• ArtsJournal Classic
    • ArtsJournal (text by date)
    • ArtsJournal Classic (headlines)
  • Subscribe
    • Free AJ Newsletters
    • Subscribe to AJ’s Premium Newsletters
  • Follow
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Tumblr
    • RSS
  • Advertising
    • Advertising
    • Place a Classified Ad
  • About AJ Classifieds
    • About AJ Classifieds
    • Place a Classified Ad
  • About
    • About
    • Contact
  • Sources
  • Contact

ArtsJournal

  • Home
  • DANCE
  • IDEAS
  • ISSUES
  • MEDIA
  • MUSIC
  • PEOPLE
  • THEATRE
  • VISUAL
  • WORDS
  • AJBlogs
    • AJBlog Central
    • Culture
      • Amanda Ameer
      • Ted Bale
      • Doug Borwick
      • Judith Dobrzynski
      • Lynne Conner
      • Jan Herman
      • Matt Lehrman
      • David Jays
      • Paul Levy
      • Clayton Lord
      • Sarah Lutman
      • Scott McLemee
      • Douglas McLennan
      • Sheila Melvin
      • National Arts Strategies
      • Diane Ragsdale
      • Tim Riley
      • Lee Rosenbaum
      • Michael Rushton
      • Andrew Taylor
      • Terry Teachout
      • Scott Timberg
      • Jim Undercoffler
      • Chloe Veltman
      • Margy Waller
    • Dance
      • Deborah Jowitt
      • Jean Lenihan
      • Apollinaire Scherr
      • Tobi Tobias
    • Media
      • Jeff Weinstein
    • Music
      • Andrew Appel
      • Bruce Brubaker
      • Lawrence Dillon
      • Kyle Gann
      • Joe Horowitz
      • Speight Jenkins
      • Alexander Laing
      • Howard Mandel
      • Doug Ramsey
      • Greg Sandow
      • Michal Shapiro
      • David Patrick Stearns
      • Stanford Thompson
    • Theatre
      • Scott Walters
    • Visual
      • John Perreault
      • Glenn Weiss
  • AUDIENCE

Words

How Did Dr. Seuss Himself Respond When Criticized For Racist Caricatures?

WORDS Posted: March 5, 2021 8:05 am

Philip Nel, a Seuss scholar (yes, there is such a thing): “Yes, there are some examples of him revising in response to criticism, and you can give him credit for that — but I would only give partial credit! … I think what is surprising to people is that this was a guy who throughout his work tried to do anti-racist stuff. Think of Horton Hears a Who — one reviewer who read the book when it was published [in 1954] described it as an argument for the protection of minorities and their rights. … [But] Seuss wasn’t aware that his visual imagination was so steeped in the cultures of American racism. He was doing in some of his books what he was trying to oppose in others.” – Slate

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

WORDS Published: 03.03.21

Read the story in Slate Published: 03.03.21

Dr. Seuss Sales Soar After Publishers Withdraw Six Books With Racist Caricatures

WORDS Posted: March 5, 2021 7:33 am

In the wake of the decision by Dr. Seuss Enterprises to stop printing and selling If I Ran the Zoo, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, and four other titles — and of conservative media’s ginned-up outrage — American customers are snapping up all of the author’s children’s books. On Amazon’s bestseller list as of Thursday morning, nine of the top ten and 30 of the top 50 slots were occupied by Dr. Seuss titles. (Naturally, people with used copies of the withdrawn books were charging hundreds of dollars for them.) – The Guardian

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

WORDS Published: 03.04.21

Read the story in The Guardian Published: 03.04.21

Alt-Weeklies Looked Doomed Even Before The Pandemic. Here’s How Some Of Them Have Hung On

WORDS Posted: March 4, 2021 8:05 am

The structural troubles those papers were facing before 2020 were bad enough; then COVID shut down their main sources of ad revenue (performance venues, bars and clubs, restaurants). “[Yet] there are many that, against all odds, have survived. In true alt-weekly edge, it’s a stubborn, punk refusal to let go. Here are four of their stories.” – The Daily Beast

