Author: Matthew Westphal

Why Are Werewolves Almost Never Female?

“Their near absence in literature and film is explained away by various fancies: they’re sterile, an aberration, or – most galling of all – they don’t even exist. Their omission from popular culture does one thing very effectively: It prevents us, and men especially, from being confronted by hairy, ugly, uncontrollable women.”

When You Interview Svetlana Alexievich, She’ll Start Interviewing You

A journalist meets the 2015 Nobel Prize winner at the Louisiana Literature festival: “She was reluctant, when asked, to describe the evolution of her style. (‘Must I explain everything?’) … ‘When I walk my dog in Minsk, I go past a church,’ she told the festival audience, ‘I see the youth with their new cars. The priest comes out to see them. They want their cars to be blessed.’ This is how she prefers to answer questions – through details. … When the interview ended, after forty minutes, I figured Alexievich had had enough. … Back in New York, a few weeks later, I read the transcript: The translator, mindful of Alexievich’s schedule, had suggested we end the interview much earlier than we had. Alexievich declined and started to ask me questions.”

Newly-Revealed Letters Provide Inside View Of Harper Lee

“Thirty-eight letters, written between 2005 and 2010 by the To Kill a Mockingbird author to her friend Felice Itzkoff, are up for auction this week. Addressed affectionately to ‘Clipper’, Lee’s nickname for Itzkoff, the letters span Lee’s memories of her father, her apparent atheism and her friendship with Hollywood figures. … [There’s also] a suggestion made by American president Lyndon B Johnson to the actor Gregory Peck that the US would one day have a black, female president.”

Why We Keep Finding Great Artists’ ‘Lost’ Works On Display Right Under Our Noses

“Several Old Master paintings have turned up just this year. In July, two frescoes in the Vatican thought to be the work of Raphael’s students were determined be by the master himself. In October, a New Jersey town announced that a bust of Napoleon Bonaparte, on display for over 80 years in the council chambers of a local borough hall, was actually a long-lost work by Auguste Rodin.” Why are we only discovering them now? Partly, it’s because of newly-available technology, and partly it’s – well, it’s dirt.

Suzan-Lori Parks Wrote A Play Every Single One Of Trump’s First 100 Days

“I didn’t know what else to do. So I do what I always do, I wrote something. … I didn’t know what it was gonna be like until I had to type them up and corrected them and read them through. And it was very – I can’t explain it, but it was like reading a tragedy, and the cathartic effect that that has, and the healing effect that offers.” A Q&A with American Theatre‘s Diep Tran.

‘Dance Isn’t For Everyone’ – Mental Health And The Profession

Kathleen McGuire: “When I wrote about my struggle with depression, and eventual departure from dance because of it, I expected criticism. I was prepared to be challenged. But much to my relief, and horror, dancers from all over the world responded with support and stories of solidarity. The most critical response I saw was this one: ‘Dance isn’t for everyone.’ This may as well be a mantra in the dance world. We have become entrenched in the Darwinian notion that the emotionally weak will be weeded out. There is no room for them anyway.”

Do You Have A ‘Creative’ Job? That’s Actually Up To You (Partly)

“The common perception is that a lucky few hundred arts graduates get to truly flex their creative muscles, while the rest are condemned to creativity atrophy in 9-to-5 desk jobs. But it’s not that simple. Whether you see your profession as creative depends not solely on the job description or workplace environment, but rather on how you define creativity, and how you view yourself. That preliminary finding comes from a study published in American Behavioral Scientist earlier this month, titled ‘I Don’t Take My Tuba to Work at Microsoft: Arts Graduates and the Portability of Creative Identity.'”

Opera In The Living Room: An Old Tradition Reappears In Italy

“Such private concerts were common in the 1750s … They started in France when musicians began to host events to show off their work – and their new status. The practice expanded to Austria, Germany, England, and Italy. It was also the way friends and families simply spent time together – as any Jane Austen book illustrates – before the onset of radios, televisions, and iPhones.” Now the Festival Verdi in Parma is trying out the practice anew.