The topic of what Hannah Arendt called “public happiness” is largely ignored by those who think and write about contemporary culture. Apparently, politics and happiness don’t go together any more. Collective happiness — as Socrates intended it, as a shared political experience — is largely out of the picture. – The New York Times
Author: Douglas McLennan
How “Game Of Thrones” Is Like Chaucer
The fate of Chaucer’s unfinished works suggests there may be something to be appreciated in the peculiarly suspended state in which fans of A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones currently find themselves. Should Martin be compelled to abandon his saga for one reason or another, he can console himself with the knowledge that the unfinished state of Chaucer’s texts did nothing to prevent John Dryden from declaring Chaucer to be the “Father of English poetry”. – Times Literary-Supplement
How A Caretaker With Little Training “Restored” (And Damaged) 200 Of Van Gogh’s Paintings
The 200 Van Gogh paintings which Jan Cornelis Traas restored for the family between 1926 and 1933 represent nearly a quarter of the artist’s works. It remains highly disturbing that a restorer with virtually no formal training and with little experience should have been given the task of restoring so many of Van Gogh’s paintings. – The Art Newspaper
Non-Verbal Communication: A Dictionary Of What Our Gestures Mean
Francois Caradec’s Dictionary, newly translated into English by Chris Clarke, lists some 850 gestures that “successively address each part of the body, from top to bottom, from scalp to toe by way of the upper limbs”, and may be used as well as or instead of speech. They are numbered and ordered in a taxonomy running from 1.01 (“to nod one’s head vertically up and down, back to front, one or several times: acquiescence”) to 37.12 (“to kick an adversary in the rear end: aggression”). – Times Literary Supplement
Philanthropy Seems Good. But Is It Also Part Of The Problem?
“Philanthropy is an exercise in power, by definition by the wealthy. It’s an attempt to have some public influence. And in that respect, it’s a plutocratic element in the democratic setting.” – The Atlantic
We Need “A Good Conversation”? Maybe Not So Much
Lazy rhetorical devices plague our political discourse. But there is something especially grating about a candidate calling for a “conversation” when asked about an issue. It rings with the echo of empty ideas. It emanates the stench of platitude and prudence. The abstractness of the language renders the sentiment meaningless: Who, exactly, should be having these conversations? Where should they be taking place, and on what terms? – The Atlantic
The War Breaking Out Among Medieval Scholars
“While squabbles over session approval are not uncommon at academic conferences, the conflict in medieval studies feels like a struggle for the future of the field, one that sometimes pits older scholars against a younger generation, and those with a traditional approach against those with a more activist bent. And it’s turned personal at times, even nasty and disturbing, with medievalists lobbing insults over Twitter, squaring off in blog posts, and calling for colleagues to be more or less excommunicated from the discipline.” – Chronicle of Higher Education
This Is How A Language Dies
Today, only about 40 people speak the Tayap language, and Don Kulick predicts that the language will be “stone cold dead” in less than 50 years. How did that happen? Perhaps more importantly, what cultural and economic losses paved the way? The answer might lie in the backward way we’ve been framing language death. – The American Scholar
The Pursuit Of Happiness: An Ultimately Futile Exercise In The Era Of Self-Gratification
“We trick ourselves into thinking we know what is needed to be happy: a promotion, a new car, a vacation, a good-looking partner. We believe this even though we know there are plenty of people with good jobs, new cars, vacations, and attractive partners, and many of them are miserable. But they, too, imagine their misery can be fixed by a bottle of Pétrus or a yacht or public adulation.” – Lapham’s Quarterly
When Bad Things Happen At The Opera: Should We Applaud These Plotlines?
“When our society is having to confront the murder of women, how can we dare to applaud the killing of a woman?” said Cristiano Chiarot, the head of the opera house, the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. – Sydney Morning Herald