Category: issues

“A similar but different criticism occurs when a writer is told that her portrayal of minority characters isn’t different enough. A woman in my program has been told that her stories need to be more ethnic, that readers should be able to smell the food.”

“If canonical philosophers were blacklisted based on their prejudices and political engagements, then there wouldn’t be all that many left in the Western tradition.”

“I don’t think many people see arts and cultural as economic engines, but they are. As the ward has become more vibrant, that has not only energized the residents but attracted new businesses, homeowners.”

With Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the conflict along its Ukrainian border, Estonia’s Laulupidu festival of traditional song and dance took on even more national import than usual (and that’s a lot.

“Clubs for ugly people, ear trumpets designed for mourners, mesmerism as a cure – disability in the 19th century reflected all of the Victorian era’s oddities and societal changes.”

Laughter has been a key marker of what we feel about other cultures, about our own past and our views of the “progress of civilization.”

“As the music critics disappear, so too does the public’s awareness of what we make, why we make it, and who we are. So as the bad reviews roll in, I try to seek a modicum of Zen, grateful that — at least for the time being — when my tree falls in the forest, it doesn’t fall on deaf ears.”

“Over time, the concept of cultural appropriation has morphed into a parody of the original idea. We are now to get angry simply when whites happily imitate something that minorities do. We now use the word steal in an abstract sense, separated from any kind of material value. It used to be that we said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. But now there is new way to see the matter: Imitation is a kind of dismissal.”

“The practice of using corporate largess to finance restoration projects for public antiquities was once fairly rare here. But with the nation struggling with a stagnant economy and crushing public debt – Rome is flirting off and on with bankruptcy – politicians are now looking to private companies and international sources to help preserve Italy’s cultural heritage.”

“Theatres and arts organisations currently funded as part of Arts Council England’s national portfolio now raise more than half of their income from ticket sales, educational work and catering.”