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

WORDS Published: 03.01.21

Read the story in The Daily Beast Published: 03.01.21

Read Nabokov’s Long-Lost Superman Poem, Now In Print At Last

WORDS Posted: March 4, 2021 6:34 am

“The Man of To-morrow’s Lament” — written as the superhero’s internal monologue as he walks through the city with Lois Lane, ruing that they can never have children together — was submitted to, and rejected by, The New Yorker in the summer of 1942 and then disappeared. – Times Literary Supplement (UK)

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

WORDS Published: 03.05.21

Read the story in Times Literary Supplement (UK) Published: 03.05.21

A Critic Reviews 125 Years Of The NYT’s Book Reviews

WORDS Posted: March 3, 2021 3:01 pm

To wander through 125 years of book reviews is to endure assault by adjective. All the fatuous books, the frequently brilliant, the disappointing, the essential. The adjectives one only ever encounters in a review (indelible, risible), the archaic descriptors (sumptuous). So many masterpieces, so many duds — now enjoying quiet anonymity. – The New York Times

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

WORDS Published: 02.26.21

Read the story in The New York Times Published: 02.26.21

‘Lolita’ Is A Horrifying Story. How Does It Keep Getting Past Obscenity Laws, Let Alone Cancel Culture?

WORDS Posted: March 3, 2021 11:03 am

Lady Chatterley’s Lover, which now seems almost anodyne, was the subject of a criminal prosecution in 1960, but Lolita, which came out the previous year and still has the power to shock, was not. Why? Actor Emily Mortimer, whose father was a barrister who defended more than one client in obscenity trials, uses what she learned from him (“First, it’s very funny. My dad always said you could get away with anything in court as long as you made people laugh”) and others to explain the power of Nabokov’s achievement. – The New York Times

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

WORDS Published: 03.02.21

Read the story in New York Times Published: 03.02.21

Six Dr. Seuss Books Withdrawn For ‘Hurtful And Wrong’ Portrayals

WORDS Posted: March 3, 2021 5:32 am

“Six Dr. Seuss books — including And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street and If I Ran the Zoo — will stop being published because of racist and insensitive imagery, the business that preserves and protects the author’s legacy said Tuesday.” – AP

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

WORDS Published: 03.02.21

Read the story in AP Published: 03.02.21

Bookshop.com Generates £1 Million For Indie UK Bookstores

WORDS Posted: March 2, 2021 3:01 pm

Bookshop.org was launched in the US a year ago and in the UK in November. Pitching itself as a socially conscious way to buy books online, it allows booksellers to create a virtual shop front. For books ordered directly from these online stores, booksellers receive 30% of the cover price from each sale without having to handle customer service or shipping. When a sale is made and not attributed to a specific bookseller, 10% of the cover price goes into a pot that is split between all of the shops. – The Guardian

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

WORDS Published: 03.01.21

Read the story in The Guardian Published: 03.01.21

Artificial Intelligence Has A Grammar Problem

WORDS Posted: March 2, 2021 12:31 pm

Sometimes Grammarly doesn’t do what it should, and sometimes it even does what it shouldn’t. These strengths and failings hint at the essence of language and the peculiarity of human intelligence, as opposed to the artificial sort as it stands today. – The Economist

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

WORDS Published: 02.27.21

Read the story in The Economist Published: 02.27.21

MIT Has Figured Out How To Read Unopened 17th-Century Letters

WORDS Posted: March 2, 2021 11:04 am

In those days before mass-produced envelopes, important letters were intricately folded and then sewn shut; until now, modern-day scholars couldn’t read such items without cutting open the stitching and damaging the delicate old paper. MIT scientists have now developed a way to do digital x-ray scans of the letters and use virtual reality software to derive images of what they’d look like if opened. – The New York Times

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

WORDS Published: 03.02.21

Read the story in New York Times Published: 03.02.21

Off With All Our Heads – The Online World Loves To Misquote Lewis Carroll

WORDS Posted: March 1, 2021 7:30 am

But why? Alison Flood investigates why Britain’s Royal Mint and an actual Carroll commemorative collection have been getting quotes wrong … and then printing them on coinage. Cue the facepalm emoji: Turns out it’s all the fault of Goodreads. – The Guardian (UK)

