“It seems that the genre McCullough is most beloved for may be the very reason for the disrespect in memoriam. Romance is maligned by literary critics and often stigmatised as the lightweight reading of bored housewives. It also happens to be a genre populated almost entirely with female authors, which goes some ways to explaining why it’s not taken more seriously – even when it remains amongst the most successful in publishing.”
Category: issues
China Is Isolating Itself From The Wider World Through Internet Firewalls
“To mention one of countless implications: how many first-rate international scientists will want to move to Chinese universities, if the Internet ‘simply does not work’ there?”
If The U.S. Constitution Isn’t A Sacred Document, What Is It?
“Sealed in moisture-controlled, bullet-proof glass containers that are on display in a special rotunda at the National Archives Museum in Washington DC by day and lowered into a multi-ton bomb-proof vault by night, the Constitution is to the US what the Bible was to medieval Europe or the Qur’an to today’s Islamic State, albeit with certain differences.”
How Japan Became A Pop Culture Superpower
“Almost every childhood craze of the past 30 years has come from Japan: Transformers, Power Rangers, Tamagotchi, Pokémon and on and on and on. And together these have blasted through boundaries between different media.”
Yes, Artists Need Funding – But We Shouldn’t Take It From Oil Companies
Playwright Mark Ravenhill: “For some 30 years now, many of us in the arts have prided ourselves on our skills as conmen. We can find the money, wherever it may be. And we can take it. And run. … But after all this time, aren’t we now starting to wonder who’s been fooling who?”
Want To Boost Your Creativity? Study Says Ponder Who You Are
“Spending a few minutes pondering the various identities you wear—spouse, parent, employee, sports fan, political partisan, what-have-you—can lead to more creative insights.”
Have We Become Too Sensitive In Public Debate To Have Real Conversations About Ideas?
“After political correctness burst onto the academic scene in the late ’80s and early ’90s, it went into a long remission. Now it has returned. Some of its expressions have a familiar tint, like the protesting of even mildly controversial speakers on college campuses.”
The Problems With Obsessing About Measuring Impact Of Art
“If we are constantly debating what “good” or “quality” looks like, we’re wasting time we could be using honing our work to better deliver on the social impact we’ve all agreed is important. I’d love to work for an organization that clearly knows that the impact it wants to have is X–so we can focus on doing X.”
The New Lands Of Opportunity: Buffalo, Detroit
If moving to New York City is like dating the most popular kid in your high school only to discover “all the blemishes that aren’t visible when gazed upon from a distance,” then Buffalonians will tell you that moving to their city is like dating the girl next door who’s undergoing a She’s All That-style transformation.
French Comedian Stands Trial Over Comment Against Jewish Journalist (Est-Il Charlie?)
“The provocative French comedian Dieudonné M’bala M’bala stood trial in criminal court on Wednesday over a comment he made lamenting that a prominent Jewish journalist did not die in ‘the gas chambers,’ prosecutors said. Mr. M’bala M’bala has become an emblem in France of the struggle between upholding the secular republic’s commitment to free speech while maintaining public safety and preventing hate crimes.”