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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

A Philosopher Argues Why We Should Play God

“We’re playing god every day. As the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes said, the natural state for human beings is a life that’s nasty, brutish, and short. We play god when we vaccinate. We play god when we give women pain relief during labor. The challenge is to decide how to change the course of nature, not whether to change it. Our whole life is entirely unnatural.” – Nautilus

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

The TV Subscription Bundle Is Under Attack – And It’s The Industry’s Primary Business Model

Every day that the TV networks keep their bundles intact is another day for the internet to undermine the bundles. Some of that comes through direct competition: Netflix remains quite disinterested in producing live TV and sports programming, but short of that they have a little bit of everything — just like your old cable TV subscription. – Vox

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