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

WORDS Published: 03.01.21

Read the story in The Guardian (UK) Published: 03.01.21

Books: A Coronavirus Lifesaver

WORDS Posted: March 1, 2021 6:30 am

At least that’s what a bookseller turned newly-minted Instagram book reviewer (that is, a Bookstagrammer) says. He hasn’t seen his family for nearly two years, a friend has cancer, and his job at Waterstone’s keeps going away and coming back as lockdowns come and go. But reading, and Instagram, are there: “There’s so much to be worried about, and book blogging takes my mind off it.” – BBC

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

WORDS Published: 02.26.21

Read the story in BBC Published: 02.26.21

The Lie At The Heart Of The Western – And How Contemporary Novelists Are Fixing It

WORDS Posted: March 1, 2021 4:30 am

The first novel to be considered a “Western” came out in 1902, and the tropes it established have lasted for more than a century – white men shooting each other and Indigenous people, and women, if they exist at all, serving those men. But newer novels set in the West “preserve some aspects of the old Westerns: the parched vistas, the isolation, the high-stakes emotion of characters running afoul of the law. But they also call into question the genre’s basic premise: the idea of the frontier as a place to be mastered and overcome. Instead, the Western becomes a way of thinking about humans’ relationship to land, the past, and the idea of home.” – The Atlantic

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

WORDS Published: 02.28.21

Read the story in The Atlantic Published: 02.28.21

Writers Are Exposing Sexual Abuse – And Deeply Horrible Attitudes – In France

WORDS Posted: March 1, 2021 4:15 am

Why now? “While it is illegal in France for an adult to have sex with a minor under the age of 15, there is no age of consent; if there is no evidence of threats or violence, the adult will not be charged with rape. In 2018 … ministers proposed introducing an age of consent, which has yet to pass. A recent poll estimated that one in 10 French people have been the victim of sexual abuse within the family as children.” But writers, and books, are pushing back. – The Guardian (UK)

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

WORDS Published: 02.25.21

Read the story in The Guardian (UK) Published: 02.25.21

The Internet Archive Digitizes A Lot Of Books

WORDS Posted: February 28, 2021 7:30 am

How does that work? With a lot of human effort, and at a mind-blowing pace of 3500 books per day. “Clean, dry human hands are the best way to turn pages.” – Open Culture

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

WORDS Published: 02.22.21

Read the story in Open Culture Published: 02.22.21

What Will Happen If Publishing Giants Merge?

WORDS Posted: February 26, 2021 1:32 pm

“Perhaps the industry’s biggest concern about the merger, especially among agents and authors, is what it will mean for book deals. An agent representing a promising author or buzzworthy book often hopes to auction it to the highest bidder. If there are fewer buyers, will it be harder for agents to get an auction going for their clients, and ultimately, will it be harder for authors to get an advantageous deal?” – The New York Times

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

WORDS Published: 02.26.21

Read the story in The New York Times Published: 02.26.21

How Novels Can Help Plan Our Way Through COVID Recovery

WORDS Posted: February 26, 2021 11:32 am

As sources for possible future scenarios capable of providing strategic foresight, or producing alternative future plans, novels can also help businesses create dialogue on difficult and even taboo subjects. Novels are, therefore, capable of helping managers become better, providing them with creative insight and wisdom. Science fiction can provide a means to explore morality tales, a warning of possible futures, in an attempt to help us avoid or rectify that future. – The Conversation

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

WORDS Published: 02.24.21

Read the story in The Conversation Published: 02.24.21

Is It Time… Finally… To Kill The Book Blurb?

WORDS Posted: February 26, 2021 9:31 am

In 1936, George Orwell claimed that “the disgusting tripe that is written by the blurb-reviewers” was causing the public to turn away from novels altogether. “Novels are being shot at you at the rate of fifteen a day,” he wrote in an essay, “and every one of them an unforgettable masterpiece which you imperil your soul by missing.” – The Wall Street Journal

