Literary criticism typically tends to emphasize the singularity of exceptional works that have stood the test of time. But the canon, Franco Moretti argues, is a distorted sample. Instead, he says, scholars need to consider the tens of thousands of books that have been forgotten, a task that computer algorithms and enormous digitized databases have now made possible. “We know how to read texts,” he wrote in a much-quoted essay included in his book “Distant Reading,” which won the 2014 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism. “Now let’s learn how to not read them.”
Tag: 10.30.17
Teachers At NY Arts School Of “Fame” Renown Protest Arts Cutbacks
Founded as an arts school in 1936, LaGuardia was immortalized in the 1980 film “Fame.” Alumni include a galaxy of stars such as Liza Minnelli, Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, Vanessa Williams and Jennifer Aniston, along with top artists, composers and musicians.
Should Conditions In Prison Really Be Worse Than On The Outside?
“Why are the carceral practices in the US so harsh? Part of the reason is the vestige of a Christian-inspired desire to reform the offender’s soul. Around the time of the Revolution, the penitentiary’s ‘unsocial manner of life’ based on order, obedience and silence could seem plausible only to those who thought that they could achieve a ‘new victory of mind over matter’. Today, prolonged solitary confinement is coming to be seen for what it is: torture.”
Galleries Hit By A Wave Of Cyber-Scams
The fraud is relatively simple. Criminals hack into an art dealer’s email account and monitor incoming and outgoing correspondence. When the gallery sends a PDF invoice to a client via email following a sale, the conversation is hijacked. Posing as the gallery, hackers send a duplicate, fraudulent invoice from the same gallery email address, with an accompanying message instructing the client to disregard the first invoice and instead wire payment to the account listed in the fraudulent document.
British Museum’s Deal With Abu Dhabi Is Probably Dead
“Delays in the construction of the Norman Foster-designed Zayed National Museum in Abu Dhabi means that an agreement with British Museum – which was to help curate exhibitions and lend the new institution around 500 valuable artifacts – is unlikely to be realized.”
Charge: Paul Manafort Bought Art With His Laundered Money, Say Feds
The purchases include $31,900 at an art gallery in Florida and a whopping $623,910 at a New York antiques dealer. All that pales in comparison, however, beside the staggering $1 million spent at a rug dealer in Alexandria, Virginia. Wires were also made for $849,215 to a “Men’s Clothing Store in New York,” $520,440 to a “Clothing Store in Beverly Hills,” and $655,500 to a “Landscaper in the Hamptons.”
‘Rosenkavalier’ Is Full Of Lies About Sex, Love, And Aging Women (A NY Times Op-Ed)
Philosopher Martha Nussbaum, who holds an endowed chair at the University of Chicago, identifies three lies (her word) at the heart of the Strauss-Hofmannsthal opera. (She makes fair points, but did she honestly expect that a Viennese comic opera written a century ago – and set 270 years ago – would seem realistic about such matters, or that audiences would take it as such, in 2017?)
Benjamin Millepied On The Struggle To Make Ballet More Diverse And Equitable
“In the American ballet world, issues of diversity and equality are front and center. Many have pointed to a lack of female choreographers and heads of major companies. Millepied says that’s a problem that’s specific to ballet. ‘There are amazing choreographers in contemporary dance. If ballet schools made that more part of their mission, I think more women would be choreographing.'”
Hindu Extremists Now Want To Wipe The Taj Mahal From India’s History (To This We’ve Come)
“In past months, religious nationalists in the Hindu-majority country have stepped up a campaign to push the four-century-old Mughal monument to the margins of Indian history. One legislator recently kicked up a national storm when he labelled the tomb ‘a blot’. Resentment at the fact the country’s most recognisable monument was built by a Muslim emperor has always existed on the fringes of the Hindu right. But those fringes have never been so powerful.”
Mass. Attorney General Asks Court To Delay Berkshire Museum’s Art Sale
“Just two days before a scheduled hearing on a suit brought by the three sons of Norman Rockwell …, the attorney general’s office has submitted a legal filing stating that it ‘has significant questions and concerns’ about the museum’s planned sell-off of 40 paintings on November 13 at Sotheby’s in New York. The filing calls on the court to grant a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction so that the office has more time to study the case and formulate a final position.”