As literary journals around the country struggle to update for the 21st Century, one founding co-editor at The Believer maintains a nearly exclusive print-focused strategy.

Today’s guest on the Morning Media Menu was Vendela Vida, author of the new novel The Lovers and a founding co-editor at The Believer.

Vida talked about her novel, her intentional lack of Internet access at home, and The Believer‘s print-oriented strategy. She also shared the screenwriting experience and advice she learned while writing Away We Go with her husband, Dave Eggers.

Vida explained the print strategy: “The Believer hasn’t changed at all. I think we still like to pretend that nothing’s changed and put out the same magazine we’ve always put out. Obviously we have a website, but it’s not an integral part of our magazine. I feel like the magazine could exist without the website except that people like to go there and find back issues and back pieces. We try to be as oblivious to all the changes going on as we can be.”

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In a long profile in the current issue of Harvard Magazine, agent Andrew Wylie revealed that eBook deals are “currently on hold across the board” at his famous agency, and cautioned publishers that he could take eBook rights elsewhere.

Wylie’s agency counts 700 clients, including major writers like Dave Eggers, Al Gore, Philip Roth, and Louise Erdrich–so these are not idle threats. eBookNewser has more about the article.

Here is an excerpt: “Wylie threatens to monetize those unassigned rights by going outside the publishing business entirely: ‘We will take our 700 clients, see what rights are not allocated to publishers, and establish a company on their behalf to license those e-book rights directly to someone like Google, Amazon.com, or Apple. It would be another business, set up on parallel tracks to the frontlist book business.’”

Last month the namesake of the literary journal McSweeney’s passed away at 67-years-old.

In 1998, Dave Eggers named “Timothy McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern” after an man who had sent letters to his mother. Timothy McSweeney was an MFA art student and onetime studio art teacher at Rutgers University. The site described his work: “The canvases he leaves behind are filled with haunting and beautiful imagery. They are also filled with a palpable desire–to be heard, to connect, to be understood better by others and himself.”

McSweeney suffered from mental illness, and was hospitalized for many years. There, he wrote letters to people around the country. He sent many letters with diagrams, train schedules and “urgent” messages to Eggers’ mother–despite the fact that they had never met.

Here’s more about the real McSweeney, from the website: “Knowing that the journal bore the name of a real person who had endured years of struggle threw melancholy shadows over the enterprise. But the McSweeneys insisted that the use of the name was acceptable, even appropriate, given Timothy’s background as an artist and search for connection and meaning through the written word. Since 2000 we’ve implicitly dedicated all issues to the real Timothy.”

While visiting one of his favorite music blogs, this GalleyCat editor uncovered a Dinosaur Feathers tune entitled “Vendela Vida.”

The song appeared to be named after Vendela Vida (pictured, via 2003 E.D.L.M.), the novelist, screenwriter, and journalist who is married to Dave Eggers (as we noted last year, the couple also co-wrote a film together). Intrigued, GalleyCat caught up with Greg from Dinosaur Feathers to find out why a tropical/surf/pop band would dedicate a whole song to Vida.

Here is his reply: “The song indeed was named after Vendela Vida the author, although it’s not about her. I actually intended to call the song Chinatown, after the movie–a lyric in the pre-chorus. We started calling it Vendela Vida out of laziness I guess–because it’s the first lyric basically. When I wrote the song, I had just seen her do a reading of one of her short stories at a benefit for 826NYC. So, the lyric at the beginning was informed partially by that reading.”

What do you think? Listen to the song here. Read all the lyrics to “Vendela Vida” after the jump…

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Can contemporary male authors write a good sex scene? In a NY Times Book Review essay this weekend, cultural critic Katie Roiphe argued that male authors have lost their taste for steamy sex.

Here’s a sample: “The current sexual style is more childlike; innocence is more fashionable than virility, the cuddle preferable to sex. Prototypical is a scene in Dave Eggers‘s road trip novel, ‘You Shall Know Our Velocity,’ where the hero leaves a disco with a woman and she undresses and climbs on top of him, and they just lie there.”

The article comes complete with hot pink charts measuring sex scenes by writers like John Updike (pictured, via) against David Foster Wallace‘s generation–rating the rusults on a thermometer scale ranging from “Cuddling” to “Sex” to “Outrageous Behavior.”

