“I thought that if I were going into old age I would want to do what Verdi did, which is to write extraordinary things, and to really find myself. I’ll be eighty-three shortly, and I want to be renewed. We all want to be renewed, don’t we?”
Author: ArtsJournal2
Printing A Building? Why Not?
“Neri Oxman, Assistant Professor of Media Arts and Sciences, and her graduate student Steven Keating are aiming for more than just small objects. They want to print out a whole building.”
Barnes & Noble Doesn’t Sponsor Book Tours, But Its CEO Does
Barnes & Noble CEO Leonard Riggio has funded an eight-city book tour for a relatively unknown author. “The arrangement is unusual. Publishers usually pay the bills for authors to travel, not the heads of major bookstore chains (the few that are left standing, anyway).”
If You Play The Tuba, You Might Be U.S. Friendly, Says State Department
Looking through the WikiLeaks cables can be scary. “Put a few classical music keywords in the search box, however, and nuclear-weapon panic gives way to the curious mixture of social chess, pageantry theater and ‘Fawlty Towers’ that is cultural diplomacy.”
The Magic Machine Behind A (Not So Surprising) Smash Debut
“To promote its new star title, Doubleday launched a Defcon-1 publicity blitzkrieg. It printed a surfeit of galleys and put them into the grasping hands of underpaid booksellers, and sprayed copies all over the Internet. … It hired six actors, dressed them in tails, top hats, and long red scarves — in Morgenstern’s novel, die-hard circus fans wear red scarves to signal their devotion — and had them pass out beribboned bags of promotional caramel corn.”
Critics Dislike Negative Reviews, Except When They Write Them
“When somebody fails to appreciate something you yourself have deeply enjoyed, it’s hard not to feel personally affronted. This isn’t logical — why should your own pleasure in something be lessened by somebody else failing to share it? — but it’s human. You may feel that your whole value system is under attack.”
Technology Of The ’80s, Re-created With Paper And Glue
“When today you can read a book on a screen, we needed to create ‘real things.’ The aspect of craftsmanship is really important for us. We wanted to turn an industrial object into a unique handmade craft. And the fact that the objects are not working places the user into a spectator position, a way to see the object out of its function.â€
Pessimists And Optimists May Be One And The Same, Genetically Speaking
“Is the glass half full or half empty? A gene variant usually considered to make people more gloomy could also help them see the positive.”
I, Robot: Should Humans Go Bionic?
“Do humans want to be transhuman? That is, presuming that genetic engineering, cybernetic augmentation, cognitive enhancement, and the cure for aging are all technologically possible in the next 50, 100, or 200 years, are they something people will want to use? And is enhancement something people should want?”
Author Who Dumped Publisher At Launch Explains All
“Don’t get me wrong; chick-lit is a worthy sub-genre and there is absolutely a place for it on the shelves. Some publishers, mine included, are very successful at marketing this genre to women. The problem comes when non-chick lit content is shoe-horned into a frilly ‘chick-lit’ package.”