Novelist Taymour Soomro: "It was important to me to write about queerness in Pakistan for so many reasons, including making visible experiences like my own in Pakistan, and challenging reductive narratives ... about Muslim barbarism and homophobia." - The Guardian (UK)
We hear fluent speech, we think "fluent thought." But wait: "The human brain is hardwired to infer intentions behind words" - even where there is none. - Fast Company
Why does this matter? Stocks are down though subscriptions to Disney Plus are up, and interest in Disney-owned properties is strong. But, one analyst says, "This has been probably the most dramatic and difficult CEO transition that I’ve ever seen in my career." - Los Angeles Times
"The questions that make these biographies sing—what makes this group of people actually interesting, not just noteworthy? Why, of all the relationships in a life, were these so particularly influential?—take real searching to answer." - The Atlantic
Allen, who has died at 76, inspired filmmakers and playwrights. She ran a charm school for young trans people in Chicago, usually from the economic margins. "Lessons covered table manners, dating etiquette and job-interview comportment, as well as tips on hygiene, dressing and makeup." - The New York Times
Of course, white men do it too. But the point: "Inherent in the 'hypersexual woman' trope is the belief that Asian women aren’t simply women: They are an alien category unto themselves." That has real-world consequences. - Vanity Fair
Or, at the very least, someone should have clocked the antisemitic imagery in one artist's piece. Then there's the question of Palestinian artists and Germany's pro-Israel stance. "In this combustible climate, some vigilance might have been expected. But from whom?" - The New York Times
Marcel the Shell was "one of YouTube’s earliest sensations—'Gangnam Style' was still two years away, after all—and now, more than a decade later, its hero has his own film, one about the perils of the internet that made him famous." - Wired
And what 1776 looks like now. "In the aftermath of the striking down of Roe v. Wade, I was forced to rethink. Were the words that the cast spoke and sung hollower than they’d been 2½ weeks ago?" - Washington Post
His earliest operas show "an impressionable composer who, before finding a voice of his own, knew how to expertly draw on those he admired; and who, before pioneering a declamatory style of operatic dramaturgy, rapidly developed a keen sense for theatrical storytelling." - The New York Times
"Suppose we are now willing to regard it as a live possibility that we really are living in a simulation. How much would it matter? Should it profoundly shake our understanding of the cosmos and our place in it?" - Slate
"Does Molière, the 17th-century comedy master and doyen of French playwrights, really still have the power to surprise? As France celebrates the 400th anniversary of his birth, a flurry of new productions suggests that he can." - The New York Times
In part to counteract the skills of filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, who wasted her great talents on supporting fascism and the Nazis, Hollywood filmmaker George Stevens went to war. - Open Culture
How does a writer like Bette Howland fall into obscurity - and then get rediscovered? Thank the sale rack at Housing Works Bookstore in Brooklyn, for the latter part, anyway. As for the obscurity part? Surprise: Single motherhood isn't great for writers. - Washington Post
