“As the auction began, Paris was rocked by the sound of shells from a German super-gun, firing from a railway line 80 miles away. Some bidders fled, prices tumbled, and Holmes and Keynes were able to secure some real bargains.”
Tag: 05.02.14
How Ai Weiwei Attempts To Overcome The Chinese Surveillance State
“He tethered a bicycle outside his studio last November. Every day, he places fresh flowers in its basket, takes a photograph, and posts the image online. This gentle protest, which offers a palate of bright relief against the polluted skies, will continue until his passport is returned.”
A Critic Interviews His Own Most Prolific And Vocal Critic
“‘I burned your name in a fire at New Year’s,’ the playwright and director confessed in a pre-interview phone call to suss out my intentions.”
Should Charitable Giving Inoculate The Giver From Criticism?
“The neighbor who comes with his garden hose to put out the fire in my house is no hero if he is the one who set my house on fire or if his failure to support the local fire company is the reason it can no longer respond.”
When Rupert Murdoch Owns All Of The Romances (News Corp. Buying Harlequin)
“Like the rest of the book publishing industry, Harlequin is dealing with declining revenue and income, a product of the continuing shift toward digital books. The mass-market, grocery-store paperback, long the company’s bread and butter, is rapidly disappearing.”
Taking ‘Game Of Thrones’ From Page To Screen Means Anger About Its Many, Many Rape Scenes
“As the books are adapted for other media, sequences that were described obliquely in the novels have become more explicit, more outrageous and more problematic.”
Please Don’t Print Out And Snail Mail That Finished Novel To Yourself
“Expert Village made a step-by-step video about the poor man’s copyright, and though it mentions at the end that the mail-it-to-yourself trick won’t hold up well in court, the video still presents it as a viable option. It seems that the tactic may be more valuable in the U.K. and France (where it’s known as the ‘Soleau envelope’).”
This Summer, Have Some Curated Art With Your Large Pop Music Festival
“Lollapalooza has it all. Except art. Specifically, a big, thoughtfully curated art show. And so, this summer, Lollapalooza is getting a group exhibition so enormous that, if street artist/curator Shepard Fairey has his way, its largest murals will stay in Chicago long after the buzzsaw thump of Skrillex dislodges your brain stem.”
Here’s What Author Junot Díaz Asks His MIT Students To Read
“He teaches two courses within MIT’s Comparative Media Studies/Writing Department, one on fantasy ‘world-building’ and one section of advanced fiction. They both seem too good to be true.”
Comic Books Used To Have Black Astronauts And A Lot Of Outlaw Feminist Women – Then, Censorship
“The comics world … was a cacophonous bazaar of stories: sometimes thrilling, sometimes confusing, sometimes revolting. But that bazaar was swiftly and mercilessly dismantled in 1954 by the newly formed Comics Code Authority. It was replaced with a viciously policed shopping mall whose effects resonate today.”