Booksology Welcome to Today in Books. A daily roundup of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.
In search of the world’s oldest story
Long read time: inches new yorkerManvir Singh shows how scholars are reconstructing lost myths through linguistic fragments across continents and cultures. The collective effort and depth of knowledge required to do this kind of linguistic anthropology is truly amazing. It got me thinking about how this work is done for its own sake. The goal is not to produce something for a Series A funding round or something that will be sold as a Netflix show. It is a fundamental desire to understand, a desire that seems to be in short supply these days.
About the opening of a new bookstore in Texas
I can never get enough of stories about someone, in this case a young couple, moving somewhere and opening a bookstore. I’ve read many interviews with booksellers, but this one with one of the co-founders of Fort Worth’s Recluse Books isn’t particularly revelatory, but the details and people and titles and stories in it are nourishing, if only a little. A welcome Friday break.
Human and AI script readers
AI agents as language machines are at their best when working with language. And the screenplay is a pure language thing. The LLM’s ability to take in vast amounts of language and do things with it at breakneck speed is at the heart of what makes it both fascinating and terrifying. But how do they dissect the language that has the potential to make great movies? Professional screenwriters are rightly concerned about the nature of their work, which involves reading, summarizing, and writing notes on reams of scripts, the kind of work that digital AI-powered programs excel at. So someone set up a test. The results are both encouraging and disturbing. They are certainly good at swallowing and spitting out short explanations, but the more complex the action, the more likely they are to make mistakes. And it’s pretty terrible when it comes to the most important part of the process: Is this script useful? For now.
From zero to well read: Check it out
The response to our new podcast series “Zero to Well-Read” has been encouraging. In each episode, we talk about that one book you’ve always wanted to read. Or at least I wish I had read it already. Or maybe you just wanted to know what the deal was. Or a book that you have read but have forgotten the contents of. Or you want a chance to think again about what you loved. Those books. I am uploading episodes related to T.The Great Gatsby, The Bluest Eye, Twilight (Because sometimes you want to know what all the fuss is about) never let me go, Vineland (which Battles continue one after another with more dropping in the coming weeks. Please give it a try.
