When Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti’s 2004 play Behzti (‘Dishonour’), depicting violence and rape in a Sikh temple, opened in Birmingham, protests by enraged Sikhs became violent, she received death threats, and the play had to be cancelled to preserve public safety. Now she has written a new play called Behud (‘Beyond Belief’) that recreates the furor.
Tag: 03.15.10
Pragmatism Isn’t Just A Character Trait, It’s A School Of Philosophy (Who Knew?)
This “distinctively American philosophy … emerged in the early decades of the 20th century in the work of William James, John Dewey and C.S. Peirce. Pragmatism may or may not be an ethical program … but it always emphasizes the resources of historically given institutions and practices and de-emphasizes the role played in our lives by supra-historical essentialisms (God, faith, truth, reason, brute fact, overarching theory).”
B&N To Sell E-Books For iPad (But What About The Nook?)
“Barnes & Noble plans to offer its eReader application for the Apple iPad, giving users of the upcoming tablet the option of buying digital books from an online store other than Apple’s iBook store.” The app should be available when the iPad hits the market in early April.
Does The Male Gaze Turn Women Into Bimbos?
A recent paper by two psychologists from the New School “suggests [that] some women who are objectified by men internalize this perception and think of themselves as ‘a sexual object to be scrutinized.’ For reasons that are not entirely clear, this process appears to undermine their cognitive ability.”
Toronto Critics Join Call For Iranian Filmmakers’ Release
“[T]he Federation of European Film Directors, the European Film Academy, the Asia-Pacific Screen Awards, the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, the Berlin Film Festival, the International Film Festival Rotterdam and Human Rights Watch” have all “asked the Iranian government to either release or charge [Jafar] Panahi and [Mahmoud] Rasoulof.”
Can We Defang Our Bad Memories By Updating Them?
“Now, many experts accept the view that memories are stored like individual files on a shelf; each time they are pulled down for viewing, they can be altered before being put back into storage. Altering a memory during the time it is off the shelf can create an updated memory that can be saved in place of the old one, scientists believe.”
Chinese Artist Ai Weiwei Discusses His Digital Activism
“Ai described his evolution from an artist to an activist as ‘a very natural act’ and said that social media are ‘like water and air, but in China we can’t even talk about it.’ When asked if he fears not being allowed to reenter the country, the artist replied: ‘Nothing can silence me as long as I’m alive. I don’t give any excuse. It isn’t going to change my beliefs.'”
Study: Mona Lisa’s Smile Shifts, Thanks To Painting Trick
“Austrian neurologists say analysis of the masterpiece shows her face appears to shift depending where a person focuses their gaze. If her eyes are stared at, it appears she has a subtle smile on her lips. But if the onlooker shifts their gaze to her mouth, then the smile disappears.”
Boston-Area Billboards Picture Stolen Gardner Museum Art
“[B]eginning today Clear Channel Outdoor is running an FBI poster on two of its digital billboards announcing the $5 million reward for the stolen art and urging anyone with information to contact the FBI and go to gardnermuseum.org for more information.”
The Truth About Film Criticism’s Future: There Isn’t One
Glenn Kenny: “And now let me quote Vladimir Nabokov, as is my wont: ‘Sex as an institution, sex as a general notion, sex as a problem, sex as a platitude–all this is something I find too tedious for words.’ Now, just substitute ‘the future of film criticism’ for ‘sex’ in the above and you’ll have pretty much summed up my attitude. Why? Because I know it’s over. … And I’m fine with that.”