ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

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There’s A Notorious List Of Great Books Banned In Florida Schools Floating Around On Social Media.  It’s Bogus.

"The book list includes novels that have been taught for generations, including To Kill a Mockingbird, Catcher in the Rye and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. It also includes the Harry Potter series and the biblical Song of Solomon. ... But the list is a fiction." - USA Today

Eco-Writing Gets Real

“We” didn’t cause climate disruption; ExxonMobil did. In these types of, albeit nonfictional, narratives, the push is precisely to rescue the “figure-ground” narrative form from the historically false way of telling the story as if vast numbers of undifferentiated humans played equal roles in the drama. - The Nation

The Readers Driving Romance To The Top Of The Bestseller Lists

BookTok is real. A co-owner of The Ripped Bodice in Los Angeles says, "'We'll get a rush of customers asking for something random and we're like, 'Why does everyone want this specific book?'' ... The answer is always TikTok." - NPR

Leaving LA, The Modern Version

"I went to an Erewhon supermarket in a hazmat suit. I chopped vegetables and did nothing with them. I put on makeup and rolled FaceTime calls. A director told me there was no longer a place for people like me in the movies." - The New York Times

AM Homes On Writing A Novel About An Attempted Republican Coup

"When I was first talking to my editors about my idea, they listened carefully and literally said: 'I dunno, it sounds kinda out there… you don’t write science fiction.'" - The Guardian (UK)

A Librarian Speaks Out About “Scary” Challenges To Books

Many librarians, rightly so, are incredibly fearful for their personal safety, for their family’s safety, for their job security. They don’t feel at liberty to speak out. - Christian Science Monitor

A History Of Consequential Editing Errors

Literature’s history is a history of mistakes, errors, misapprehensions, simple typos. It’s the shadow narrative of expression—how we fail because of sloppiness, or ignorance, or simple tiredness. Blessed are the copyeditors, for theirs is a war of eternal attrition. - The Millions

It’s Not 1975 Anymore: Let’s Stop Printing Sunday Newspaper Magazines

Dick Tofel: "First, let me be clear: I am not advocating eliminating the best longform stories that continue to distinguish many of these magazines.  ...  I am proposing saving on the very considerable expense of separately printing (often on higher quality paper), binding and inserting Sunday magazines." - Second Rough Draft

The Agony Of An Author Recording His Own Audiobook

Adrian Chiles: "Whenever I read back anything I have written, I think how I could have written it better. ... Having to read your words out loud takes this to a new level, subjecting your prose to the sternest, most unforgiving test." - The Guardian

American Librarians Are Now Having To Do The Jobs Of Social Workers

"In recent years, amid unrelenting demand for safety-net services, libraries ... offer help accessing housing, food stamps, medical care, and sometimes even showers or haircuts. Librarians, in turn, have been called on to play the role of welfare workers, first responders, therapists, and security guards." - California Healthline

Lessons From The Vanity Press Trenches

Despite my many frustrations with traditional publishing, I’ve chosen to believe in it because I think it gets a few things right. For one, it doesn’t charge artists, starving or not, to have their books published. - LitHub

The Things That Eat Books

The problem with assembling a massive collection of books is that you necessarily collect the very organisms that feed on books. - Lapham's Quarterly

Hating Holden Caulfield Does Not Make You A Bad Person

Certain corners of Twitter need to be reminded of this: a bitter argument broke out last week between those who find him an insufferable incel and those who insist he's an abused and bereaved teenager who deserves compassion (and those who disagree are heartless).  Folks, remember: Holden is fictional. - Vulture

The Museum Of The Bible Returns A 1,000-Year-Old Manuscript Looted From A Greek Monastery

"The (Gospel) manuscript is to be repatriated next month to the Kosinitza Monastery in northern Greece, where it had been used in liturgical services for hundreds of years before it was stolen by Bulgarian forces in 1917." - The New York Times

Return The Rosetta Stone To Egypt, Demands The Country’s Most Famous Archaeologist

Says Dr. Zahi Hawass of the 2,200-year-old stele, which provided the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics, "The Rosetta Stone is the icon of Egyptian identity. The British Museum has no right to show this artefact to the public." - The National (Abu Dhabi)

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