Yesterday Douglas Rushkoff (the author of Program or Be Programmed and one of our eBook Summit speakers) explored Softskull Press’ upcoming Deep Focus series for BoingBoing. The collection matches a great writer with a great cult film, beginning with Jonathan Lethem writing about John Carpenter’s They Live and Chris Sorrentino writing about Death Wish.
Here’s an excerpt: “These are fun little books – little, meaning a hundred or so pages and in a tiny fits-in-your-back-pocket format suitable for reading anywhere at anytime. And they justify all the nights spent watching reruns of these films, never sure if we were allowed to like them as much as we do – even after we see through to their obvious faults. This book series considers such films “deliberate” B-movies. I read Lethem’s time-coded analysis of They Live on an airplane while I watched the film on my phone, for the perfect DIY mini-Criterion experience. Lethem is one of my favorite writers anyway, but experiencing him wax on about Nada and the ghouls was perhaps the highlight of my summer reading.”
As we noted last week, Counterpoint will shutter its New York offices and cut editorial director Denise Oswald and associate editor Anne Horowitz– causing many to worry about the future of this indie press.