“Perhaps the most radical suggestion we can make about ourselves is not that we are not different. Or even that we are. But that we are both.”
Tag: 01.27.15
Have We Become Too Sensitive In Public Debate To Have Real Conversations About Ideas?
“After political correctness burst onto the academic scene in the late ’80s and early ’90s, it went into a long remission. Now it has returned. Some of its expressions have a familiar tint, like the protesting of even mildly controversial speakers on college campuses.”
Why Novelists Turn To The Vividness Of Music
“Perhaps, fearful of losing the attention of their readers, novelists are borrowing the captivating force of music, feeding off its sensuousness in an effort to regain a lost immediacy. The lengthy musical passages in recent novels, including a few loving and climactic concert scenes, seem to strive for music’s Orphic power.”
A Struggle Over The Very Nature Of Science (Seriously)
“There’s a battle going on at the edge of the universe, but it’s getting fought right here on Earth. With roots stretching back as far as the ancient Greeks, in the eyes of champions on either side, this fight is a contest over nothing less than the future of science. It’s a conflict over the biggest cosmic questions humans can ask and the methods we use – or can use – to get answers for those questions.” It’s a conflict over … string theory.
Van Gogh And The Decision That Changed Art History
The decision, believe it or not, was the young Vincent’s insistence on trying to become a preacher, even after flunking out of divinity school.
India’s Only Opera Tenor Wants To Bring The Art Form Home
Anando Mukerjee: “If it is done, if it is packaged right, if it is not diluted, if the artistic integrity of the music is not diluted, and it is given an Indian narrative and an Indian context, then there is no reason to suppose why it can’t work. … You can certainly have something like Carmen which is a great opera set in Spain, being set in India, Rajasthan. So you’re not masalafying it, you’re not chutnifying it, you’re not making it into a kind of fusion experiment. You’re simply contextualizing it to the Indian setting.”
Zaha Hadid Settles Defamation Lawsuit Against NY Review Of Books
“After a five-month legal battle, [the] London-based architect … has withdrawn a lawsuit regarding defamatory comments made about her attitude to migrant workers and her Qatar World Cup stadium project … and has donated the settlement money to an undisclosed charity that ‘protects and champions labour rights’.”
Kinda Creepy? New Machines That Control Your Hand As It Draws
“Teacher, for example, is a machine that coaches you to draw by forcing your hand to perform certain motions. The thinking goes, repeat the task enough times and eventually your hand will remember how to do it on its own.”
Battle For The Soul Of Children’s Cartoons (It Ain’t Pretty)
“Branded toys routinely make more money than the films and cartoons on which they are based—sometimes a lot more—so it’s logical in a way that yes, children’s television shows and movies are basically long, elaborate toy commercials.”
The Meaning Of Art – Is Writing A Job Or…
“There is something dreary about wanting writing to be a real job. The sense of inner purpose, so often unmentionable in a society enamored of professionalization, distinguishes a writer from a hack.”