“During the Ben Ali era, Tunisian customs services prevented the importation of books that could harm the government’s reputation. These books were confiscated at the airport … Now, this form of literary censorship has become indirect” – and based largely in religion.
Tag: 05.20.12
Asking The Right Questions Makes All The Difference – So How Do We Find The Right Questions?
Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana of the Right Question Institute “are among a handful of thinkers making a career of taking a close look at how questions work, what our brains are doing when they put a question together, and how questions could drive learning, child development, innovation, business strategy, and creativity.”
Why’s It So Hard To Get Good New Broadway Musicals?
Scott Brown identifies a few particular problems, but ultimately says: “Musicals today – mindful of long odds, high costs, and the general precariousness of the form – are, I think, resisting their inner madness, and that’s a little like hating one’s own flesh. What basis besides madness can there possibly be for a form that’s as shapeless, idiosyncratic, and painstakingly artisanal as the novel yet as vastly collaborative and consensus-dependent as a Hollywood film?”
Italian Earthquake Causes Major Damage To Historic Buildings And Artwork
The 6.0 quake, centered 22 miles north of Bologna, largely spared that city but wrought destruction in smaller towns and villages across north-central Emilia-Romagna. Several fresco-filled medieval churches and palazzos were severly damaged, while a 14th-century clock tower split down the middle and later collapsed.
Philip K. Dick, Visionary (This Is Not A Metaphor)
Beginning in 1974 (following dental surgery), the science-fiction author “experienced and indeed enjoyed a couple of nightlong psychedelic visions with phantasmagoric visual light shows. These hypnagogic episodes continued off and on, together with hearing voices and prophetic dreams, until his death eight years later at age 53. … Now, was this just bad acid or good sodium pentothal?” (Or something else altogether?)
Paris’s Shakespeare & Co. Perks Up, Thanks To Next-Generation Owner
Sylvia Beach Whitman, whose father, longtime owner George Whitman, died in December at 98, now hosts readings, small concerts, and festivals at the legendary little English-language bookshop. She still lets young writers and artists sleep there (at what they call “Hotel Tumbleweed”), but she has the place cleaned properly, and she’s put in (just imagine!) a cash register.
Annoying Children’s Questions (‘Why? Why?’) Are Important Brain Development Tools
“Is this process infuriating? Yes. But is it crucial to their development? Far more than most of us think. … Conversation – and question asking – allows young children to grasp highly abstract concepts, from religion to history, at an earlier age. … [And] the way young children learn can vary surprisingly between working-class and middle-class children, and people from different ethnic backgrounds.”
Publisher Hachette Loosening Up (But Not Too Much) Toward Libraries And E-Books
“Hachette, which has not made new e-books available to libraries since 2010, is reconsidering the idea. In a pilot program starting this spring (which is…now?), the publisher is working with two e-book distributors to bring a ‘selection of HBG’s recent bestselling e-books to 7 million library patrons.'”
Protest On The Red Carpet At Cannes’ Single-Gendered Year
“Five women from La Barbe donned fake, different colored beards and stood in the torrential rain at the premiere of Michael Haneke’s Amour. They carried signs that said, ‘Marveilleux,’ ‘Merci!!!’ ‘Splendide,’ ‘Incredible!’ and ‘Le Barbe.'”
Memorizing The Notes And Playing Blind (Literally) In Egypt
“The women in Cairo’s Egyptian Blind Girls Chamber Orchestra first learn the songs by reading sheet music in braille. Since it is impossible to read braille and play an instrument at the same time, the musicians must memorize every note of every song. Pacing is also critical because the musicians cannot see the conductor. He merely claps three times to start each song.”