Marked by an internationally identifiable and translatable literariness, not to mention cuddly-bear politics, such fictions threaten to render obsolete, according to Parks, “the kind of work that revels in the subtle nuances of its own language and literary culture”.
Tag: 09.27.13
Will Zaha Hadid Be Designing a Museum In Baghdad? No One Will Say
“The Iraqi Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, Liwa Sumaism, has said that his government plans to build a new museum in west Baghdad that will house objects currently in the collection of the Iraq National Museum. The Iraqi government has reportedly invited the Iraqi-born, British architect Zaha Hadid to submit designs for the project; a spokeswoman for Hadid says that she is ‘unable to confirm or comment’ on the project.”
Hey, Why Not Sell Off Detroit’s Art And Replace It With Copies? Who Could Tell?
In what must be a parody of Slate-style contrarianism, Slate founder Michael Kinsley allows as how “the city of Detroit is not breaking new ground in facing the prospect of having to sell a few paintings from the Detroit Institute of Arts in order to make ends meet. There is a rich tradition of wastrels squandering the family fortune, then taking a few canvases to the pawnbroker’s.”
Mao’s Little Red Book To Be Reissued In China
“It will not be especially little, and the cover will be only partly red. But a new version of the world’s second most published book is due to appear on Chinese shelves, decades after it fell from favour with the end of Maoism. The re-emergence of Quotations from Chairman Mao … comes amid an official revival of the era’s rhetoric.”
Humanities Versus Science – Next Round
“The point is that a more scientific mindset would recognize that an empirical proposition demands empirical verification. The era in which an essayist can get away with ex cathedra pronouncements on factual questions in social science is coming to an end.”
Who Are Ballet’s Greatest Partner Pairs?
“Partnerships are very particular to the world of ballet – chemistry between two performers can create a stage presence that’s wonderfully larger than their individual selves. What creates that chemistry is as mysterious as any real-life love affair.”
As Virtual Media Gets Better, Will We Get Motion Sick From The Ride?
“Pioneers in virtual reality wondered as early as 1992 whether simulation sickness would limit adoption of the technology, not realizing, perhaps, that eventually just about every interface humans might use would take on elements of virtual reality.”
So Jonathan Franzen Hates What The Internet Is Doing To Culture. He’s Not Entirely Wrong
“Certainly, the fact that he isn’t on Twitter means that he doesn’t have anything insightful to say about it, and perhaps he should be faulted for making broad pronouncements about a phenomenon he hasn’t even tried to understand. Still, it seems to me that he’s mostly just missing the specific ways that Twitter is horrible.”
How To Head Off Labor Disputes? Turn Musicians Into Executives
“The arrival of a new breed of administrator intimately acquainted with the players and the music itself points to a potential change in climate.”
Some Artists Love To Destroy Things In The Name Of Creativity. Why?
“It is an unexpected act of fate that the rich and powerful become consigned to the dustbins of history, and it is a cheerful function of our spitefulness to apply the appropriate entropy to their bodies.”