Although reading affords a way of learning about the world, it cannot transmit the richness of sensory experience. Can reading about a glacier convey its cracks or fizzles, the strata of blues at its core? - Psyche
Craft, Matthew Salesses explains, is a series of expectations, and until those expectations are made explicit, they will enforce the status quo by concealing their traits as the marks of quality, of literariness. - The Nation
According to the World Health Organization, noise exposure and its secondary outcomes such as hypertension and reduced cognitive performance are estimated to account for an astounding number of years lost due to ill health, disability, or early death. - Nautilus
Having built a thriving multibillion-dollar web fiction industry at home, Chinese web novel platforms are increasingly looking to sell their stories — and the innovative way they mass-produce them — to literature lovers abroad. - Protocol
He became a comedian’s comedian—venerated by other comedians, especially those old enough to know that they wouldn’t be doing what they were doing if it weren’t for him—but he never quite kept up with the shifting times. - Slate
It was via Butler's 1977 film Pumping Iron that the charismatic Austrian bodybuilder came to the world's attention. Notable among Butler's other docs were Going Upriver, about John Kerry as Vietnam vet-turned-peace activist, and The Lord God Bird, about the last ivory-billed woodpeckers. - MSN (The Washington Post)
None of this is to say that higher education shouldn’t be vigilant about threats to academic freedom and free speech. But let’s not give in to exaggeration and fearmongering. - InsideHigherEd
Le Rouge et Le Noir, based on Stendhal's novel, has choreography, costumes and set design by Pierre Lacotte, 89, who's been with the company since starting as a student in 1942. He's known for his reconstructions of 19th-century classics such as Philippe Taglioni's original La Sylphide. - Pointe Magazine
Undergraduate enrollment across the board fell by 3.2 percent this fall, echoing last fall’s 3.4 percent decline. Since fall 2019, undergraduate enrollments have dropped by 6.5 percent. - Inside Higher Ed
Joshua Jay: "In my craft, unlike filmmaking, I have to find the intersection of suspense and surprise, and that's difficult. In a two-hour movie, you get to alternate. You can have some surprises and lots of suspense, but in a magic show you have to have them together." - Salon
The scope of Morgan’s outreach was both personal and institutional, both public and below the radar. He made the Oakland Symphony a meeting ground and collaborative partner for all kinds of local musical organizations. - San Francisco Chronicle
That's exactly what the London-based collective Gafa, run by Samoan-British singers, is doing for the next four Saturdays, in a costumed concert staging. The concept is that, like the Norse gods, the old Polynesian gods are facing their twilight as Europeans arrive. - The Guardian
“Afterlives,” which explores the brutality of Germany’s colonial rule in East Africa, came out in Britain in September 2020 and was hailed as a masterpiece. But it failed to reach a wide readership and wasn’t even published in the United States. - The New York Times
It's not as simple as Urdu=Muslim and Hindi=Hindu. Not only did the two languages — which share all their grammar and most of their vocabulary — develop in tandem, but Hindi got many of its most basic features, including its name, via Urdu from Persian. - Scroll (India)
Really, it's the same things as with any other theater: good actors with good material matter more than special effects. As Halloween approaches, Alexis Soloski talks with actors at two notable attractions about what works. - The New York Times
