Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Who Owns Common Sense?
Common sense has long had two contrasting emphases: an inquiry position that questions prevailing norms and a conservative position that doubles down on prevailing...
We’re Meant To Forget: Identity, Memory And Survival
There is a convincing scientific rationale for why the human self-image is so inaccurate. Evolution has no interest in truth or objectivity. Natural selection...
The Improbable Competitive Race To Decipher Cuneiform Language That Fascinated Britain In The 1850s
For mid-19th-century Britons, proving that this elusive script could be understood meant pulling back the curtain on a distant, vanished, yet hauntingly familiar world,...
Why Shakespeare Resonates Across Cultures
The sense that Shakespeare spoke the language of the oppressors, yet also a language that helped think beyond that oppression, was not unique to...
Does Anyone Actually Really Know You?
It’s a question that arises at odd moments—sometimes, perversely, when we’re surrounded by people who know us well. Suddenly, we become conscious of an...
Book Overdue By 98 Years Returned To Cincinnati Public Library
"I've been here a while, and I've seen books come back that were due in the '80s and the '90s and even the '70s,...
Can The Art Industry Achieve Gender Parity?
There is less female representation in leadership roles among larger firms. Around 40 percent of respondents working in outfits with fewer than 50 employees...
Dutch National Opera’s Crusade To Go Green
The Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam is setting an example with the great leaps it has made in recent years toward sustainability. The dream, distant for...
Angelina Jolie’s Creative Atelier
Jolie, the Oscar-winning actress, humanitarian and object of global fascination, was not the red-hot center of attention. Which is just how she wants it....
Academic Publishing Is A Lucrative Business. It Isn’t Necessarily Good For Research
Mass resignations of journal editors are becoming more frequent. They highlight the tension between running a for-profit publishing business and upholding research integrity. - The...
Who’s Getting The Highest Ticket Prices On Broadway (Not Just The A-List Movie Stars)
Earlier this week, we tracked down what the top ticket cost was to see each of these stars at the evening performance on Saturday,...
The Vast Scale Of Meta’s Use Of Pirated Books
Internal communications show employees saying that Meta did indeed torrent LibGen, which means that Meta could have not only accessed pirated material but also...
The Relationship Between Walking And Creativity
Since at least the time of peripatetic Greek philosophers, many other writers have discovered a deep, intuitive connection between walking, thinking, and writing. - The...
Are There Too Many Books Being Published? Too Much Noise In The Clutter?
More than 2.6 million books were self-published in 2023 – many of which are uploaded to the dominant platform, Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing – and...
Alabama Library Board Cancels Funding, Fires Librarian Over Books On Library Shelves
The chair of the Alabama Republican Party said board members believe the Fairhope library is in violation of state policies to protect children from...
Booksellers In France Protest Media Dominance By Placing Publisher’s Books On Lower Shelves
“Books matter,” said Thibaut Willems, owner of Le Pied à Terre independent bookshop in Paris’s 18th arrondissement and one of the booksellers taking a...
Trump Limited Access By Canadians To Shared Library On US/Canada Border. Now Anger On...
Coming at a time of heightened tensions between the two countries, the decision is prompting an outpouring of emotion in communities on both sides...
Ticket Prices For Popular Shows Are Now Out Of Reach For Most
Tickets for the hottest Broadway shows are now out of reach for many. And the same is true for other sought-after live events, such...
The Real State Of The Kennedy Center (And Its Current Chaos)
The second week of March, when the Kennedy Center typically announces programming for the next season, has come and gone. Across Washington, venues like...
Why Trump Took On The Kennedy Center
It's no coincidence that Trump is staging a putsch in this cultural jewel. It's no coincidence that he spends time there. It's no coincidence...
City of Mesa seeks Arts & Culture Director
The Arts and Culture Director, who will report to Mesa’s City Manager’s Office, will function as an arts and culture advisor to the City Council, City Manager, and the public at large.
We Underestimate The Importance Of Our Ability To Understand Cause and Effect
The human power to view cause-and-effect as part of ‘objective reality’ (a philosophically fraught idea, but for now: the mind-independent world ‘out there’) is...
Considering The Problematic Revenge Memoir
Admission of desire for revenge on the page also reeks of shame: it’s the thing that every writer—certainly every memoirist—grapples with but generally never...
Academic Research Publishers Increasingly Turning To AI To Check Peer Review
In 2024, more than 4,600 academic papers were retracted or otherwise flagged for review, according to the Retraction Watch database; during a six-week span last...
What Art Basel Hong Kong Says About The Shifting Art World
“Our goal was to have 50 percent of the galleries with a presence in Asia”— meaning a physical space — “and now we are...
