“The problem with Misty’s fame, however, is precisely it’s relationship to her ethnicity; she should be known as an incredible dancer who is a principal at American Ballet Theatre, not as an incredible dancer who is the first African American to be named a principal at American Ballet Theatre. To see her as an African American first is, in fact, benevolent prejudice — to congratulate someone for doing something that most people of her race have not done. But to do so only reminds us that it is not the norm.”
Tag: 09.16.15
Ya Know, ‘Lolita’ Just Isn’t A Great Novel, Let Alone Nabokov’s Masterpiece
In an essay to make a reader pound the table in either relieved agreement (“Finally someone said it!”) or incredulous vexation, Roxana Robinson argues that the book “lacks a crucial component of great fiction: compassion. … The only real emotion in Lolita derives from Nabokov’s embitterment, and its expression lies in his interior laughter.”
Right, Let’s Do Talk About Why There Aren’t Any Great Women Composers
“Clara Wieck was already thirteen years old when she started writing her piano concerto, and all of the composers on the aforementioned goodness scale wrote their masterpieces by the age of ten. Little-known fact: Strauss called the Four Last Songs that because he wrote them on the eve of his fifth birthday.”
You’re Way More Likely To At Least *Open* A Book You Bought If It Was Expensive
And much more ebook data, including: “Some books glue readers to the page with completion rates at 70 to 90 percent—well above the norm — whereas, for other books, it might be 20 to 40 percent. Readers are generally more likely to finish a plot-driven genre novel than they are a literary one.”
Metropolitan Opera Posts Budget Surplus, Year After Big Deficit, Strike
“The opera company, founded in 1883, on Wednesday said it closed its most recent season in the black, with a balanced budget and a $1 million surplus. The preliminary financial results, which haven’t been audited, are an improvement from the Met’s previous fiscal year. Last November, the company reported a $22 million shortfall for fiscal 2014 soon after it averted a potential lockout by striking a series of deals with unions representing its musicians, singers and stagehands.”
Now This Is Loyalty: Yannick Nézet-Séguin Signs For Five More Years With His First Orchestra In Montreal
“If all goes according to the plan announced Wednesday morning in the concourse of Place des Arts, Yannick Nézet-Séguin will become a 20-year man with his hometown Orchestre Métropolitain.”
More Personal, More Political, More Varied, More Viral – The Obituary Is Changing
From a family-placed obituary in Maine that dealt openly with the deceased’s heroin addiction and the closure of the state clinic that was treating her (it was noticed nationwide), to the news obituaries (now less strait-laced) that run in big-city papers, the genre is getting multiple makeovers.
Enough With the Queer and Trans Films That Are Actually About Straight People
Kyle Buchanan: “Nor am I saying that just because a movie features a gay or trans character that that character deserves to be the undisputed lead … But if these movies are being made because the queer and trans characters are so fascinating, let’s keep those characters at the center, where they belong.”
After ‘Being John Malkovich’ And ‘Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind’, Charlie Kaufman Makes An All-Puppet Movie (And Wins Prizes For It)
“The fact that they’re puppets being manipulated becomes an existential issue as well. You know someone’s manipulating them – they don’t know it.”
The Myers-Briggs Personality Test Isn’t Perfect, But Folks Seem To Love It
“Given all this controversy [among researchers], you might think people would treat the test as just a curiosity, or at least take it with a grain of salt. Instead, many people use types as a schema for understanding the world. There are blogs that sort Disney characters into MBTI types and YouTube sketch videos that compare types. According to CPP, a company that administrates the MBTI, college and universities worldwide use the test, as do 89 of the Fortune 100 companies.”