“One question is what is happening to criticism itself when the evaluative architecture on a site such as Amazon is the same for leaf blowers as it is literature, when everything seems to be quantifying one’s hedonic response to a consumption activity; when we are forced into a ruthless dyad of thumbing up or thumbing down, or channeled into expressing a simple “liking” for something when the actual response may be more complex.”
Tag: 04.13
How Tony Hall Changed The Royal Opera House
“Hall, with no prior experience in arts management and no practice in dealing with combustible artists, turned out to have perfect pitch for opera.”
Poetry Has Become Stale. What It Needs To Perk Up Is…
The range of expression in contemporary poetry has been narrowing for years.
The Birth Of The American Summer Vacation
“One of the little-known turning points in the history of American travel occurred in the spring of 1869, when a handsome young preacher from Boston named William H.H. Murray published one of the first guidebooks to a wilderness area.”
Touch Screen Generation – How They’re Changing How Our Children Learn
“Not that long ago, there was only the television, which theoretically could be kept in the parents’ bedroom or locked behind a cabinet. Now there are smartphones and iPads, which wash up in the domestic clutter alongside keys and gum and stray hair ties.”