Tag: 12.04.20

The Not-So-Hidden Literary Heritage Of Harriet The Spy

An ode to Dorothy Sayers’ Harriet Vane? You bet. But also, “Harriet is a writer devoted to routine. She loves her tomato sandwiches, her egg creams, and her spy route and notebook both because they give her a lot of pleasure and because they ground her. Like a working artist, she doesn’t want to think about the mundane details. That’s what a parent—and later, a partner—is for: somebody who can deal with practical things so an artist doesn’t have to. When Harriet’s routines are disrupted, all hell breaks loose. A thousand more writers would call that realistic.” – LitHub

A Group Of Young Men Chanting ‘Christ Is King’ Remove California Monolith And Install A Cross

Elaborate prank? Culture war? Should we be paying attention to this at all? Seriously: “The men, wearing night vision goggles and camo gear, chanted in the grainy video as they toppled the shiny structure, in a video that was posted to the streaming site DLive.tv by someone using the name CultureWarCriminal, but later removed, according to The San Luis Obispo Tribune. The Tribune described the video as ‘at times racist and homophobic’ and said that the men sang along to country songs.” – The New York Times

It’s Hard To Write About America

Not that you would know it from the number of books out there – but capturing the country isn’t easy. “Gross simplification comes along with trying to describe America. I’m convinced that trying to do this is like pouring Lake Michigan into a shot glass. It just can’t be done.” And yet. – LitHub

Video Games Are Now Playgrounds For Designers – And Brands

This is what happens with a pandemic shutdown of everything outside the house: Video games, which is a small market compared to apparel, shoots up in numbers. People start recreating brand ads in Animal Crossing. And the brands follow. “Many so-called hypebeasts who obsess over fashion are also gamers. … ‘The prototypical nerds have evolved to a point where they are very style-conscious. It’s cool to play games now.'” – Los Angeles Times

Will Publishing’s Latest Merger Kill Off Small Presses?

Literary diversity is in jeopardy with the proposed Penguin Random House/ Simon & Schuster merger, or so small publishers claim (with numbers to back them up). “This lack of competition doesn’t inflate consumer prices; it decreases labor costs. In other words, it disadvantages writers. Nowadays, the Big Four might not even make an offer for those big literary debuts. These are not guaranteed hits, after all.” – Los Angeles Times

Cliff Joseph, Artist And Advocate For Black Artists And Multicultural Art Therapy, 98

Joseph led protests in the 1960s and 1970s, telling museums they needed to include Black artists in their collections. Later, he entered the field of mental health, and taught art therapy at The Pratt Institute. He is credited for “helping to introduce concepts like racial sensitivity and cultural competency to the profession.” – The New York Times

Naomi Long Madgett, Longtime Poet Laureate Of Detroit And Champion Of Black Poets, 97

Madgett was 17 when her first book was published. “Her elegant, exacting and lyrical poems — which invited comparisons to Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson — addressed a breadth of themes: social justice, romantic love, women’s histories, religious devotion and the craft of poetry itself. Yet she was almost as well known as a publisher and editor of poetry.” – The New York Times

The Bolshoi Attempts To Return To Holiday Season

More than 100 staff and dancers are out sick, but the financial losses were adding up. One dancer: “‘There’s this term, ‘stage therapy’ and that’s what’s happening now,’ she said of the intensive group effort that’s been required to rehearse and perform despite the restrictions. ‘We take energy from [the audience] and we give energy.'” – CBC