Erica Jong writes at length on the letters page of The New York Times Book Review: “Rachel Donadio’s summary of the trans-Atlantic response to Salman Rushdie’s ‘Satanic Verses’ … caught my attention because I happened to be president of the Authors Guild when that book was published in America. What I remember most from that time was the rampant hypocrisy of the response. … It seems to me there are no shades of gray here. Suppressing a book because you disagree with its content is always a challenge to freedom of speech. “
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
Is The Genuflecting Done? Bergman Is Overrated.
“Nearly all the obituaries I’ve read take for granted Mr. Bergman’s stature as one of the uncontestable major figures in cinema…. Sometimes, though, the best indication of an artist’s continuing vitality is simply what of his work remains visible and is still talked about. The hard fact is, Mr. Bergman isn’t being taught in film courses or debated by film buffs with the same intensity as Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles and Jean-Luc Godard. His works are seen less often in retrospectives and on DVD than those of Carl Dreyer and Robert Bresson….”
NYC To Rewrite Rules On Photo And Film Permits
“Responding to an outcry that included a passionate Internet campaign and a satiric rap video, city officials yesterday backed off proposed new rules that could have forced tourists taking snapshots in Times Square and filmmakers capturing that only-in-New-York street scene to obtain permits and $1 million in liability insurance. In announcing the move, officials at the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting said they would redraft the rules, intended to apply to commercial film and photography productions, to address complaints that they could be too broadly applied.”
Researchers Defend Arts Education For Arts’ Sake
“When two researchers published a study a few years ago concluding that arts classes do not improve students’ overall academic performance, the backlash was bitter.” In a new book, those researchers, Ellen Winner and Lois Hetland, “argue forcefully for the benefits of art education, while still defending their 2000 thesis. In their view art education should be championed for its own sake, not because of a wishful sentiment that classes in painting, dance and music improve pupils’ math and reading skills and standardized test scores.”
Mary Gordon Gets The Deborah Solomon Treatment
Solomon: “What do you make of the current literary scene?” Gordon: “I think coldness is chic among writers, and particularly ironic coldness. What is absolutely not allowable is sadness. People will do anything rather than to acknowledge that they are sad.”
Why Does The World Love Homer Simpson?
“In a 1992 speech to a group of religious broadcasters, then-President George H.W. Bush proclaimed that ‘we need a nation closer to the Waltons than to the Simpsons.’ He lost the election. ‘The Simpsons’ won.” But at a moment when the United States is in global disrepute, what explains the world’s immense affection for “an ignorant, doughnut-scarfing ‘Ugly American’ father and his mustard-tinged brood”?
Lost Van Gogh, Hidden Beneath Paint, Found At MFA
“For years, art scholars pondered a mystery: Did Vincent van Gogh create a painting that matches a sketch in Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum? Now a conservator at the Museum of Fine Arts has discovered the lost painting, but museumgoers will never be able to see it: The painting lies underneath another van Gogh long on display at the MFA, the museum announced yesterday.”
Twain Play, “Is He Dead?,” Resurrected For Broadway
“Mark Twain is a name not usually associated with Broadway, unless he is being portrayed by Hal Holbrook, the actor responsible for the one-man show ‘Mark Twain Tonight!’ But now a play by Twain called ‘Is He Dead?’ — adapted by David Ives — will receive its world premiere Nov. 29 on Broadway.” Written in 1898 and never performed, the play is about “a group of starving artists who stage the death of their mentor in an effort to increase the value of his work.”
Judge In Carnegie Hall Suit Issues Restraining Order
“A Manhattan judge has ruled in favor of 50 tenants at Carnegie Hall, saying they can’t be evicted from its two towers until they have their day in court next month. The judge has issued a temporary restraining order until the case is heard September 17th.”
Does Corporate Sponsorship = Artistic Compromise?
“Over recent years, Shell has sponsored the National’s innovative Connections programme, producing theatre for young people by leading playwrights. It was a project that, as Nicholas Hytner said, had everything: ‘exciting new plays, committed and inspired performers and an audience that wants to be challenged, provoked and entertained’. But it took the support of a multinational oil company to make it possible. Not everyone is comfortable with this sort of creative relationship.”