weekend links: Harper Lee, Ben Lerner, Meow Wolf

Starting today, each Friday we will bring you a sampling of the week's most interesting arts stories, collected from around the web, focusing on developments happening across the country and here in Austin.

A mock drawing of The House of Eternal Return, an art space being constructed by Santa Fe art collective Meow Wolf. Image courtesy of Meow Wolf.

Should we feel guilty about reading that new Harper Lee novel? Yes, probably. Writer Neely Tucker investigates the suspect evolution of a 58-year-old manuscript into a “blockbuster sequel.” [The Washington Post]

“Novel of detachment” is a new name for an old standby: the well-articulated angst of a privileged and self-absorbed man. Jon Baskin takes a closer look at one novelist of detachment, Ben Lerner, and at the genre itself in this essay. [The Nation]

Santa Fe art collective Meow Wolf has partnered with bestselling author George R. R. Martin to reinvigorate the city’s cultural life with the construction of a giant art museum/haunted house. In other news concerning George R. R. Martin and the word “wolf,” Martin once took a wolf on a date to see some Game of Thrones episodes. I swear that’s in this article. [The Guardian]

This week at Covered with Fur—the digital magazine from local indie press A Strange Object—you can read Kelly Ramsey’s short story “Ulysses S. Grant, His Horses,” and browse the author’s notes in a cool new series called The Material. [Covered with Fur]

You have until April 27 to ask an Austin moontower which Sex and the City character it would be if it had to choose. Hello Lamp Post is a public art project that allows you to chat via text message with inanimate objects around town. [Austin Chronicle]

And, in honor of the upcoming 13th Floor Elevators reunion at the Levitation Festival in May, let’s revisit this 2001 profile of lead singer and music legend Roky Erickson. [Texas Monthly]

—Alyssa G. Ramirez