She wrote 13 books over the course of 50 years, only to have every one of them rejected by publishers. Then No. 14 hit and now she’s a star. – Sydney Morning Herald
Tag: 07.13.00
BAD REVIEWS CAN RUIN YOU
- “It has long been known that writers suffer from a much higher incidence of mood disorders, including depression and mania, than other people. The precise medical reason for this has never been adequately explained. But [an anthropologist] believes it is because writing is less a true expression of the artist’s life (except in the case of the daily diarist) than it is a form of compensation and redress for denied satisfactions.” – National Post (Canada)
SPOILING STORIES WITH IMAGES
The New Yorker has begun publishing photos of its fiction writers. Sure we’re an increasingly visual culture, and promoting the writer is all part of the package. “But there is something different about fiction, which depends for its power on our willingness to believe that it is as much about the reader’s life as it is the writer’s. Linking too readily the author’s image with the work seems to make the story more disposable. It’s just another product, just another package deal.” – Chicago Tribune
PETERSON PRIZE
Pianist Oscar Peterson has become the first Canadian recipient of the International Music Council UNESCO Music Prize. “The prize is given every year to a musician or musical institution that has contributed to the development and enrichment of music and has served peace and understanding around the world.” – CBC
CLOCKWORK AUCTION
Memorabilia from the estates of Stanley Kubrick and Laurence Olivier are being sold at auction today. Among Kubrick’s lot are draft scripts for the nuclear war satire “Dr Strangelove”. The Olivier papers include 250 letters and cards written by the actor and his family. – BBC
CULTURAL BUYBACK
Chinese artifacts have been leaked illegally to the West for years, ending up in museums and collections around the world. Now “the Shanghai Museum has been quietly buying back treasures from dealer showrooms, mainly in Hong Kong. Nearly one third of the museum’s famed collection of bronzes was acquired over the past 10 years through purchases and donations.” – South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
BUSY SIGNAL
Scotland is testing an ambitious new plan to make “information about almost every Scottish monument, museum exhibit or work of art available via mobile phones. All the background and trivia they ever wanted to know about a particular place or object will appear on the screens of their handsets.” – BBC
FOUNDING FATHER
It’s been called Ontario’s longest-running “culture war.” A collector amassed a gallery of Group of Seven paintings and gave them to the province of Ontario in 1965. But gradually the patron was forced out of control of the collection, the gallery collected new work and became an important Canadian collection of contemporary art. Now the province’s premier wants to give control back to the patron and let him do away with the contemporary work. Critics are “going ballistic.” – The Globe and Mail (Canada)
OUTLIVING ITS TIME
A statue erected 100 years ago of composer Stephen Foster in his hometown of Pittsburgh shows him with a slave sitting at his feet. Now a campaign to either remove or explain the statue. – CNN
PETERSON PRIZE
Pianist Oscar Peterson has become the first Canadian recipient of the International Music Council UNESCO Music Prize. “The prize is given every year to a musician or musical institution that has contributed to the development and enrichment of music and has served peace and understanding around the world.” – CBC