What do you think? A Jewish Daily Forward essay argues the opposite: “We are a different society, not in terms of how we have sex, but in terms of its public presence–it takes eleven mistresses to raise our dander. Writers no longer feel compelled to up the ante; in fact, today’s shy literary heroes may be reacting genuinely to our over-saturated culture, a culture that feeds us false ideals of how and when we’re supposed to get it on.” (Via Ami Greko)

This week Forbes published a manifesto calling for a “slow word” movement, pushing readers to change their habits to a more publishing-friendly model. The essay singled out Dave Eggers as a publisher dedicated to this new cause.

Journalist Trevor Butterworth (pictured, via) defined the slow word movement as “the idea of consuming less, but better, media.” If the movement catches on, it could be a boon for publishers and long-form writers–bringing writing back to a less hectic pace. What do you think–is it possible to change 21st Century reading habits?

Here’s more from the article: “[L]ook to what Dave Eggers has brilliantly shown with the San Francisco Panorama, namely that the physical quality of a newspaper and the aesthetic pleasure of reading can make people so excited about journalism that they’ll buy it–not just conceptually, but in terms of parting with cash. Eggers could well be the Alice Waters (queen of American slow foodies) of the news media, McSweeny’s its Chez Panisse.”

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A photo of the four National Book Award winners for 2009, post-ceremony…

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Colum McCann wins the National Book Award for Fiction for “Let the Great World Spin.” “Stories are the purest form of engagement…American publishing is able to embrace the other… As Dave Eggers said, we have to take this honor as a challenge.” GalleyCat interviewed the novelist before the ceremony, here’s an excerpt: watch his thoughts about Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight here.

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As the Dave Eggers-scripted adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are hit theaters recently, blockbuster-watchers have been comparing the film’s ticket sales to other adaptations of classic books.

The adaptation of Maurice Sendak‘s beloved storybook provides an interesting look at the relative success of other literary adaptations for young readers. Here’s Box Office Mojo‘s report on the film’s first week at the box office: “While Where the Wild Things Are wasn’t earth-shattering, it clawed its way into the top tier among debuts for children’s book adaptations that aren’t Harry Potter and was mightier than Bridge to Terabithia, Jumanji and other comparable titles.”

One week later, Box Office Mojo noted the film’s 57 percent drop at the box office, knocked down the indie horror flick, Paranormal Activity: “Wild Things rustled up $14 million, lifting its total to $53.6 million in ten days, but its drop was much steeper than Bridge to Terabithia and other similar titles.”

McSweeney’s, the Dave Eggers-founded publishing outfit, has entered the smartphone age with a brand new iPhone and iPod Touch app that sells for $5.99 in the Apple App store. What do you think–in a world of free literary iPhone applications (from IndieBound to Stanza, will readers pay for mobile content?

UPDATE: Yes they will… GalleyCat reader Tina Pohlman notes that the app has risen to number one on the “Top Paid App” category in the Books section of the Apple App store. According to the release, subscribing to the app will deliver six-months worth of iPhone-exclusive content, along with choice selections from the publisher’s online content site, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. Nevertheless, the unconventional press promised to maintain a focus on “books, paper, and exploring the possibilities and challenges of our physical objects.” Upcoming projects include a prototype newspaper and pentagonal book.

Here’s more from the site: “Small Chair [is] a weekly sampler from all branches of the McSweeney’s family. One week you might receive a story from the upcoming Quarterly, the next week an interview from the Believer, the next a short film from a future Wholphin. Occasionally, it might be a song, an art portfolio, who knows. Early contributors will include Spike Jonze, Wells Tower, Chris Ware, and Jonathan Ames. This material will not be available online and is pretty sure to be good stuff.”

The National Book Foundation (NBF) announced that Gore Vidal will receive the 2009 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters and Dave Eggers will receive the 2009 Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community.

Both awards will be given out at the 60th National Book Awards Ceremony in New York City on November 18, an evening hosted by writer and actor Andy Borowitz. Vidal will be the twentieth author to receive his prestigious award, which was shared by writers like Joan Didion, Norman Mailer, and Toni Morrison.

National Book Foundation executive director Harold Augenbraum had this statement: ““Vidal and Eggers have made a significant impact on the literary culture of the United States, in two very distinct eras. Although one could call both ‘men of letters,’ their approaches to their craft and to their writing and public lives can be described as very distinctive models of the American artiste engagé.” (Editor’s note: The headline of this post has changed.)