Many copies of the letter were made, and two differing versions exist — one that was sent to the Inquisition in Rome and another with less inflammatory language. But because the original letter was assumed to be lost, it wasn’t clear whether incensed clergymen had doctored the letter to strengthen their case for heresy — something Galileo complained about to friends — or whether Galileo wrote the strong version, then decided to soften his own words.
The Museum Where You Can Hold A Human Brain In Your Hands
A visit to the Brain Museum at India’s National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences in Bangalore, where guests can see and touch whole brains, slices of brain, healthy brains, and brains with all manner of pathologies. (One is full of holes made by a tapeworm.) Writes Maya Prabhu, “I feel like I’m in some kind of eccentric petting zoo.”
Has Arts Council England Misunderstood Cultural Democracy?
Many experts on cultural democracy have suggested that the Arts Council has misunderstood the idea. Community arts specialist François Matarasso made a distinction between the democratisation of culture and cultural democracy. He told AP that the former is a policy – “an initiative as a cultural organisation or as a national body to promote access to culture”. By contrast, he said cultural democracy “is a process, not a state, like democracy itself, in which we negotiate what we believe to be valuable. I don’t think it’s something that you can achieve through policy or initiatives at a national level or at an institutional level.”
Berlin Cancels Artist’s Recreation Of The Wall
Ilya Khrzhanovsky’s immersive installation DAU, scheduled to open on October 12 as part of the Berliner Festspiele, was to include a mini-East Berlin, complete with a checkpoint requiring papers, bounded by a replica of part of the barrier that once divided East and West Berlin. The city government says that it has refused permission for the project because there’s not enough time to build it safely, but many locals argue that they’ve had quite enough of walls, thank you.
Does The Perfect Sentence Exist?
What can celebrated writers teach the rest of us about the art of writing a great sentence? A common piece of writing advice is to make your sentences plain, unadorned and invisible. George Orwell gave this piece of advice its epigram: “Good prose is like a windowpane.” A reader should notice the words no more than someone looking through glass notices the glass. Except that you do notice the glass.
Why Are Books Getting Longer?
One book survey found that the average number of pages had increased from 320 to 400 pages between 1999 and 2014. Some think that the shift to digital formats has contributed, not least in removing the fear of being crushed beneath your duvet by your bedtime reading. Val McDermid, another of the judges, cited the inexperience of editors; commercial pressures which deny them the time they need to spend on books; and the unwillingness of writers to listen.
Minority Report: The People Who Don’t Like “Hamilton”
“I am not at all shy about how much personally I love it as a show. But for me, understanding what’s problematic about it helps me appreciate it more and helps me understand more what is possible.”
Remembering The Cultural Pied Piper Of Detroit
David DiChiera belongs on the Mount Rushmore of contemporary Detroit. With his beloved city at its nadir in the 1970s and ’80s, he dared to imagine a future that was audaciously optimistic and inextricably linked to the arts and downtown Detroit. He promised to build an opera house and a major opera company from scratch in a city better known for producing Chevys than “Carmens.” Most people thought he was nuts. But then he accomplished everything he said he would do.
Is The First 100-Year-Old Human Alive Now?
Rather than potentially wiping out humanity, as some high profile futurists like Elon Musk have warned is a possibility, A.I. could increase our lifespan tenfold.
How Does It Work For An Author Take On A Dead Author’s Beloved Characters And Series?
First, the author’s heirs have to want that – and they have to pick the new author carefully. (Often they do want it because, well, money.) One author got good advice from a friend: “He said, ‘Reed, I’m a huge Elvis fan and I’ve seen the greatest Elvis impersonators in the world. And sadly, there’s two things they cannot escape. First, no matter how good their act, I always know it’s not really Elvis. Second, they can never do anything new.'”
The Choreographer Shaking Things Up (In A Good Way) At City Ballet
Kyle Abraham feels like a ballet outsider – after all, he’s known for his work in modern dance. But he also feels the pressure of representation: “He is the first black artist in more than a decade to create a new work for the company, and just the seventh in its 70-year history. (In a repertory with more than 400 ballets, just 10 are credited or co-credited to black choreographers.)”
