“For Amazon, books are a business, and the more hegemony it exerts over the market, the better off it is. For the culture, though, books and information serve as a collective soul, a memory bank, something bigger than mere commerce that shouldn’t be merely bought and sold. Because of that, it’s not the incidents themselves but their ramifications that are disturbing, the idea that Amazon can effectively alter the collective memory at will.”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
The Grim Parallels Between Brandeis And Barnes Fights
“Ever since news of the Brandeis scheme rocked the art world six months ago, the tragic fate of the Barnes Foundation outside Philadelphia has been rumbling around in my head. … Myriad details between the Barnes and the Rose are different, including the apparent participation of their respective state attorneys general, but the basic principle is the same. Donor intent is at issue.”
Actresses’ Movie Roles Are 1-Size-Fits-All; Not So On TV
“There are more and better roles for women on one season of ‘Brothers and Sisters’ and ‘Big Love’ or ‘Damages’ and ‘Desperate Housewives’ than there will be in an entire year of Hollywood films. Roles that require depth and wisdom and boundless energy, that demand of their performers the dramatic flexibility and exploration of character. Roles that don’t seem to punish them simply for being women.”
Nicholson Baker On What’s Wrong With His Kindle
It’s not only that the screen is a “four-by-five window onto an overcast afternoon.” Nor is it merely the “grim and Calvinist” font, or that the text-to-speech feature bats less than a thousand. There’s also a lot missing from the library: “I spent an hour standing in front of some fiction bookcases, checking on titles. There is no Amazon Kindle version of ‘The Jewel in the Crown.’ There’s no Kindle of Jean Stafford, no Vladimir Nabokov, no ‘Flaubert’s Parrot,’ no ‘Remains of the Day’….”
Cover Paintings, Veils Of Renaissance Subversion
“In the seductive display of Titian’s Triumph of Love, currently at the National Gallery, you discover that the Venetian master painted this sensual image of Cupid as a ‘cover’ for another painting. This means a second canvas that fitted over and concealed a picture beneath. It was not that rare a practice in the Renaissance. But why?”
Saying They’re Mum On Cuts, Minister Baffles Arts Crowd
“British Columbia’s arts community is in a state of shock following comments made by the Minister for Tourism, Culture and the Arts, Kevin Krueger, that the community is not concerned about the provincial government’s projected 50-per-cent cuts to funding.” Krueger told a radio interviewer that he’s “not hearing complaints at all from the arts and cultural community,” but the community — and even the interviewer — beg to differ.
Wagners, At Bayreuth, Vow To Address The Nazi Issue
“The two great-granddaughters of the composer Richard Wagner held their first Bayreuth Festival this weekend — and have promised to reveal the Wagner family’s link to the Nazis. They even want to tackle the question of whether their grandmother, Winifred Wagner, slept with Hitler.” They also say they plan to modernize the festival and “make it less elitist and less secretive.”
To Lift Artistically Gifted Poor Children, UK Offers Cash
“The government is to pay a cash premium to help schools coach bright pupils from the poorest homes…. Every school will be invited to nominate pupils on free school meals who are academically gifted or have a talent in sports or the arts to qualify for a £250 annual payment per pupil.” The money is intended to provide students “the additional experiences that middle-class children take for granted, such as theatre trips or extra coaching.”
Down Under, Theatre Box Office Dives With Economy
“Total ticket sales for live shows in Australia fell by 13.6% last year in a trend that Aussie producers say reflects Oz’s faltering economy during the period. … In the five years the survey has been undertaken, overall figures appear to have grown and then slumped in line with the broader economy. (Individual show grosses are a tightly guarded secret in Oz.)”
China Embraces Puccini, A Composer It Once Reviled
“Back in the 1960s and ’70s, when Italian opera was deemed a capitalist indulgence in China, no work was more despised than Giacomo Puccini’s ‘Turandot.'” But the Chinese are “singing a different tune these days. For the 60th anniversary of China’s communist revolution in October, a new production of ‘Turandot’ has been commissioned for the 100,000-seat Bird’s Nest stadium” — one of a raft of productions of “Turandot” and other Puccini operas in the country.