’s “Wiseblood” took its name from Flannery O’Connor’s first novel? Neither did we.
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“Once Upon a Dream” by Johanna Fateman, The New Inquiry
Ever wonder about the connection between Angelina Jolie and Lana Del Rey? No? Either way, you should read this Johanna Fateman explanation from The New Inquiry‘s Lana Del Rey supplemental issue.
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“On Crash” by Zadie Smith, New York Review of Books
Zadie Smith writing for the New York Review of Books is always something to treasure. This time around, it’s the magazine publishing her foreword to the new edition of Ballard’s Crash.
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“The Bizarre Rise and Fall of the Tiki Bar” by Joseph Flahtery, Wired
Tiki bars were all the rage in post-war America. So why did the trend die out? This piece takes a look at the short history of a weird American trend that we actually wouldn’t mind seeing make a comeback.