Beyond the masthead and issue date, no set typography has ever been allowed, maintaining a unique wordless space in magazine publishing where only an image connotes the idea. The absence of copy is arresting, the silent core of what the solely visual can communicate. - The Conversation
“What was until the 14th century the primary language of Scotland was, in the 2022 census, spoken by 2.5% of the population (up from 1.7% in 2011). Ever-greater numbers of people are learning the language in school or through apps …, but the shift to English is at an advanced stage.” - History Today
While the International Booker might have heralded a rise in the status of literary translators, is there a commensurate deepening of appreciation for, and understanding of, translation itself? While translators are being made more visible, is translation being made more invisible? - Sydney Review of Books
By thinking of language as a mathematical category, Tai-Danae Bradley's been able to apply established tools to study it and glean new insights. Linguists hope her model can help them to prove certain theories about how grammar and meaning emerge from strings of words, and to identify how AI-generated text differs from human language. - Quanta
As the English degree craters, and the idea of the university itself is under assault in the United States and elsewhere, those of us who remain interested in literate culture are sensing in its decline some correlation with the current apoplexy, if not direct causation. - 3 Quarks Daily
Meta cited an expert witness who downplayed the books' individual importance, averring that a single book adjusted its LLM's performance "by less than 0.06 percent on industry standard benchmarks, a meaningless change no different from noise." Thus there's no market in paying authors to use their copyrighted works, Meta says. - Futurism
"Earlier this month, a group of protesters gathered outside the London headquarters of Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. They were demonstrating over the company’s use of millions of pirated books and research papers to feed their family of generative AI models.” - The Guardian (UK)
Then the Academy, apparently not fearless, censored the lecture. "I did not want to cause them trouble. I did, however, feel it was essential to make the point that the pursuit of wisdom is impossible without engaging with (and challenging) uncomfortable ideas.” - The New York Times
“Theme always comes last. I never say, I want to write about capitalism or women. What gets me into writing is always this tiny moment of someone saying something that’s stuck with me.” - The Guardian (UK)
Poet and memoirist Maggie Smith says, “You have to enjoy the process more than you enjoy patting yourself on the back about having a product that you created. I mean, the most fun is the making of the thing.” - Slate
Author Sayaka Murata: “Ever since I was a child, I’ve had 30 or 40 imaginary friends who live on a different star or planet with whom I have shared love and sexual experiences.” - The Guardian (UK)
After announcing she was moving her independent bookstore about a block away to a new location, her regular customers all had the same question: “How can I help?” - Washington Post
Andrea Chu has achieved a rare ascendancy in the literary world over the past several years, in equal parts for her clever, lethal takedowns of various authors and for her long essays on gender and sexuality, written from her perspective as a trans woman. - The New York Times
“Didion left no instructions about the (diary), so nobody knows how she would feel about its publication as a book, titled Notes to John. But even ahead of its release on Tuesday, the book … has triggered strong reactions among the writer’s friends and readers.” - The New York Times
“It makes sense, then, that subscription services want to push their curation skills further, by commissioning, editing, and publishing titles that aren’t already in the world. They have a guaranteed customer base, a strong sense of the titles that work for them and the ability to create exclusive editions.” - The Guardian
