“The Baining believe, quite correctly, that play is the natural activity of children, and precisely for that reason they do what they can to discourage or prevent it.”
Tag: 07.20.12
The Extraordinariness Problem
“Lately… it’s begun to seem as if more and more people expect the extraordinary whenever they plunk down money for a ticket to any live event, be it sport or art or music. Everything has to be a blockbuster or people feel as if they aren’t getting their money’s worth.”
Why Woody Allen No Longer Stars In His Movies
“For years I played the romantic lead and then I couldn’t play it anymore because I got too old. It’s just no fun not playing the guy who gets the girl. … I like to be the one that sits opposite them in the restaurant, looks in their eyes and lies to them. So if I can’t do that it’s not much fun to play in the movies.”
If You Were James Joyce’s Grandson, You’d Become A Pain In The Neck, Too
“After too many scholars and writers took glee in unearthing family secrets, including the madness of his own mother, the madness of his aunt (James’ daughter Lucia), and the filthiest love letters ever sent between two people, who just happened to be his grandparents,” Stephen Joyce “became resentfully litigious, suing small productions of readings from Ulysses for copyright violations and refusing to grant reprint rights.”
Evolution And Appreciating Art, The Debate
“On its face, the notion that the human instinct to make and appreciate art can be explained by evolution seems true, even a truism. We are the products of evolution in the things that make us distinctively human no less than in the things that we share with the lower animals.”
Is There a Relationship Between Writing Quality And What You’re Paid For It?
“Given the decreasing income of writers over recent years–one thinks of the sharp drop in payments for freelance journalism and again in advances for most novelists, partly to do with a stagnant market for books, partly to do with the liveliness and piracy of the Internet–are we to expect a corresponding falling off in the quality of what we read? Can the connection really be that simple? On the other hand, can any craft possibly be immune from a relationship with money?”
Does Money Make Writers Better? (And If So, Why Are Second Novels So Often Disappointing?)
“Almost the worst thing that can happen to writers, at least if it’s the quality of their work we’re thinking about, is to receive, immediately, all the money and recognition they want. At this point all other work, all other sane and sensible economic relation to society, is rapidly dropped and the said author now absolutely reliant on the world’s response to his or her books, and at the same time most likely surrounded by people who will be building their own careers on his or her triumphant success, all eager to reinforce intimations of grandeur.”
Want To Improve Your Life Expectancy? Switch Your Tube Stop
“Differences in life expectancy between even adjacent stations can be stark. Britons living near Pimlico are predicted to live six years longer than those just across the Thames near Vauxhall. There’s about a two-decade difference between those living in central London compared to those near some stations on the Docklands Light Railway, according to the BBC. Similarly, moving from Tottenham Court Road to Holborn will also shave six years off the Londoner’s average life expectancy.”
Nigeria Wants Looted Works Back From Boston
“The governmental body in Nigeria that regulates the nation’s museum systems is demanding the return of 32 artifacts recently acquired by the Museum of Fine Art in Boston. … The pieces were originally looted by British soldiers in the late 1890s, following the Benin massacre of 1897.”
The First Big Dome: Why The Pantheon Still Matters
“The Pantheon is about more than engineering. It is about space–architectural space as a conduit to spiritual space. The Pantheon is the greatest interior in Western architecture, one where space is nearly as palpable as the forms that contain it–what isn’t there is as important as what is. This effect derives in part from the perfection of its proportions.”