Tag: 12.14.03

The Commonplace Genius (What Fun Is That?)

Is Mensa, the “genius” IQ organization, inflating applicants’ test scores so as to boost its membership numbers? “Membership in the UK currently stands at a lowly 26,247 – the lowest figure in 15 years, more than 17,400 below the figure 10 years ago, when membership reached an all-time high of 43,652. While Mensa has a worldwide membership of 98,861, British Mensa, the heart and home of the society, is in a very sorry state indeed. So what has gone wrong? Well, pretty much everything…”

Rings Wins “Big Read”

Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings has won the BBC’s Big Read poll for the UK’s most popular book. “The trilogy won 174,000 votes, 23% of the poll. The other main contender going into Saturday night was Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, which won 135,000 votes. Philip Pullman’s metaphysical trilogy of children’s books, His Dark Materials, came third with 63,000.”

In Search Of Old Baghdad

“Few cities in the world occupy as strong a hold over the collective imagination as Baghdad. Set at the crossroads between East and West, the city was one of the first great power centers of the Islamic world. Its name still conjures up a mix of images, from the rich intellectual heritage depicted in its ancient texts to the exotic fantasies scattered through the pages of the “Arabian Nights.” Its emergence as a world capital marked the beginning of centuries of cultural dominance by the Middle East at a time when Europe was floundering through the Dark Ages. Today that legacy has understandably been pushed to the background.”

When Baghdad Aspired To Modern Greatness

There was a brief time in the mid-20th Century when Baghdad aspired to being rebuilt as an international city. “More construction took place in Baghdad during the second half of the 20th century than at any time since the Golden Age of the Abbasid dynasty came to a close nearly 750 years ago. Most of this new work was Modern in spirit and represented a radical break with Baghdad’s past. Among the international architects with major projects here were Frank Lloyd Wright, then nearing the end of his career; Walter Gropius, a founder of the Bauhaus; and the Italian Modernist Gio Ponti. They were soon followed by a rising generation of Iraqi talents who sought to infuse Western architectural forms with a more local sensibility. Together, such architects transformed Baghdad into a modern city — one whose defining urban features were rooted in the cultural traditions of the West.”

What’s Christmas Without A Big ‘Ol War Movie?

What’s with all the war movies set out in prime movie season, wonders Frank Rich. “Intentionally or not, three of the four new Christmas war movies play on our current fears rather than reprise the slam-dunk triumphalism of “Top Gun.” And they do so even though most of them are top-heavy with creative talent (actors, directors, screenwriters) who hail from countries in the coalition of the willing (England, Australia, Japan, even Romania).”

The Hard Road To Reinventing The RSC

The Royal Shakespeare Company has fallen on hard times. “Millions of dollars in debt, scrambling for London outlets for its work and hungrily in pursuit of a vigorous new aesthetic, the company is in the midst of an ambitious attempt to reinvent itself under a new artistic director, Michael Boyd, the fifth man to hold the job since the company’s inception in 1960. Each step taken by this new administration is being watched closely, especially since it’s encountered obstacles in exporting productions from Stratford.”

Theory Is Dead?

“In the 1970’s and 80’s, legions of students and professors in humanities departments embraced the view that the world was a ‘text’ – that the personal and political were shaped by language and that literary and cultural critics possessed tools as powerful as those of, say, political scientists for understanding the world and effecting social change. While outside observers have long inveighed against theory’s abstruse argot and political pretensions, this year theory seems to have lost much of its cachet, even among its would-be defenders.”