Philip Hensher: “When eligibility shifts from the UK, Commonwealth, Ireland and Zimbabwe to English-language novels published in the UK, it is hard to see how the American novel will fail to dominate. Not through excellence, necessarily, but simply through an economic super-power exerting its own literary tastes, just as the British empire imposed the idea that Shakespeare was the greatest writer who ever lived throughout its 19th-century colonies.”
Tag: 09.18.13
Can Khartoum Reclaim Its Reputation As An Arabic Literature Capital?
“These are hard times for bookstores everywhere, of course. … But there is more at work here, in a city long famous as a big market for Arabic writers. Books and reading are embedded profoundly in Khartoum’s self-image and the country’s history, and there is growing worry that the collapse of book culture is a direct mirror of the country’s overall decline.”
What Will Happen To Gay Theatres As LGBT People Gain Equal Rights?
“There may be elements of gay experience, no matter how integrated gay people get, that remain different, that don’t have enough mainstream appeal to be programmed at regular nonprofit theaters.”
Why All Kids Should Take Music Lessons
“Those childhood violin studies of mine have shaped my adult ear and brain, and, when I listen to Mendelssohn or to any of the greats, I naturally respond in ways that are encouraged by the grand tradition. I do not know what it is to be a person without access to that tradition, and I can only picture a lack of access as a kind of poverty.”
Acting After 70
The ability to memorize lines, the higher risk of injury, the sheer effort of doing eight shows a week – Derek Jacobi (almost 75) and Sheila Hancock (80) talk about why, despite those challenges, they and their colleagues like Vanessa Redgrave (76) and James Earl Jones (82) keep coming back to the stage.
Why Santa Monica Wants To Remove This Sculpture
“A misguided — and perhaps underhanded — move is afoot to dismantle Paul Conrad’s “Chain Reaction,” a 26-foot-tall sculpture that has stood in place in the Santa Monica Civic Center since 1991.”
Motion Picture Association Takes Shot At Google For Piracy
“The Motion Picture Association of America took another swipe at Google today, releasing a report that states the obvious: Google’s search engine sometimes leads to pirate sites.”
For The First Year In Nine Years, Pixar Won’t Have A Movie Coming Out
“The 2014 vacancy for Pixar is the toon shop’s first yearlong-hiatus since 2005. Bookmarking that year was “The Incredibles” in 2004, followed by “Cars” in 2006.”
Tate Museum Breaks Annual Attendance Record (Thanks Damien Hirst)
“The Tate’s annual report reveals that almost eight million people visited the art museum’s four galleries in 2012-13.”
Branford Marsalis: What’s Wrong With Jazz
You read a review of something and some guy in New York says “This is the most important music since such and such.” And then when you look at it in a larger context, you say, “Well, can we really use the word ‘important’ for something that the majority of the people have never heard?”