"Let’s spare a thought for those sad lost souls who couldn’t achieve their dreams of becoming artists, and thus became critics. The same people who also hated Jojo Rabbit. Irrelevant. Out of touch. Obsolete. In the bin." - Variety
"Unfortunately, the scholars submitting papers aren’t the only ones using AI. So are many of their peer reviewers. One recent peer review that my journal received—from a senior scholar—read like an unedited cut-and-paste job from an LLM." - The Atlantic
"'Defendants are shuttering the Kennedy Center to hide the ongoing mismanagement of this once vibrant institution and to placate its current chairman,' they wrote in the filing." - The New York Times
It's not just Spooky Season. "The Gothic label, once applied primarily to horror and dark romance, has been used to describe space operas, literary works and fantastical hybrids of all kinds." - The New York Times
"It is a tragic situation, after all, for a piece of wood to have to plead with us for decency, love, and justice. It was the cello’s purest act of superheroism, to play Bach’s solo suites to a civilization sunk into depravity." - Paris Review
"Maas hysteria gripped the Bell House in the hours before the book dropped. Fans traded conspiracy theories about future plot twists, got temporary tattoos and face paint, drank themed cocktails, posed for photos behind a giant cauldron and bought branded candles, bag charms and other memorabilia." - The New York Times
It's ... intense. "Fans are compiling Google Docs of links to downloaded stories, touting them as 'survival guides' for the 'AO3 apocalypse' and organizing them by fictional character pairings, or ships." - Wired
Archive of Our Own, or AO3 as it's known to many of its millions of users, may be down for up to a month. "A surge in traffic to archived versions of the site now 'putting a heavy load on the Wayback Machine.'" - The New York Times
Lyndon Laveaux is one of around 400 scare actors working at the Queen Mary's Dark Harbor in Long Beach. He plays the Captain, the undead master of ceremonies. “I just love it,” he says. “It's like an adult summer camp and I appreciate the fans, I appreciate this community.” - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)
Horror book sales are up 39 percent this year over last, according to Circana BookScan. The market is growing: 5.1 million books were sold in 2025, up from 3.2 million in 2021. - The New York Times
“For many, music is in their blood. It has flowed through their families for generations, and the thought of never playing again is unbearable. Every so often, some pull out their instruments and play in secret. A knock at the door could mean danger. Still, they play.” - AP
Despite months of controversy, the United States managed to get Alma Allen‘s enormous sculptures to Venice for this year’s Biennale. Getting them home, however, is proving more difficult. - ARTnews
“The Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency is concerned that the Smithsonian Institution (Smithsonian) does not properly review proposed exhibits in its museums,” says a letter to outgoing Smithsonian secretary Lonnie Bunch III, penned by subcommittee chairman Tim Burchett of Tennessee along with Georgia’s Brian Jack. - ARTnews
At a moment when film or TV versions of novels often end up, at best, as decent airplane watches, opera, as the excellent Lincoln in the Bardo illustrates, has the potential to create something bolder and more bizarre. - The Atlantic
