“Is [hope] not rather a form of moral cowardice that allows us to escape from reality and prolong human suffering?” Simon Critchley’s answer to that question (via Prometheus, St. Paul, Thucydides, Nietzsche, and Barack Obama) isn’t really as bleak as that question might lead you to expect.
Tag: 04.19.14
When (If) Civilization Is Destroyed, What Do We Want To Leave Behind?
“In the event that life as we know it is truly upended, the survivors will have to rebuild our civilization. Given everything humanity has learned over the past hundred thousand years, what information should we leave them?”
Rupert Goold Wants To Create A Malaysia Airlines 370 Play
“Metaphorically and theatrically, it captures something very potent about the anxieties of our age. It’s like a Rorschach test: people read their own thoughts and paranoia into it, whether that be about globalisation, technology, terrorism or insanity.”
The P.T. Barnum Of The Small Screen
George Schlatter “was buds with the Rat Pack. He made stars out of unknowns Goldie Hawn and Lily Tomlin and was fired from ‘The Judy Garland Show’ after five episodes because he and CBS disagreed about his vision for the variety series.”
Women Are Re-Reinventing The New Wave Of French Cinema
“The French Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée says the country’s film industry is undergoing a feminine renaissance. According to its research, 23% of feature-length films were directed by women last year, up from 18.4% in 2008.”
Poetry, Sex, And Agatha Christie
“All through childhood I wrote verses and mysteries. There is, for me, one connection: structure. My poetry is metrical, rhyming. My crime novels are highly structured. I never start out with a dead body. I start with an impossible scenario. Opening questions should be mysterious, weird, intriguing and contain the seeds of the solution.”
Spain Bans Aerial Drones – And Deeply Wounds Its Film Industry
“Cromática 45 says it has had four orders cancelled since last week; Camfly has seen 15 orders disappear, ‘all the work until October’; and the Andalusia Film Commission has even had to stop a project for the Andalusian regional government. ‘Today the answer [to clients] is that it’s not possible. We’ll see about tomorrow,’ says Querol.”
Is There *Any* Way To Make The Comcast/Time Warner Merger OK?
Maybe? “There is no better example of the existence of our Second Gilded Age than Comcast. Government has made it possible for the company to exert economic power unheard of a generation ago. If this deal is to go through, Comcast should be required to pay dearly for the privilege of exerting market domination.”
New York Is So Expensive – But Here’s One Option For Artists To Live There
“If our projected costs and occupancy rates were correct (and if the jackhammering would let up), each partner would work 10 to 15 hours a week at the co-op to cover our rent, utilities and shared groceries, freeing up time to pursue the low-to-zero-pay projects we all had in music, art, education and writing.”