With Playing in the Dark, Morrison changed the rules of the game, effectively recasting what we see when we look back to figures like Woolf and to writers of the present and future like Colson Whitehead, Jesmyn Ward, and Angela Flournoy. “All of us are bereft,” Morrison writes, “when criticism remains too polite or too fearful to notice a disrupting darkness before its eyes.” – The Nation
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Gastronomic Archaeology (Wait, What’s That?)
“Until quite recently, archaeologists mostly thought about the hardware involved in ancient food – the utensils people cooked with and the pots and beakers they ate and drank from – as well as the rituals surrounding a meal. Now there is a growing interest in what people actually consumed. Historical research into ancient diets can tell us about people’s historic tastes, lifestyle, wealth, health, class, gender and culture.” And sometimes actual dishes and meals can be recreated. – 1843 Magazine
Books Today Are Filled With Obscenity. How Did We Get Here?
She didn’t sound offended. She sounded bored. Ninety years ago, “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” was banned in the United States. Today, a popular literary novel can contain so many oral sex acts that readers yawn. This is progress, mostly. But how did we get here? – Washington Post
Satirical Christmas Special Showing Jesus With A Boyfriend Sparks Backlash In Brazil
The satirical group Porta dos Fundos (“Back Door”) has made irreverent holiday satires about Jesus Christ before (2018’s was The Last Hangover), but this year’s Netflix special, The First Temptation of Christ, shows a pot-smoking Mary with a very visible (and lustful) God for a boyfriend and a haplessly jealous Joseph. But what’s angered the nearly 2 million people who’ve signed a petition is that Jesus comes home from 40 days in the desert with a new “close friend,” Orlando. – Variety
France Agrees To Timetable To Return 26 Artifacts To Benin
The news could signal a major shift in how France deals with repatriation, which has been a major focus for its president, Emmanuel Macron. Its government had previously resisted such efforts, and today’s move could still be scuttled by existing legislation. – Artnews
Dance Critic Don McDonagh Dead At 87
“[He was] a fervent supporter of experimental choreographers as a dance critic for The New York Times and the author of critical biographies of George Balanchine and Martha Graham … [as well as] managing editor of the quarterly Ballet Review from 1969 to 1995.” – The New York Times
Watching A Conservator Restore (Very Carefully) A 200-Year-Old Statue
“Perched on a wheeled stool under a bright spotlight [at the National Gallery of Art], [Robert] Price leaned into a 200-year-old marble sculpture carved by Frenchman Jean-Pierre-Antoine Tassaert, his gloved right hand using a cotton swab to remove decades of grime from its base. … [He] twisted a fluff of cotton onto a wooden stick, dipped it in a special water solution and painstakingly worked it over a small area of marble. He repeated the process, again and again and again, for hours.” – The Washington Post
From Healthy Boom To Self-Immolation: The 2010s In Young Adult Lit
Laura Miller: “As a book publishing phenomenon, young adult literature entered the decade like a lion. At the beginning of the 2010s, a generation that had grown up obsessed with Harry Potter and other middle-grade fantasy series decided it wasn’t that interested in adult literary fiction, with its often lackadaisical plotting and downbeat endings. YA stood ready to supply them with plenty of action, cliffhangers, supernatural beings, mustache-twirling bad guys, and true love. But now, at decade’s end, YA seems to be eating itself alive.” – Slate
Citing Months Of Unpaid Wages, Workers At Mexico City’s Major Museums Walk Out
Staffers at the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura, the organization that oversees the Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Museo Mural Diego Rivera, and Museo Tamayo, shut down buildings and set up picket lines last Wednesday to protest up to seven months’ worth of missing paychecks. – Hyperallergic
A Pittsburgh Symphony European Tour Costs $2.5 Million — What Does Pittsburgh Get For That Money?
“The reputation of the orchestra lifts the reputation of the whole region,” says the orchestra’s CEO, and several business figures say that that reputation has led overseas companies and workers to locate in and around Pittsburgh. – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette