“France’s oldest and most prestigious literary accolade … has been awarded to the Arabic and Persian scholar Mathias Énard for his novel Boussole (Compass). … Its reward comes not in the prize money – at just €10 it is roughly the same amount as the first Prix Goncourt 1903 – but the massive book sales it guarantees, making the author a fortune.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Why Twitter Has Become Dangerous (The Medium Really Is The Message)
Robinson Meyer: “On Twitter, people say things that they think of as ephemeral and chatty. Their utterances are then treated as unequivocal political statements by people outside the conversation. Because there’s a kind of sensationalistic value in interpreting someone’s chattiness in partisan terms, tweets ‘are taken up as magnum opi to be leapt upon and eviscerated, not only by ideological opponents or threatened employers but by in-network peers.'”
The Lure Of Luxury: An Online Forum On Why Some People Spend So Much On Stuff
“Why would anyone spend thousands of dollars on a Prada handbag, an Armani suit, or a Rolex watch? If you really need to know the time, buy a cheap Timex or just look at your phone and send the money you have saved to Oxfam. Certain consumer behaviors seem irrational, wasteful, even evil. What drives people to possess so much more than they need?” But then: “Most people own things that they don’t really need. It is worth thinking about why.”
American Slave Narratives: The Descendants Of Authors Gather
“They included descendants of famous figures like Dred Scott, the plaintiff at the center of the infamous 1857 Supreme Court ruling, and Solomon Northup, the author of Twelve Years a Slave, … They arrived with photographs, books and rolling bags full of research materials, along with a shared conviction in the importance of taking history into their own hands.”
American Museum Of Natural History Reveals Jeanne Gang’s Design For Expansion
“The design consumes less coveted park space than expected, while introducing a contemporary aesthetic that evokes Frank Gehry’s museum in Bilbao, Spain, in its undulating exterior and Turkey’s underground city of Cappadocia in its cavelike interior.”
‘Starchitects’ And The Conservatives Who Hate Them
Kriston Capps argues that it’s time to ditch that term altogether, because it has turned into a “partisan slur”: “The conservative pearl-clutching over starchitects is performed. It’s registered in bad faith. It’s at root an allergy to program, funding, public works, or intangibles that have nothing to do with the built environment. The objection to starchitects is dressed up in Culture Wars theatrics, meant to elicit partisan alignment around political identity in the face of difficult design questions.”
Why More Actors Should Be Cast Against Type
Matt Zoller Seitz: “Throughout film history, and TV history, casting against type has yielded not just some of the best performances of certain actors’ careers, but some of the defining moments of the show or movie they appeared in. … There might be no better TV example … than Bryan Cranston, who in the mid-aughts was being sent mostly comedic material because of all of his great years on Malcolm in the Middle.”
Sylvie Guillem Prepares To End Her Dance Career
“‘I am not nice,’ [she] said. Seated in her dressing room … Ms. Guillem burst out laughing. ‘That has gotten me into a lot of trouble.'”
Peter Donaldson, BBC’s ‘Voice Of Radio 4,’ Dead At 70
“It seemed fitting that, when in the 1980s the authorities wanted someone for a pre-recorded radio announcement telling Britain that it was under nuclear attack, they turned to him. It meant, he observed with typical wryness, that he became known as ‘the voice of doom’.”
Ear To The Ground: Even South Dakota’s Corn Palace Isn’t Free From Museum Intrigue
“In the past two years, as the city has invested millions of dollars in renovating and refurbishing the building, something strange has been brewing at the Corn Palace. For 13 years, from 2001 to 2014, the arena was run by the same director, Mark Schilling. But in 2014, he was asked to resign” and convicted of petty theft. “Since then, the city has hired two directors, one of whom was asked to step down before even starting the job, and a second who lasted less than a year.”