“I asked my colleagues to suggest living polymaths of the polygamous sort – doers, not dabblers. … It is an impressive list, by anyone’s standards. You can find scientists, writers, actors, artists – the whole range of human creativity. Even so, what struck me most strongly was how poorly today’s polymaths compare with the polymaths of the past.”
Tag: 2009
Remembering Samuel Johnson Correctly
“Johnson may well be the most celebrated lexicographer of English, yet many claims about his lexicography are exaggerated.” He wasn’t the first professional lexicographer; he wasn’t the first to use quotations to illustrate usage; he wasn’t even the first to write witty definitions. And yet he made dictionaries what they are today: “Among early English lexicographers, Johnson was the first to write memorably by design; he was the first to assert the cultural authority of dictionary definitions.”
At The Hermitage, Crisis Is Opportunity
“Director Mikhail Piotrovsky says the museum’s biggest projects were born in times of crisis – which explains why he is now supervising an expansion, a reinstallation, and several new international venues.”
The Persistent Power Of Vincent’s Ear
“In the decades since van Gogh sliced off a portion of his left earlobe, the event has given rise to theories, pranks, merchandise, and a host of references in culture high and low.”
Jack Kerouac, Québécois
“Bien sûr. Kerouac’s given name wasn’t Jack; it was Jean-Louis. His mother tongue wasn’t English; it was French. He was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, the son of immigrants from Quebec; on his mother’s side, he was related to [separatist leader] René Lévesque.” And he wrote two unpublished novellas in French, one titled Sur le chemin (On the Road).
‘Non-Morally-Anguished Jews Dealing Out Spaghetti-Western Justice’ To Nazis
Jeffrey Goldberg talks to Quentin Tarantino talks about how the latter’s new film, Inglourious Basterds, is a giant “Jewish revenge fantasy” in which the director “allow[s] his Jewish characters … to beat Nazis, scalp Nazis, burn Nazis, and carve swastikas into the foreheads of Nazis.”
Giving Up Alcohol As A Creative Lubricant
“Of America’s seven Nobel laureates [in literature], five were lushes.” And when alcoholism is about to kill a great writer – or his creativity (Fitzgerald, Tennessee Williams) – what then? “It may seem a little impertinent to gauge the literary merits of sobriety – you cannot write books of any discernible quality if you are dead – but clearly, sobering up is one of the more devastating acts of literary criticism an author can face.”
The Monster That’s Devouring Venice
No, it’s not the rising water. (“So go get boots,” says the mayor.) It’s tourism. 21 million visitors poured into and out of Venice in 2007. The number of hotels and guesthouses has septupled in the last ten years; vegetable sellers, hardware stores and other such urban necessities are being priced out; the cost of living, especially housing, climbs steadily; the population is down to 60,000 and shrinking. “Who will be the last Venetian left?”
All Hail The Wheel!
“It’s fair to say that when an advertisement describes a septic tank as ‘the best invention since the wheel,’ we’ve begun to take our round, load-bearing companion for granted.” Smithsonian magazine “pay[s] tribute to one of the origins of innovation by sharing some intriguing, little-known facts about the wheel.”
Russian Avant-Garde Market Is Awash In Fakes
“A six-month ARTnews investigation and interviews with scholars, dealers, and other sources in the United States, Russia, Germany, France, and Spain reveals that the number of Russian avant-garde fakes on the market is so high that they far outnumber the authentic works. … It’s impossible to put a number on them, said Natalia Kournikova of Kournikova Gallery in Moscow, but ‘we can say that almost every artist whose prices have risen has become the victim of fake makers.'”