review of The Affair 2.8 

The Affair tonight, which has become the best show on cable television these days.   This hour - featuring half-hours by Helen and Noah - was especially author-centric, and, as always, right on the money about what happens inside and outside the author\'s mind.

Noah gives a reading, nicely coincidentally in the  bookstore at Williams College, which Whitney and Helen are visiting as a possible college for Whitney.  In a good subplot, she doesn\'t want to go to college - she wants to model - but in a true author\'s touch Noah invites Helen to the reading. This is exactly what a self-possessed author would do.  In Helen\'s version, she rolls her eyes and of course declines, but she of course shows up anyway.   He reads a passage about their relationship.  My wife correctly called Noah\'s deliberate choice of that passage because Helen was in the audience.  And, in Noah\'s version, we see him switching to that passage after he begins with another - a hot shower scene with "Alison".

Also in the audience is a student book reviewer, who has savaged Noah\'s novel in the student paper. Although Noah has otherwise been receiving rave reviews, this pan really nettles him.   As my grandmother used to say, if you stub one of your toes, the fact that your other nine toes are fine doesn\'t make that hurt toe feel any better.  This captures exactly the way Noah and all authors feel about reviews of their books.   Anything less than adulation hurts like that stubbed toe.

The student reviewer also delivers the bad news that Noah has lost the Pen Faulkner Prize - hey, I haven\'t read his novel, but from what I\'ve heard of it on The Affair, I certainly would have voted for it.   Noah, again unerringly typical of any writer, attributes his loss to reverse discrimination against a white male writer like himself.

Meanwhile, surrounding this gem of an episode about the writerly life, we get an important development in the bombshell that was released last week.  Helen has a pacifier from Alison\'s baby, which she gives to Noah\'s lawyer.   This will provide DNA, and prove whether the baby is Scott\'s or Noah\'s (again, as I mentioned last week, I don\'t know if the DNA will show if the baby is Cole\'s or Scott\'s).

Exciting times ahead on The Affair.   In the meantime, here\'s a reading I did of one of my novels, Unburning Alexandria, a few years ago.   Alas, it didn\'t win the Pen Faulkner Prize either.

See also The Affair 2.1: Advances ... The Affair 2.2: Loving a Writer ... The Affair 2.3: The Half-Wolf ... The Affair 2.4: Helen at Distraction ... The Affair 2.5: Golden Cole ... The Affair 2.6: The End (of Noah\'s Novel) ... The Affair 2.7: Stunner

And see also The Affair Premiere: Sneak Preview Review ... The Affair 1.2: Time Travel! ... The Affair 1.3: The Agent and the Sleepers ... The Affair 1.4: Come Together ... The Affair 1.5: Alison\'s Episode ... The Affair 1.6: Drugs and Vision ... The Affair 1.7: True Confessions ... The Affair 1.8: "I Love You / I Love You, Too" ... The Affair 1.9: Who Else on the Train? ... The Affair Season 1 Finale: The Arrest and the Rest

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Paul Levinson, PhD, is Professor of Communication & Media Studies at Fordham University in New York City.  His 8 nonfiction books, including The Soft Edge (1997), Digital McLuhan (1999), Realspace (2003),  Cellphone (2004), and New New Media (2009, 2nd edition 2012), have been the subject of major articles in the New York Times, Wired, the Christian Science Monitor, and have been translated into 12 languages. His science fiction novels include The Silk Code (1999, ebook 2012), Borrowed Tides (2001), TheConsciousness Plague (2002, 2013), The Pixel Eye (2003), The Plot To SaveSocrates (2006, ebook 2012), and Unburning Alexandria (2013).  His short stories have been nominated for Nebula, Hugo, Edgar, and Sturgeon Awards.  Paul Levinson appears on "The O'Reilly Factor" (Fox News), "The CBS Evening News,"  “NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” (PBS),  “Nightline” (ABC), NPR, and numerous national and international TV and radio programs. His 1972 album, Twice Upon a Rhyme, was re-issued in 2009 (CD) and 2010 (remastered vinyl). He reviews the best of television in his InfiniteRegress.tv blog, and was listed in The Chronicle of Higher Education’s “Top 10 Academic Twitterers” in 2009.

Chronicle of Higher Education puts Paul Levinson in Top 10 (#7) of Academic "High Flyers" on Twitter ... Online University Data puts PL in "Top 50 Online University Professors on Twitter Worth Following"...

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President, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, 1998-2001

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Paul Levinson appears on "The O\'Reilly Factor" (Fox News), "The CBS Evening News," "Nightline" (ABC), the "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" (PBS), "The Dylan Ratigan Show" (MSNBC) and frequently on NPR and all-news radio...