Ellen Pompeo Negotiated A Salary Raise, And She’s Finding The Backlash, Well, ‘Interesting’
The Grey’s Anatomy star made headlines by leaning in last year, and she says, “Women approached me on the street in tears — crying — and it is really interesting how as women we are really not used to, or accustomed to being forceful and asking for what we want, or asking for what we deserve, or speaking up, or speaking our mind.” But after a couple of other cast members were written off the show, the tone of fan response changed.
Wildfire Smoke Hurt A Lot More Than A Few Performances At This Year’s Oregon Shakespeare Festival
Stage directors with chest pains, 26 outdoor performances canceled or moved inside, and at least $2 million in lost revenue hit the festival this year, with four wildfires burning for months nearby. What does the festival’s “smoke team” plan for next year?
Sexual Harassers Thrived Under This NBC News Chief
It’s almost like there’s a network of harassers. Yes: This is a story about sexual harassers all the way down, including one of the guys tasked with reviewing, and then rejecting, Ronan Farrow’s reporting on Harvey Weinstein for NBC.
Former Hallmark Channel Host Sues, Claiming He Was Fired For Backing Colleagues’ Complaints Of Harassment
Mark Steines says he was fired when he supported women who said they were sexually harassed at the channel. “Steines alleges that the Hallmark Channel allowed [Woody] Fraser, the Home & Family executive producer, to create a ‘vulgar, demeaning and hostile work environment, especially for women.’ He also accuses Fraser of ‘running a fear-based operation’ in which he regularly ‘bullied, verbally abused and harassed cast and crew members.'”
France Will Offer Money To Get More Women Into Its Film Industry
Culture Minister Françoise Nyssen announced on Friday that “film productions with anywhere from four to eight women in key positions would be eligible for a higher government subsidy.” She said, “When things don’t change by themselves, or do so too slowly, it’s up to us to bring about change.”
New Research Says Caravaggio Didn’t Die Of Syphilis But Of Sepsis
A lot of docents are going to have to revamp their faintly salacious Baroque art tours – but only slightly, because the researchers found, through analysis of Caravaggio’s teeth, that the sepsis set in from an infected sword wound.
Van Gogh goes to the mall
As part of a Wall Street Journal column, Terry Teachout considers what it means to have 3D reproductions of Van Gogh paintings in the mall.
Kenya Temporarily Lifts Ban On ‘Rafiki’ To Make It Eligible For The Oscars
But that’s only because a judge overruled the country’s film board, which had said that the film – about a lesbian romance – “was an attempt to ‘legitimize lesbianism’ in the East African nation, where homosexuality is illegal.” The ban is lifted for one week only, which will make the film eligible for the Academy Awards.
This Artist Gets His Ideas – And His Style – From Bugs [VIDEO]
Artist Steven Kutcher, who paints various bugs’ (and tarantulas’) feet and then creates larger paintings based on the trails: “My favorite artists are the good ones. They created new languages.”
Museum Musical Chairs (again): Frick to Sublease Building That the Met Leases from Whitney
Wait, what? Yes: “The Met hopes to decamp from the Whitney Museum’s former flagship building in 2020. The Frick would become the new temporary tenant to 2023.”
Agnès Varda Is Like Yes, I’m 90, But I’m Not Dead Yet, So Stop Being All Reverential
Indeed, the French New Wave filmmaker is still a sort of “punk monk” despite failing eyesight and difficulty walking. Varda says not to patronize her: “I am still alive, I am still curious. I should not be treated like an old piece of rotting flesh!”
The Job Of An Editor Is To Edit, And Here’s How Ian Buruma Missed It By A Mile
No, Mr. Buruma, it wasn’t that you “blew up” on Twitter when angry readers of your New York Times Review of Books found an essay by an accused – though acquitted – sexual abuser headlining the magazine. It wasn’t even your flippant interview with Slate that sealed your fate. It was the lack of editing. “Accuracy aside, the piece Buruma found so ‘interesting’ is, actually, unbearably trite. As a literary personal essay, it is a failure, written in abstract and bland language, drowning under the weight of vague therapeutic bromides.”
‘The Ring’ Machine Is Getting A (Quite Literal) Retool
The stories of the 45-ton set’s missteps are legion, but, “after spending months in the shop, it should be ready to go for another spin this spring, Met officials hope.”
The ‘Game Of Thrones’ Baby Name Effect Is Ongoing
The trend, which started when the series gained popularity in 2011, hasn’t really slowed. (And many, many babies from 2017 were named Leia to honor Carrie Fisher.)