“Once celebrated for her taut writing and devotion to social justice, her image since her death in 1984, aged 79, has curdled into something villainous. Her plays are still performed … but they are often dismissed as moralising melodramas. Her name now tends to invite vitriol about her being a Stalinist and a liar.”
Tag: 04.14.12
Werner Herzog On The Future Of Humanity
“Microbes can come and wipe us out. It can happen fast. Avian virus or mad cow disease, you name it. … Or a cataclysmic volcanic eruption which would darken the skies for 10 years … Trilobites died out, dinosaurs died out. Life on our planet has been a constant series of cataclysmic events, and we are more suitable for extinction than a trilobite or a reptile. So we will vanish.”
Nobel Laureate Orhan Panuk Wrote About A Museum – And Now He’s Built It
Panuk published The Museum of Innocence in 2008. Since then, he’s built it: “The small museum mainly comprises a sequence of little cabinets, each corresponding to one of the novel’s 83 chapters: 10 are missing and will be added later.”
Critiquing The Critics Of NY Public Library’s Renovation
The New York Public Library has instituted a public relations blitz to respond to its critics (including literary and scholarly luminaries), who “question how users of the libraries to be sold will fit inside the main building (its number of annual visitors — 1.6 million — is expected to more than double) and whether books moved to New Jersey really will be available within 24 hours, as the library has promised.”
Censoring The London Book Fair To Please China – What A Terrible Idea For Britain
The London Book Fair has invited Chinese authors specifically sanctioned by the state – and that’s far from enough, especially when the event takes public funding. “If British publishing goes along with this grubby stitch-up, it will indeed dishonour not just its best traditions but the best traditions of this country, which we – silly, complacent people that we are – do too little to defend.”
Having A Hard Time Getting Off The Sofa? Grab A Good (Audio)Book
“It is we amateur runners who are likeliest to turn to audiobooks as a training accompaniment, I suspect. Far from wanting to ‘listen to our breathing’ to achieve an optimum split time, we’d rather drown it out with something more interesting that will distract our minds from the miles of unrun road ahead. As I found with The Fear Index, a cliffhanging chapter ending will force the most reluctant runner into his or her trainers again, not for the fun of training but simply to find out what happens next.”
How Can Artists Make Environmentally Ethical Art?
It’s tough. “The visual arts do not always produce the prettiest of pictures. There are lashings of toxic pigments, solvents, petrochemicals, formaldehyde and other ecologically destructive preservatives thrown into the mix of a working studio.”
Past Time For An Oscar For The Actors Whose Faces We Never See
“If Jack Gill has his way, this will be the year that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences finally acknowledges stunt work at the Oscars.” Or are the actors and studios too worried about damaging actors’ reputations?
Food (Waste) Porn: Pretty Enough To Make Us Stop Throwing So Much Away?
“Pichler approached his project as if it was an advertising photo shoot for a high-end brand. He started with common items from the supermarket, like cheese, strawberries and cauliflower. After letting each food fester for a few weeks, he arranged it in his studio for a luxurious portrait.”
Acting, Alone (Or, How Maybe Mike Daisey Isn’t The Anti-Christ)
“I’m still in suspense. Where’s the smoking gun? I keep thinking that someone or something else was betrayed and no one has noticed. I know this sounds stupid, but I gotta ask: Did Mike Daisey act alone? For such a big betrayal he must have had accomplices, right? I mean people helped him put this piece on. Did they commission him? They certainly encouraged the guy.”