“The British Museum has said that is loaning works to UK museums at an unprecedented level to help them weather waters that are likely to be choppy for at least five years.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Touring Socrates Around The Stages Of Crisis-Plagued Greece
“Convinced of Socrates’s particular relevance to contemporary Greece, the creators of a one-man theatrical performance of The Apology, Plato’s account of his teacher’s doomed but powerful trial defence, have brought the show to Athens.”
Is Patriotism – From A Philosophical Viewpoint – Moral?
Gary Gutting: “Amid the frequent confusion, frustration and anger of our political disagreements, patriotism – a deep-seated love of our country – remains something that has the potential to bring us together, particularly at times of national crisis or triumph. But within my own particular intellectual tribe of philosophers, patriotism is often regarded as a ‘problem,’ an emotion that many find hard to defend as morally appropriate.”
Why Do Americans Celebrate July 4 With Fireworks?
“Because John Adams wanted us to. Before the Declaration of Independence was even signed, he envisioned fireworks as a part of the festivities.”
The Deepest Problem With Britten’s Billy Budd: The Closet
Zachary Woolfe: “Billy Budd is a product of the gay closet. It is an opera composed by a closeted gay man, to a libretto written by Forster, a closeted gay man, based on a novella by a man who scholars often suggest was closeted and that revolves around the attractions of men to other men. … [The opera] reveal[s] a great truth about the closet: It’s boring to watch. Like any magic realm with its languages and codes, it is wholly engrossing only when you’re inside it.”
Kurt Andersen On Writing A Novel In First Person
“The distinctions between third- and first-person narration aren’t absolute, of course. Third-person narrators have implicit personalities, focusing more on some characters, making judgments of what they think and say and do … Most third-person narrators are less like omniscient gods than exceedingly snoopy, well-informed ghosts.”
Can We Please Tone Down – Or Tear Down – The Sets For Our Shakespeare?
“I don’t want to knock stage designers; when they get it right, their work can be genuinely transformative and brilliant. But I don’t like it when they jump up and down behind the arras like Polonius in Hamlet, trying to distract my attention from the poor old actors.”
Prostheses And The Limits Of Onstage Realism
In Joe Penhall’s new play, Birthday, in which a man carries and gives birth to a baby, the audience was happily entertained by the lead actor’s prosthetic hairy breasts and swollen belly. But that body suit also included a fake penis, and – given the situation – viewers were so discomfited that the producers had to excise the member.
Artists Have A Go At England’s Classic Red Telephone Booth
The instantly recognizable design, dating back to 1935, “has been reimagined in whimsical full-size replicas that are scattered about London through July 18. Peter Blake, Zaha Hadid, Philip Treacy, Nina Campbell, and some 70 others artists and designers were up to the task of creating ‘ArtBoxes’ for the project.”
When Philosophers Think About Online Pornography
“Much as video killed the radio star, the internet has killed the porn star. … This is both true and not true: the internet did kill porn. But the internet is also for porn. Fortunately, this is not some sort of Schrodinger’s Porn in which the porn is neither alive nor dead until it is observed. Interestingly enough, this decline of the traditional porn industry does raise some ethical concerns.”