Lit List: Monday September 26, 2016

Good evening readers. Here's our round-up of today's must-read literary news, commentary and fiction.

  • Why Do We Love to Curse So Much?: Two books explore what the universal human tendency to curse can reveal about language and the brain. (The New York Times)
  • Truman Capote's Ashes Sold For $43,750: The consensus among those who knew Capote is that he would appreciate being, once more, the center of attention. (The Guardian)
  • Two Careless Academics and a Spiteful Editor: On the willful misinterpretation and minimization of Arundhati Roy's work. (The Wire)
  • The Story in the Shadows: An Interview with Sjón: The author of "the gayest book in Iceland" discusses his novel Moonstone. (The Paris Review)
  • How the Financing of Colleges May Lead to Disaster!: Seven books explain how the financial industry has found a pot of gold in student loans. (The New York Review of Books)
  • "Every Negro Walk in a Circle": Commuting With Marlon James: James' 2009 novel depicting the brutality of slavery is relevant to today's protests against the brutality of policing. (Public Books)
  • A Cartoonist Confronts The Power Of His Pen In 'Reputations': In Juan Gabriel Vásquez's latest novel, a political satirist gets death threats for his work. (NPR)