Booksology Gay romance that the author lets him escape from Russia is now available in English
Elena Marislova and Katrina Silvanova co-authored Russian bestsellers Pioneer SummerThe story of “Forbidden First Love” between two teenage boys they meet at a summer camp in 1968 was forced to flee Russia in 2022. Originally published online in 2017, the book was printed and released in 2021. It was painted in plastic, labeled as over 18 in accordance with laws restricting the distribution of queer literature, and sold over 200,000 copies within six months. The 2022 law that expanded the ban on gay propaganda made Pioneer Summer no longer available for sale in Russia, but the English version published by Abrams is now available. Perfect timing for Pride Month. You know what to do.
What will happen to read in the age of AI?
We are still at the beginning of the conversation about the value of texts and the usefulness of reading in the age of AI. I’m always here for thoughtful and relatively non-military conversations. Joshua Rothman asks a lot of good questions in this film New YorkerAnd I think he is right in the end, “people who actually read the ‘original’ are rare, and they will have insights that enjoy the experiences that others lack and others will be disappointed.” However, he defeats me by the assumption that “the “well-reading” era is largely over as an educated or intellectual proxy,” making it “it’s difficult to separate deep readers from superficial readers.” AI can read for you, but it cannot teach you to think. New research from MIT shows that using AI tools like ChatGPT can reduce brain activity and lead to erosion of critical thinking skills. In a future where many people are very good at reproducing and summarizing information, and where it may be that they rely on technology that is rather bad at generating novel ideas, I think we know that the quality of their thinking will inform our readers from superficial to deep.
Today is a book
Sign up today with the book to receive daily news and more from the book world.
