ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

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The Charles Dickens Museum Got Shadowbanned On TikTok

It took a full-blown Twitter campaign to get the author's name, and the museum's name, and all of the museum's content, unbanned. You probably know what the problem was. - LitHub

Darcy’s White Shirt Is Going On Exhibit In Jane Austen’s House

Yes, Austen lovers, that shirt. "Jane Austen Undressed focuses largely on the undergarments that Austen heroines would have worn under their Regency dresses, but one of the main draws is bound to be the Firth shirt." Um, indeed. - The Guardian (UK)

The New Novel For A Time Of New War, A Century Ago

Ali Smith: Take note of what happened when Katherine Mansfield and Virginia Woolf's friendship addressed war - it changed everything for Woolf, her novel Jacob's Room, and her future. - The Guardian (UK)

Amsterdam Publisher Halts Publication Of Book About Anne Frank’s Betrayer

A report by Dutch historians refuted The Betrayal of Anne Frank. "The book had claimed to identify the informant who alerted Nazi police to the Frank family’s hiding place, but the report’s authors said the conclusions were based on 'faulty assumptions' and 'careless use of sources.'" - The New York Times

Literature In Odesa Amid The Air Raid Sirens

"When I ask [legendary Odesa journalist Yevgeny Golubovsky how I can help, he replies, 'Ah, I need nothing, and when I ask again what I can do, he sends a quick message back: 'Putins come and go. We are putting together a literary magazine. Send us poems.'" - The Paris Review

Can Fairy Tales Explain The (Lack Of) Progress In Russia’s War On Ukraine?

"Several weeks in, it's clear many overestimated the Russian army's will and capability to fight and the Ukrainian army's will to resist an opponent superior in number, equipment and positioning." Two professors attribute this to the Russian and Ukrainian mindsets, as manifested in the countries' fairy tales. - The Conversation

Some Folks Want To Do Away With The Woman-In-Danger Subgenre Of Thriller Fiction.  Bad Idea.

Nancy Allen: "I write legal thrillers. Most of the books I've written center around a woman whose life or safety is in jeopardy, generally inspired by actual crimes committed in the Ozarks, where I live. And the reason I write these stories is simple. Women are in peril here." - CrimeReads

Quote Mill: Do These References Actually Mean Anything?

Think of all the speeches peppered with statements attributed to revered predecessors. Listeners are supposed to infer that the speaker has drawn upon a vast reservoir of material gathered from a lifetime of reading. But no: it was probably a quote pulled from such a compilation after two or three minutes of looking. - Los Angeles Review of Books

Today’s Slang Versus Yesterday’s Cool Words

Whenever I see people in old movies say “Swell!” or the like, I always wonder what other kinds of things they said when we weren’t listening. There’s no reason to think they weren’t as linguistically fun as we are now. - The New York Times

The Author Of The Graphic Memoir “Gender Queer” On Having Her Life Story Caught Up In The Culture Wars

Maia Kobabe: "I'm learning that a book being challenged or banned does not hurt the book and does not hurt the author. The book is selling better than ever. ... A book challenge is like a community attacking itself. The people who are hurt in a challenge are the marginalized readers." - Slate

These Days, Being A Public Librarian In America Can Be Dangerous

Amanda Oliver, author of Overdue: Reckoning with the Public Library, recounts some incidents from her years working in the DC library system, cautioning against the romanticization of public libraries and their equalizing role in society. - Electric Literature

Forlorn MLA Conference Demonstrates The Decline Of The Humanities In America

In theory, the conference was still happening, but it wasn’t clear whether anyone would be in attendance, or what they’d be doing while there. Who, I wondered, risks death for the conference of a dying profession? - Washington Post

The Latest Example Of Why Writers Should Stay Out Of Twitter Fights And Avoid Goodreads Altogether

Lauren Hough's Leaving Isn't The Hardest Thing was a nominee for the Lambda Literary Award for Best Lesbian Memoir — until this week, when Lambda disqualified her for defending a fellow author being attacked on Twitter for alleged transphobia. Laura Miller looks into the matter and points out the lesson. - Slate

We Need A Sign Language Literature

Most of the time, when we translate something, we think about the act of translation as changing the meaning that comes from one language and conveying it in another language. But the act of translation, particularly in writing, becomes complicated if there is technically no written equivalent of ASL. - LitHub

The Authors Of Books Banned From Schools, Or Entire Countries, Speak Out

Art Spiegelman: "This is the most Orwellian version of society I've ever lived in."  Margaret Atwood: "They're playing woke snowflakery back."  Hamid Ismailov: "I'm the most widely published Uzbek, yet nobody can mention my books. It's a total ban of my name, of activity, of books, of existence." - The Guardian

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