Author: Matthew Westphal

In every pot

Had you told me in 1963 — or 1985 — that I would live to see a fully mobile phone in every person’s pocket, I would have laughed in your face. And it’s easy to forget that as late as 1940, 45% of all Americans did not yet have indoor plumbing. – Terry Teachout

When Classic Broadway Stories Meet Modern Gender Politics

“Empowering the female lead may be a celebratory hook for selling a show, particularly given that women buy the bulk of Broadway tickets. But on closer inspection, it is rarely the women that require revision. … No, the real problem with these stories is the men. They are terrible, and yet they have the audacity to believe they can teach these women lessons, and to come out on the other side looking like plausible romantic leads. A modern production’s success rests on how it tames its man.” – The New York Times

What Is The Power Of Bodies — Naked Ones — Walking And Running In A Circle?

“ALL — a physical poem of protest … explores what [Mia] Habib refers to as ‘the protesting body.’ It can be performed for up to 12 hours, though the New York iteration will clock in at a brisk 45 minutes. And there’s one other integral component — all the performers are nude. For Ms. Habib, a Norwegian-Israeli choreographer based in Oslo, the result illustrates group strength: What is the power of bodies meeting together in a public space?” In a Q&A with Gia Kourlas, she explains what that power is. – The New York Times

What Makes A Novel Transgressive, What Makes It Unpublishable, And How That Changes Over Time

Bret Easton Ellis grants that almost no house would publish American Psycho today (he wouldn’t even want to write it today), and it’s hard to imagine any American publisher releasing Lolita in 2019 if it weren’t already famous. “[Yet] if Lolita is a scandalous novel about child abuse, why are A Little Life and My Absolute Darling, which are much more graphic, so much less so? Times have changed since 1955, of course, but the idea of the novel’s purpose has changed too.” – The Guardian

Do Indie Bookstores Really Need To Pay Their Workers So Badly?

As Sarah Malley discovered while working at an independent bookshop, some routine practices legally qualified at least in her state) as wage theft. And it’s far more common for indie bookstore employees to skip vacation and sick days because they can’t afford to take them. “Does a business that can’t afford to pay its employees a living wage deserve to be in business? … I have no idea. I haven’t the faintest idea at all.” – Popula

Here’s The Anjelica Huston Interview That Has The Internet Abuzz

The Oscar winner and third generation of a four-generation movie dynasty (so far) speaks very plainly about her complicated relations with her family members and romantic partners (i.e., Jack Nicholson), getting thoroughly snubbed by (an evidently jealous) Oprah Winfrey, and defends (sort of) Roman Polanski and (definitely) Woody Allen. – New York Magazine

Confederate Statues In Charlottesville Are Protected As War Memorials, Rules Judge

In 2016, the Charlottesville City Council voted to remove statues of Robert E. Lee and “Stonewall” Jackson that were erected in the 1920s. (It was this vote that the notorious 2017 Unite the Right rally was protesting.) A group called the Monument Fund sued to have the vote reversed, arguing that Virginia law forbids cities to remove war memorials; the city maintains the statues are, in effect, monuments to white supremacy. The state judge wrote in his ruling, “the statues to [Lee and Jackson] under the undisputed facts of this case still are monuments and memorials to them, as veterans of the Civil War. … It does no good pretending they are something other than what they actually are.” – The Daily Progress (Charlottesville)