“[The] basic logic is that … human beings are not naturally monogamous but rather have been explicitly designed by natural selection to seek out ‘extra-pair copulatory partners’.” The difficulty “is simply the fact that we’ve evolved to empathize with other people’s suffering, including the suffering of the people we’d betray by putting our affable genitals to their evolved promiscuous use.”
Tag: 08.25.10
BBC to Televise Anna Nicole Smith Opera
“In a collaboration between BBC Productions, the Royal Opera House and Olivier award-winning composer Mark Anthony Turnage, the title role will be sung by Dutch soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek. The librettist is Richard Thomas and the director is Richard Jones, with Antonio Pappano on the podium.”
Playboy Publishes Madame Bovary (Seriously)
The September 2010 issue includes a chapter from the new translation by Lydia Davis. “You can see that Playboy is hoping to lure readers by touting Bovary as ‘The Most Scandalous Novel of All Time.’ … [Yet,] though Madame Bovary was truly scandalous when it was released, it cannot shock now, in part due to Playboy and its role in, shall we say, defining deviancy downward; and in part due to Bovary itself.”
Big New TV Awards Show To Rival Emmys?
“The committee of about 20 TV bigwigs is said to be in the midst of picking the award categories and winner voting system, aiming to assuage industry frustration with the current system employed by the Emmy Awards.”
All About The Story (Everything’s Gotta have One)
“All of this diligent and relentless narrativizing (whether in business or politics) comes as a response to ever more fluid social relations under high-speed, quick-turnover capitalism.”
Hollywood’s Lucrative New Industry: Vampires
“These charming, deadly immortals are everywhere. And as a result, they’re spilling as much green as red — about $7 billion since the “Twilight” film franchise bowed less than two years ago, according to THR estimates.”
Lit Agent Wylie Backs Down On Selling Modern Classics On New Digital Imprint
“Last month literary agent Andrew Wylie shocked the books world when he announced that he would be selling 20 modern classics – including Hunter S Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children and Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint – exclusively through Amazon.com’s Kindle store, bypassing the books’ traditional publishers as well as other booksellers.”
Line Forms For Those Vying To Live In Chicago’s Museum Of Science And Industry
“More than 1,500 people from all 50 states and more distant places including Antarctica and Australia applied to spend a Month at the Museum, an immersion experience that lets the winner roam the museum freely, updating visitors about the experience and sleeping in exhibits like the U-505 submarine or the coal mine.”
Do E-Readers Threaten Books? Far From It, Says Study
“People who buy e-readers tend to spend more time than ever with their nose in a book, preliminary research shows.”