What’s astonishing about his research is how little has changed in the last 1,000 years. Guy Shrubsole’s figures reveal that the aristocracy and landed gentry – many the descendants of those Norman barons – still own at least 30% of England and probably far more, as 17% is not registered by the Land Registry and is probably inherited land that has never been bought or sold. Half of England is owned by less than 1% of the population. The homeowners’ share adds up to just 5%: “A few thousand dukes, baronets and country squires own far more land than all of Middle England put together.” – The Guardian
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How To Save The Humanities In Colleges? Rethink The Whole Idea
Academics and their allies need to advocate for a fundamental shift in the social contract around the nature of higher education, moving it away from short-term job training to long-term career development and genuine pursuit of one’s interests. In other words, the only way to save the discipline of history is by making college free. – Pacific Standard
Adventures In Pricing: Art Gallery Of Ontario Rethinks Who Pays What To Come Inside
Those under age 25 will get in free. AGO director Stephen Jost says he initially pitched this idea to this staff two years ago, and wanted the age limit to be 18, but “honestly it was our staff that pushed it up. We looked at the revenue we get from 18- to 25-year-olds, and it’s not that much. But I do know is most humans make their cultural taste choices between 16 and 25, so if you start coming in for free, we can create that habit and relationship.” – Toronto Star
Could Shakespeare Have Been A Woman?
Had anyone ever proposed that the creator of those extraordinary women might be a woman? Each of the male possibilities requires an elaborate theory to explain his use of another’s name. None of the candidates has succeeded in dethroning the man from Stratford. Yet a simple reason would explain a playwright’s need for a pseudonym in Elizabethan England: being female. – The Atlantic
The “Camp” Aesthetic: From Susan Sontag To The Met Gala
Sontag wrote her groundbreaking essay in 1963. In 58 paragraphs, she conducted an intuitive yet rigorous examination of a phenomenon that she defined as “a badge of identity among small urban cliques”. And this “private code” constituted a new mode of perception that collapsed traditional ideas of high and low culture, of elitism and mass appeal. Here was a new hierarchy of taste, no longer defined by the old gatekeepers. Camp was a “way of seeing the world as an aesthetic phenomenon”, she wrote, “in terms of the degree of artifice, of stylisation”.
The Toxic 25-Year Afterlife of “The Bell Curve” On Our Debates On Race
For its defenders, much of the appeal of The Bell Curve resided in the deliberate challenge it posed to post-1960s racial liberalism. Advocates cheered how Herrnstein and Murray disobeyed cultural conventions and used what they said were empirical verities to debunk liberal orthodoxies. – Boston Review
Chinese Gov’t Is Keeping Zhang Yimou’s Latest Film Out Of Festivals — Because They Don’t Want It To Win
One Second, set during the Cultural Revolution, is said by people who’ve seen it to be Zhang’s best movie in years and a sure bet to take a prize in Berlin or Cannes. Yet, even though the completed film was approved by the censors of China’s national film board, officials have blocked it from being shown at festivals — because, say insiders, the government doesn’t want international attention drawn to the subject matter. – The Hollywood Reporter
Under Fyre: Woodstock 50 Festival Is One Enormous Mess. And Now It’s All In Court
Will the festival commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the iconic Woodstock Festival actually go on this August? The advance organization is a mess, the financing has been withdrawn, and now the lawsuits are flying. So we’re guessing… – The New York Times
Rhode Island ACLU Sues Over Tax Law That Discriminates Against Nonfiction Authors
“The suit revolves around a 2013 law designed to help creative workers by offering authors, composers and artists in Rhode Island a sales tax exemption. But in a bizarre twist, state tax officials have decided the law applies only to authors of fiction, because nonfiction is not ‘creative and original.'” – Publishers Weekly
The Kid Who Exclaimed “Wow!”
It happened spontaneously at a concert in Boston’s Symphony Hall last Sunday. After a beat, as Ronan’s awe-filled “Wow!” echoed throughout the hall, the audience burst into laughter and cheers. So charmed were the Handel and Haydn Society by the child’s exclamation that they asked the public to help find him, hoping to reward the sweet sentiment with a trip to meet the artistic director. – WGBH