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

WORDS Published: 02.24.21

Read the story in The Wall Street Journal Published: 02.24.21

Literature Is A Technology, And It Should Be Taught Like One

WORDS Posted: February 26, 2021 9:02 am

Neuroscientist-turned-English-professor Angus Fletcher: “It’s a machine designed to work in concert with another machine, our brain. The purpose of the two machines is to accelerate each other. … We’ve been taught in school to interpret literature, to say what it means, to identify its themes and arguments. But when you do that, you’re working against literature. I’m saying we need to find these technologies, these inventions, and connect them to your head, see what they can do for your brain.” – Nautilus

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

WORDS Published: 02.24.21

Read the story in Nautilus Published: 02.24.21

Stage Actors In Paris Offer ‘Poetic Consultations’ By Phone

THEATRE, WORDS Posted: February 26, 2021 5:06 am

“‘I am calling you for a poetic consultation,’ said a warm voice on the telephone. ‘It all starts with a very simple question: How are you?’ Since March, almost 15,000 people around the world have received a call like this. These conversations with actors, who offer a one-on-one chat before reading a poem selected for the recipient, started as a lockdown initiative by a prominent Paris playhouse, the Théâtre de la Ville, in order to keep its artists working while stages remained dark.” – The New York Times

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

THEATRE, WORDS Published: 02.25.21

Read the story in New York Times Published: 02.25.21

The Nobel Winner Who’s Not All That Crazy About Writing

WORDS Posted: February 25, 2021 12:02 pm

Kazuo Ishiguro: “In some ways, I suppose, I’m just not that dedicated to my vocation. I expect it’s because writing wasn’t my first choice of profession. It’s almost something I fell back on because I couldn’t make it as a singer-songwriter. It’s not something I’ve wanted to do every minute of my life. It’s what I was permitted to do. So, you know, I do it when I really want to do it, but otherwise I don’t.” – The New York Times Magazine

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

WORDS Published: 02.23.21

Read the story in New York Times Magazine Published: 02.23.21

Whatever The Pandemic May Have Thrown At You, There’s A German Word For It

WORDS Posted: February 25, 2021 10:03 am

“Over the past year, German has coined some 1,000-plus new terms endemic to the Now Times. … And that’s thanks to the language’s rules of compound noun formation, which dictate that you can make a new, longer legitimate word out of almost any existing ones.” Germanist and recovering academic Rebecca Schuman is our guide. – Slate

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

WORDS Published: 02.24.21

Read the story in Slate Published: 02.24.21

When The Masses First Started To Read Widely…

WORDS Posted: February 24, 2021 3:02 pm

“It has recently been argued that reading novels, especially epistolary novels, helped people in the 18th century to put themselves in other people’s shoes, and sensitized them to cruelty in everyday life, savage punishments and abuses of human rights: In reading, they empathized across traditional social boundaries between nobles and commoners, masters and servants, men and women, perhaps even adults and children. As a consequence, they came to see others—people they did not know personally—as like them, as having the same kind of inner emotions.” – LitHub

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

WORDS Published: 02.23.21

Read the story in LitHub Published: 02.23.21

Big Publishing’s New Editors

WORDS Posted: February 24, 2021 2:31 pm

“By the time that America’s reckoning on race reached a fever pitch last year, publishing was months into a messy upheaval of its own. On Twitter, publishing insiders railed against the blinding whiteness of the industry, while writers of color used #PublishingPaidMe to show that they often received far less money than their white peers. The resulting move by the big-five publishers to hire executives and editors of color has been viewed by some as a sea change for the industry.” – New York Magazine

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

WORDS Published: 02.23.21

Read the story in New York Magazine Published: 02.23.21

Why Literary Canons Are Important

WORDS Posted: February 24, 2021 9:28 am

“For those who view the very notion of the canon as inherently elitist, it’s worth noting that the phenomena mostly clearly implicated in its formation were the democratizing processes of the late 19th and early 20th century: the massive extension of free education—not just to little white proto-patriarchs, but to girls, and children from diverse communities as well—together with the technological improvements in the replication and dissemination of literary texts.” – LitHub

