The Premises Of TV Shows Are Just Getting Too Weird

“By one count, America alone produced close to 500 television shows across networks, cable and streaming services last year. … Competition is so fierce that a bizarre premise seems like the best way in. Would I watch a show where Daniel Radcliffe works in a bar? Maybe. Would I watch Miracle Workers, a show where Daniel Radcliffe plays an angel battling against the worst instincts of his boss” – God – “who is also Steve Buscemi? Almost definitely yes, if only to see what it’s like.”

‘The Silence Of The Lambs’ Is Even More Relevant Today Than It Was In 1991

“Almost 27 years to the day after the movie’s release (when it became a surprise sleeper hit at the box office and an award winner), Silence‘s cultural impact feels more profound than ever. Audiences’ obsession with true crime and the pathology of serial killers, the ongoing conversations about female representation in Hollywood, even Hannibal Lecter himself – all of it is at the forefront of so much of today’s pop culture.” David Sims explains why.

Will Artificial Intelligence Ever Really Be Able To Make Art?

Plato argued that “the true, the good, and the beautiful” are all things that have value in themselves. Beauty has a value in its own right, not because it serves some other purpose. We do good for its own sake, and so on. In order for a machine to make its own fine art, it needs to satisfy Plato’s dictum, and create without any utilitarian purpose. The open question is whether machines will ever be able to do so.

More On UK Museum Funding Crisis

David Cannadine points out that the price of Leonardo’s Salvator Mundi, which sold for £333m last November, represents over half of central government’s total funding for museums last year. Of 266 museums he surveyed, only half had a dedicated acquisitions budget and in most cases it was less than 1% of their expenditure. The Art Fund report, entitled Why Collect?, calls for a national debate on the challenges over museum acquisitions.

Children’s Publishing May Be 80 Percent Female, But It’s Having An Intense Me Too Moment

The accusations (anonymous at first) sparked an intense discussion as “at an awkward moment for the industry, which had gathered Monday at the American Library Association’s midwinter meeting in Denver to announce its most coveted awards for children and young adult literature.” Agents, editors, and publishing houses dropped some of the most famous male authors in young adult literature as the week went on.