“A writer ought to be the best possible source about their work, but the writing instinct doesn’t come out of self-examination. That part of yourself in your work is expressed willy-nilly, without your cooperation, motivation or collusion. You can’t help being what you write and writing what you are.”
Tag: 09.06.08
The Candidates’ Speeches In Word Diagrams
Wordle translates the political speeches into word clouds…
How Travel Writing Has Changed
Has travel-writing, as a genre, run its course, now that everyone can get everywhere so easily? “No,” says Paul Theroux. “You’re talking about places like the Antarctic, but think about Pakistan. Yes, you can go Uzbekistan, for instance, but imagine the places you can’t go to . . . the Congo, Nigeria . . . You’ll be kidnapped, killed, and people in Manhattan would still say, ‘Those are not interesting places.’
To Auction, To Auction (And All That That Means)
“No living artist has ever taken so many of his or her own works directly to auction. Instead, most rely on galleries to dole out a handful of pieces at a time to curators, collectors and, eventually, the broader public. Mr. Hirst and Mr. Dunphy are betting that they can make more money by cutting out the middlemen altogether, selling new works themselves to the highest bidders. If the sale is a success, other star artists like Jeff Koons and Takashi Murakami may well follow suit.”
How The Booker Prize Is Chosen (The Inside Stories)
In 40 years of Booker Prizes, how were the winners chosen?
Credit Where It’s Due? Not On YouTube
YouTube and other user-generated video sites have created a treasure trove of great audio/visual content from past and present, free and available to all. But the information on where a clip comes from is often quite spotty. Don’t “the people behind these mini-masterpieces deserve some recognition?”
Could Hirst’s New Auction Upend The Economics Of Art?
“Next week, Damien Hirst becomes the first artist to sell brand-new work at auction,” which has the art world buzzing about the possible impact on traditional galleries if artists begin taking their work directly to market. For his part, Hirst says that it’s about time the massive amounts of money that get thrown around at auction houses actually started accruing to artists themselves.
Obama As A Sign Of National Progress?
It’s no real surprise that filmmaker Spike Lee is supporting Barack Obama for president, and Lee describes Obama’s possible inauguration as the next logical step in America’s long and troubled history of healing the wounds of slavery. “That’s the way the world works, you do something, you die, but somewhere down the line, we’ve moved the ball forward because of what you did.”
Robert Giroux, 94
“Robert Giroux, an editor and publisher who introduced and nurtured some of the major authors of the 20th century and ultimately added his name to one of the nation’s most distinguished publishing houses, died on Friday in Tinton Falls, N.J.”
Rent‘s Gone, But Will It Endure Like Its Inspiration?
The smash-hit Broadway production of Rent officially plays its last performance this weekend, but the show, which was based on Puccini’s La Boheme, has a chance to live on just as the opera has. “Just as Puccini’s opera would fall flat were the music not so impassioned and savvy, Rent would not be so powerful if Mr. Larson’s score were not so rich and emotionally honest.”