“Forget writer’s block — many authors put their manuscripts aside because they cannot stop checking their rankings. ‘There really should be a 12-step program,’ said Harry Kirchner, a senior national accounts manager with Ingram Publisher Services, a book distributor that counts Amazon as a customer. As tantalizing as the rankings may be, it is difficult to correlate them to the number of books sold….”
Tag: 08.06.07
Publishing’s Golden Age? It’s An Illusion.
“In the internet age, it is no wonder that the book is suffering, publishers and booksellers with it. And yes, writers too. Was it ever easier or better? Well, in the 1920s Virginia Woolf would have written a story, set it and had it printed. Independent-spirited, discerning booksellers would have recognised a startling new talent and begun to stock her books for similarly minded readers. How lovely and romantic – and possibly imaginary – that sounds. But is it?”
Canvases Stolen In Daylight Raid On French Museum
“Masked raiders have stolen four paintings in a daylight raid on an art gallery in Nice in the south of France. Police said five men made off with two works by Flemish artist Brueghel and two paintings by the impressionists Sisley and Monet on Sunday. Officials at the Musee des Beaux-Arts said the works were ‘invaluable’.”
Zaha Hadid Rides The Crest Of A Wave
Why, Zaha Hadid, did no woman win the Pritzker Prize before you? “‘It’s not because of lack of talent: When I teach, the best students are women.’ Rather, ‘everything that has to do with this profession is male,’ she explains. The job requires ‘continuity’ and round- the-clock work, she says, and is tough to combine with motherhood. In the trade, ‘people don’t treat women well,’ Hadid says; she has only just ‘graduated from that prejudice.'”
A Playwright Pens A Cycle In 20-Minute Pieces
After a severe epileptic seizure that erased some of his memory, playwright Mark Ravenhill was surprised to learn that he’d agreed to write a new play for each day of the Edinburgh Fringe. “Surely I should be pulling out of this insane undertaking? But then my doctor advised me it would take me several months before I could expect to be fully physically active. What was I going to do with my time? Watch Richard and Judy and eat lots of cakes? Or be a prolific dramatist?”
Is Brand-Name Comedy Harming Edinburgh Fringe?
“Once upon a time, the Edinburgh festival fringe was all about finding the next big thing in Hungarian experimental theatre. Now, its integrity has disappeared as commercialism reigns, personified by big-name performers familiar from TV, such as Jimmy Carr, Ricky Gervais and Frank Skinner. That, at least, is the complaint from those who believe that household name comedy is drowning out more pioneering art.”
Lost In Translation: “Drowsy Chaperone” In London
Why did the Broadway hit “The Drowsy Chaperone” flop in London, despite the enthusiasm of critics there? “With very few exceptions, London’s West End is a cultural wasteland. The heart and soul of contemporary London theatre is in the subsidized section and venues like the National Theatre, the Donmar Warehouse and the Royal Court. But, to me, Drowsy’s fate underlines the different meanings of camp and irony between Broadway and the West End – particularly as they apply to musicals.”
New Laureate Is A Different Kind of Poetic Ambassador
Charles Simic, the United States’ new poet laureate, is unlike his predecessors. “There is nothing of the Midwest or the Popular Front about his work, which is sponsored mainly by foreign literatures. He draws on the dark satire of Central Europe, the sensual rhapsody of Latin America, and the fraught juxtapositions of French Surrealism, to create a style like nothing else in American literature. Yet Mr. Simic’s verse remains recognizably American — not just in its grainy, hard-boiled textures, straight out of 1940s film noir, but in the very confidence of its eclecticism.”
Today’s Scarlet Letter Comes With A Search Engine
“Once upon a time, we thought that the Internet would usher in a new era of free human expression, interconnectedness and understanding. But increasingly we’re finding that it actually nurtures our baser instincts and enables social behaviors that date back to when we lived in caves. … Who needs a scarlet letter when I can embarrass you digitally on the Internet?”
Piano’s Columbia Expansion Fails As A Reinvention
“‘Our challenge was to reinvent the campus,’ architect Renzo Piano says of Columbia University’s proposed $7 billion expansion. Actually, the plan now making its way through New York City’s arduous approval process looks more like a dumbed-down real estate deal than a vision for the future.” In Harlem, “Columbia has not closed off streets to make a gated, intimidating superblock, as its old campus does. Yet the size and bulk of the proposed buildings make the streets anything but inviting to the surrounding neighborhood….”