Their argument is that there is no better way to become visible than through pop culture. – The New York Times
Author: Douglas McLennan
Why Zoom Makes You Feel Bad
To be sure, video calls are great for letting toddlers blow kisses to their grandparents, showing people what you’re cooking for dinner or maybe demonstrating how to make a face mask out of boxer briefs. But if you want to really communicate with someone in a meaningful way, video can be vexing. – The New York Times
The Difference Between European And American Intellectuals
The American writer—so goes the transatlantic stereotype—addresses the general public deliberately and democratically. Rapidly clarifying her argument and the research or experience behind it, she (over)emphasizes how little she takes this audience’s trust and attention for granted. By a contrasting convention, the European essayist makes his genre and theme seem almost accidental. – Public Books
How Our History Has Been Shaped By Plagues
“We don’t have to look far and wide to see how disease has challenged and shaped our increasingly cosmopolitan world. The modern epidemics of cholera, typhus, yellow fever, measles, smallpox, and polio, among a host of other infectious diseases, might have better prepared us for our current crisis—if only their histories were better remembered and their dead and injured duly honored.” – New Criterion
Deborah Borda On Surviving Tough Times
“The next couple of months are very unknown. But times of this kind of catastrophe are times for really reimagining what you can do and bringing people along to dare to make those choices.” – Los Angeles Times
The Decline Of Novels, Poetry, Art… And Just About Everything Else?
The truth, sad or bad or however one wishes to characterize it, is that both contemporary visual art and contemporary poetry no longer hold anything approximating the central place in culture that they once did. Without anyone actually saying so, these once major branches of art have become of at best tertiary interest. A person who thinks himself reasonably cultured need no longer be responsible for knowing much, if anything at all, about either of them. – Commentary
Survey Quantifies Dire Situation For Artists
Conducted by the advocacy group Americans for the Arts and released Friday, the survey of more than 11,000 creative workers reveals that 95 percent have lost some income because of the pandemic, with almost two-thirds reporting that they are now fully unemployed. Almost half of the respondents have no savings to mitigate their lost income — which averages $27,100 — and 8 in 10 said they have no path to recovery. – Washington Post
San Francisco Art Institute Says It Won’t Close After All
“An outpouring of support and encouragement from potential partners and charitable organizations — along with protests by students, faculty, alumni and staff — convinced the Board to take extreme measures to keep SFAI open,” the press release states. – Inside Higher Ed
Frank Ramsey – The Genius Who Always Got There First
Ramsey not only died young but lived too early, or so it can seem. He did little to advertise the importance of his ideas, and his modesty did not help. He was not particularly impressed with himself—he thought he was rather lazy. At the same time, the speed with which his mind worked sometimes left a blur on the page. The prominent American philosopher Donald Davidson was one of several thinkers to experience what he dubbed “the Ramsey effect.” You’d make a thrilling breakthrough only to find that Ramsey had got there first. – The New Yorker
The Privilege Economy
What separates Americans is not just income, but whole frames of reference: Cordoned off, the wealthy live in a world apart from the less-well-off, no longer sharing the same experiences. – The New Republic