Alyssa Rosenberg: “Romeo & Juliet – a play about children – is full of terrible, deeply childish ideas about love.” And the ending “is an adolescent fantasy of death solving all problems.”
Tag: 04.02.13
Why Paperback Books Still Matter
“It seems that almost every book these days gets a new cover for the paperback. It’s almost as if they’re doing two different books for two different audiences, with the paperback becoming the ‘book club book.'”
Roy Lichtenstein And The Power Of The Brushstroke
James Polchin argues that “Lichtenstein’s obsession with the minute details of painting proves there’s more craft to Pop Art than you might think.”
When Histories Collide
Indian-Pakistani author Aatish Taseer: “[History] is, in fact, like a currency, which is good only as far as people recognize its worth. … Not only were there stories other than our own, but there were stories more powerful than our own … One story could swallow another, it could supersede it; and this experience, no matter how it occurred, was fraught with anxiety.”
The Science Of Stupidity: Why We All Do Dumb Things
“It turns out that our usual measures of intelligence – particularly IQ – have very little to do with the kind of irrational, illogical behaviours that so enraged Flaubert,” who spent his final years compiling an encyclopedia of stupidity.
Has Technology Distended Our Ability To Be Shocked?
In recent decades, Douglas says, everyday technologies have forced us into a discombobulated state of constant alert. Our phones beep around the clock with news of emails, tweets and text messages. And entertainment networks have largely abandoned long-form narratives in favour of the strobe-like intensity of reality television.”
Roger Ebert’s Cancer Returns
The immediate reason for my “leave of presence” is my health. The “painful fracture” that made it difficult for me to walk has recently been revealed to be a cancer.
Amazon Buys Goodreads; Literary World Shudders
“‘Truly devastating”‘ for some authors but ‘like finding out my mom is marrying that cool dude next door that I’ve been palling around with’ for another, Amazon’s announcement late last week that it was buying the hugely popular reader review site Goodreads has sent shockwaves through the book industry.”
Catholic Demonstrators Picket Broadway’s Testament Of Mary
The first preview performance of Colm Tóibín’s stage play, a monologue starring Fiona Shaw as the Blessed Virgin in old age, was protested by members of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property, a not-for-profit organization “concerned about the moral crisis shaking the remnants of Christian civilization.”
Where Exactly Does Camp Reside? In Nuance
“[Roland] Barthes, the French writer, philosopher, and academic best known for his work in semiotics, turns out to be the most advanced – or, more appropriately, nuanced – analyst of camp who has ever lived, at least if you read him my way.”