ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

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Annals Of Fascism: Mississippi Mayor Withholding $100k From Public Libraries With All LGBTQIA Content

The libraries are steadfastly refusing to do such a thing, and the mayor is on thin - if any - legal grounds, but there's a fundraiser for the library just in case. - LitHub

Meet The Publisher Who Picks Up The Books Big Houses Have Just Cancelled

Skyhorse Publishing acquired the books by Woody Allen, Blake Bailey, Norman Mailer and others that were dropped when controversy hit. Says Skyhorse chief Lyons, "All you hear is the takedown of the author and no analysis of the book itself.' Critics accuse him of "a libertarianism of convenience." - The Guardian

Tennessee School Board Bans “Maus”, Art Spiegelman’s Graphic Novel About The Holocaust

The board governing the McMinn County school district in southeastern Tennessee deemed the Pulitzer-winning book inappropriate for eighth-graders because of a drawing of a nude dead woman and some "rough, objectionable language." - CNN

Two Of This Year’s Most Eagerly Awaited Cookbooks Are Now At The Bottom Of The Ocean

Turkey and the Wolf, from the much-heralded New Orleans sandwich shop, was due to drop next month; New York Times columnist Melissa Clark's Dinner in One was to appear in March. But the copies were on a ship that lost 60 of its containers overboard. - Grub Street

English Teachers In Britain Say They Need More Diverse Books In The Curriculum

"Asked which changes to the English syllabus they felt would most help their students, 80% of secondary school teachers, and 69% of primary school teachers, said they wanted more diverse and representative set texts." 99% of British students graduate without having studied a book by a nonwhite author. - The Guardian

Washington State School District Takes Aim At “To Kill A Mockingbird”

The teachers’ objections to the book included criticism that Black characters are not fully realized and that the book romanticizes the idea of a “white savior.” - Crosscut

How Shirley Jackson Took Apart The Pieces Of Postwar American Womanhood

"(Her) career endeavor (was) to explore the fragmentary internal landscape of her generation of women, often through themes of madness, fracturing, and disorientation." - Guernica

The Long, Odd History Of American Comic Books

After starting as kids’ entertainment, they were used as World War II propaganda and even a vehicle for public education about the atomic bomb. Then some comics, pursuing an adult audience, grew dark, violent and sexual enough to cause an outright moral panic. And then came the '60s. - The Nation

Why Spats In Academia Are So Nasty

Reviewers are faced with essays that are additions to their already heavy workloads that could have used more time. And the inclination to take one’s frustrations out on the author is just too great. - 3 Quarks Daily

Why Do Certain Sentences Become Famous Independently Of The Works They’re Part Of?

"You can't handle the truth!" or "We tell ourselves stories in order to live." "Celebrity sentences," Nicola Sayers dubs them. "There are countless brilliant sentences that never make it to celebrity status. So what's the formula? What elevates certain sentences above the others?" - 3 Quarks Daily

Catch The “Vibe”

Once, vibe, mood, and energy were watchwords of the counterculture. Today, this vocabulary has diffused beyond any niche group. - The Drift

The Limits Of The Young Adult Label

Selling books is complex, and author Malinda Lo, winner of the National Book Award for young people, says the label is just marketing. "I like very complicated people who make bad decisions because, you know what? Those are the ones who make the best characters." - Slate

Dear Audience, The Author Is Not Always The Novel’s Main Character

Or perhaps ever. Rebecca Watson: "I really don’t believe there’s a correlation ... but people try to map the piece onto the novel and interpret it as confessional. This novel was never an act of catharsis. It was a joyful act of creation." - The Guardian (UK)

When Your First Novel Becomes A Political Lightning Rod For The Side You Don’t Even Support

Ana Iris Simón has been "stunned not only by the success of her book, but also by how an ultranationalist and conservative audience ... embraced Feria as an ode to Spain’s traditional family values" - which, she says, it is not. - The New York Times

Isabel Allende Says The War Against Women Has Intensified

The writer of House of the Spirits says, "Didn’t I tell you that we live under a patriarchy? ... But women have been tearing bits and pieces out of the situation little by little. And they will succeed, but I will not be alive to see it." - El País (English)

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