ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

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Is A Solution To The Plague Of Counterfeit Books At Hand?

"Counterfeiting occurs when a party poses as a book’s real publisher to sell fake versions of books. … Sometimes these versions are obviously fake — bad scans of a book are not uncommon. Sometimes the fakes are actual EPUBs that the counterfeiter duplicated." There's a new way to help block these forgeries. - Publishers Weekly

RuPaul Launched His Online Bookstore Last Week, And Already It’s Being (Ahem) Dragged

Allstora claims to offer 10 million titles, among which are Mein Kampf and books by such anti-LGBTQ campaigners as former actor Kirk Cameron. Lady Bunny calls Allstora "rainbow capitalism," and the owner of one lesbian bookstore says it's "a dropshipping operation with a kind of veneer of progressivity over it." - Vulture

Can Literature Shape Law?

What does it mean to credit the written word with such capacious potencies, to charge it with such real-world responsibilities? And how is literature, poetry, language to operate as a force for good and still maintain its duties to itself, to its self-delighting, essentially purposeless imperative to live as lively language? - Public Books

Gabriel García Márquez’s Final Book Is Being Published. Should It Be?

During the '00s, Gabo went through several drafts of Until August and planned to publish it. But by 2012, afflicted with dementia and unable to finalize the book, he asked that it be destroyed. A decade later, his sons decided it could be salvaged. Were they right to try? - The New York Times

State Of Texas Took Over Houston Schools. Now School Libraries Are Being Emptied

According to circulation data from the Houston Independent school district, the number of books checked out per student at NES schools dwindled to nearly zero compared to over five books to more than 12 books a student at non-NES schools in the district from August 2023 to January 2024. - The Guardian

The Secret To Preserving Ancient Papyrus Can Be Found At Your Favorite Sushi Bar

"Wasabi vapors have been found to effectively treat fungal infections on both painted and unpainted samples of mock ancient Egyptian papyrus, and to do so without impacting the papyrus's delicate chemicals or painted pigments." - Artnet

Study: Millions Of Research Papers Are Not Being Properly Preserved Online

More than one-quarter of scholarly articles are not being properly archived and preserved, a study of more than seven million digital publications suggests. The findings indicate that systems to preserve papers online have failed to keep pace with the growth of research output. - Nature

RuPaul Is Sending A Rainbow Book Bus Across America To Give Away Banned Books

"The country’s most famous drag star … (is) one of three business partners behind Allstora, which will ... provide writers with a greater share of profits than other online booksellers do. … (Allstora) will send a rainbow school bus from the West Coast to the South to distribute books targeted by bans." - The New York Times

New York Times Crossword Editor And NPR Sunday Puzzle Host Will Shortz Is Recovering From A Stroke

Shortz, who has been crossword editor at The New York Times for three decades, "shared the health update in a recorded message that aired on Sunday at the end of the puzzle quiz segment during the NPR program." - The New York Times

Jane Austen Changed Fiction Forever

Adding “free direct thought” meant her narrator had distance, but brought the reader into the characters’ heads. - Open Culture

Turns Out That ‘Fixer Upper’ Couple Bought Larry McMurtry’s Bookstore Contents For Their Hotel Lobby

They were remodeling an old hotel in Waco, Texas. “Upon Joanna’s request for 'a ton of books,' Chip purchased around 300,000, the entire collection of Larry McMurtry, the Texan writer who died in 2021.” Only about 2000 are on display. Where did the books go? - The Paris Review

John McWhorter: Black English Isn’t, And Shouldn’t Be, The Exclusive Property of Black People

"There is simply no way that whiteness and Blackness will mingle as they have in music, cuisine, gesture, greeting styles, dating, and multiracial identity, and yet for some reason be halted at language. One might wish to enforce an artificial blockade here, but it’s far too late." - The New York Times

The Fraught History Of Science Fiction In China

"In 40 years, it’s gone from a politically suspect niche to one of China’s most successful cultural exports, with author Liu Cixin gaining an international following that includes fans like Barack Obama and Mark Zuckerberg. But it’s had to overcome obstacles created by geopolitics for just as long." - AP

The Maven Who Assembled A Massive, Now-Priceless Collection of Yiddish Literature

"Scholars had estimated that there were about 70,000 books waiting to be rescued. (Aaron) Lansky went on to gather 1.5 million Yiddish books — a trove that evolved into the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Mass., one of the nation’s leading Jewish cultural institutions." - The New York Times

Merriam-Webster Breaks The Internet Over Grammar Change

"It is permissible in English for a preposition to be what you end a sentence with," the dictionary publisher said in a post shared on Instagram last week. - NPR

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