“During the Ben Ali era, Tunisian customs services prevented the importation of books that could harm the government’s reputation. These books were confiscated at the airport … Now, this form of literary censorship has become indirect” – and based largely in religion.
Author: Matthew Westphal
Pop Music Is Getting More Complex – And More Morose
“Over the past half-century, pop hits have become longer, slower and sadder, and they increasingly convey ‘mixed emotional cues,’ according to a study just published in the journal Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts.”
The New Yorker Publishes A Short Story Via Twitter
“Jennifer Egan’s last book, A Visit from the Goon Squad, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. There is no Pulitzer yet for fiction published on Twitter, but that’s where she’s taking a couple of her characters from the novel, in a New Yorker experiment that starts today.”
Dia Art Foundation Announces Its Plan To Return To Manhattan
“Almost a year ago, after years of negotiations, Dia bought the former Alcamo Marble building at 541 West 22nd Street in Chelsea for $11.5 million. The purchase was a coup for Dia because that building sits between its former space at No. 545, and its existing six-story building at No. 535. With this additional site Dia can build a substantial 22,000-square-foot Manhattan home.”
Polina Semionova Joins American Ballet Theater
The 27-year-old Muscovite, who has been a principal at the Berlin State Ballet for the past decade and first danced with ABT as a guest only last year, will become a full-time principal with the company this fall.
After 34 Years, Glenn Dicterow To Retire As NY Philharmonic Concertmaster
“Glenn Dicterow, the longest-serving concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic, has decided to step down … following the 2013-14 season, after 34 years, and will become a professor of strings and chamber music at … the University of Southern California.”
Univ. Of Missouri Press To Close
“In its 54 years in operation, [UMP] has published approximately 2,000 titles … on the topics of American and world history; intellectual history; biography; journalism; African American studies; women’s studies; American, British, and Latin American literary criticism; … regional studies of the American heartland; and creative nonfiction.”
Joseph Brodsky Never Wanted To Be A Soviet Dissident
Despite the show trial he underwent in 1964, “inwardly Brodsky resented and rejected his identification as a dissident, and fought it for the rest of his life – not because he disliked or disapproved of dissidents, but because he felt he had other aims than they did. His goal was to make his mark in literature, and everything else was secondary.”
A (Slightly) Contrarian View Of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Terry Teachout: “Mr. Fischer-Dieskau was also one of the most controversial artists of his age, or any other. For every vocal connoisseur who praised him to the skies, another dismissed his singing as ‘mannered’ and ‘croony,’ and it was not until after he retired in 1993 that the carping ceased and he came to be regarded as above criticism.”
Proustian Mind-Pops Get Attention From Researchers
“Sudden, unannounced memories might help people make connections between disparate ideas more quickly – but they might also be the building blocks of hallucinations.”