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

WORDS Published: 02.19.21

Read the story in LitHub Published: 02.19.21

Next Page »
  • Stumbling down memory lane
    In today’s Wall Street Journal, I review George Street Playhouse’s webcast of Theresa Rebeck’s Bad Dates. Here’s an excerpt. *  *  * The premise of Theresa Rebeck’s “Bad Dates,” which is being webcast by New... Read more
    Source: About Last Night Published on: 2021-03-05
  • Replay: Ginette Neveu plays Chausson’s Poème
    Ginette Neveu plays the closing section of Ernest Chausson’s Poème. This rare silent film footage is synchronized with Neveu’s commercial recording of the piece: (This is the latest in a series of arts-... Read more
    Source: About Last Night Published on: 2021-03-05
  • Almanac: Mary Renault on love and hate
    “In hatred as in love, we grow like the thing we brood upon. What we loathe, we graft into our very soul.” Mary Renault, The Mask of Apollo Continue reading Almanac: Mary Renault... Read more
    Source: About Last Night Published on: 2021-03-05
  • Almanac: Flannery O’Connor on mixed feelings
    “I hope that to be of two minds about some things is not to be neutral.” Flannery O’Connor, letter to Betty Hester, May 4, 1957 Continue reading Almanac: Flannery O’Connor on mixed... Read more
    Source: About Last Night Published on: 2021-03-04
  • Snapshot: Rudyard Kipling speaks about writing and truth
    Rudyard Kipling speaks about writing and truth in an undated film clip from the Thirties. This is thought to be the only surviving sound footage of Kipling: (This is the latest in... Read more
    Source: About Last Night Published on: 2021-03-03
  • Almanac: Rudyard Kipling on the prevalence of obsessions
    “Everyone is more or less mad on one point.” Rudyard Kipling, “On the Strength of a Likeness” Continue reading Almanac: Rudyard Kipling on the prevalence of obsessions at About Last Night.... Read more
    Source: About Last Night Published on: 2021-03-03
  • Lookback: on being sworn in to the National Council on the Arts
    From 2005: I am now officially the Honorable Terry Teachout, having been sworn in this morning (together with Gerard Schwarz and James Ballinger) as a member of the National Council on the Arts. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor... Read more
    Source: About Last Night Published on: 2021-03-02
  • Almanac: Flannery O’Connor on inhibited families
    “I come from a family where the only emotion respectable to show is irritation. In some this tendency produces hives, in others literature, in me both.” Flannery O’Connor, letter to Betty Hester,... Read more
    Source: About Last Night Published on: 2021-03-02
  • Pandemic Polemics: Metropolitan Museum’s Off-Key NPR Message vs. Cleveland’s Harmonious Storage Show
    The Metropolitan Museum’s premature revelation that it might take advantage of the Association of Art Museum Directors’ relaxed deaccession standards, by selling art to help pay for “care of the collection,” was... Read more
    Source: CultureGrrl Published on: 2021-03-01
  • Just because: Flannery O’Connor appears in a 1932 newsreel
    A five-year-old Flannery O’Connor appears in a rare 1932 Pathé newsreel segment about a chicken she taught to walk backwards: (This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos... Read more
    Source: About Last Night Published on: 2021-03-01
  • Almanac: Flannery O’Connor on writers and their childhood
    “I think you probably collect most of your experience as a child—when you really had nothing else to do—and then transfer it to other situations when you write. Flannery O’Connor, letter to... Read more
    Source: About Last Night Published on: 2021-03-01
  • Afa Dworkin Talks Diversity & Arts Leadership
    Afa Dworkin, President & Artistic Director of the Sphinx Organization speaks about the importance of diversity in the arts and leadership attributes that empower organizational excellence.... Read more
    Source: Aaron Dworkin Published on: 2021-02-27
  • Joseph Brodsky on the Life of Books
    On the whole, books are less finite than ourselves. Even the worst among them outlast their authors. ... Often they sit on the shelves absorbing dust long after the writer himself has... Read more
    Source: Straight|Up Published on: 2021-02-26
  • Lawrence Ferlinghetti Dies at 101 His Pictures of a Gone World Remain
    A literary era passes. It was already past, yet it still has influence. Maybe the biggest. Because ArtsJournal was down yesterday—I know not why—I couldn’t post this. The world didn't miss it.... Read more
    Source: Straight|Up Published on: 2021-02-24

Copyright © 2021 ·Metro Pro Theme · Genesis Framework by StudioPress · WordPress · Log in

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.