ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

WORDS

The American Right Attacks Wikipedia

While most of the planet sees Wikipedia as a generally reliable source for basic facts on everything from Ansel Adams to ZZ Top, it is increasingly conventional wisdom in much of the American right that it has been taken over by leftist cadres hell-bent on pushing a neo-Marxist agenda. - PastPresentFuture

Can Language Unify Black Culture?

Everyone knows what it means to capitalize “Black.” But how does it feel? On your tongue, on the page? If we act like affect isn’t what truly rules how we talk to, and around, one another, we won’t get to the whole of the matter. - The New Yorker

Nabokov Said Rereading Distinguished Who The Real Readers Are. He Was Wrong

The correct and virtuous way to read, according to those who knew about reading and writing, was to reread. Rereading was that which separated the real reader from the average book consumer. - Paris Review

Internet Archive Ruling On Fair Use Is A Disaster For Libraries, Writers And Readers

Even though this outcome was always a strong possibility, the final ruling is just incredibly damaging, especially in that it suggests that all libraries are bad for authors and cause them to no longer want to write. - AboveTheLaw

How Mick Herron Went From Obscurity To The World’s Top Spy Fiction Writer

“I was only ever a hair’s breadth away from being exactly as much of a failure as the people I write about,” he said by Zoom from Nashville. - The Wall Street Journal

An Unconventional Approach Can Put The Life Back Into Autobiography

That’s what Janet Malcolm did for Sylvia Plath in 1994, and thirty years later, that’s what Alexis Pauline Gumbs decided on for a new book about poet and essayist, publisher and teacher Audre Lorde. - The Atlantic

Elizabeth Strout On Why Writing About Her Ordinary Characters Is So Interesting To So Many Of Us

“It’s so interesting to think about the vast variety of things that can take place within one person’s life, and how nobody ever really knows it, because we only tell parts of our story to different people, and oh, I just want to know it so much!” - The Guardian (UK)

How Ancient Greek Texts In Arabic Translation Started A Medieval Scientific Revolution

"It is well-known that classic works of Greek science and philosophy were translated into Arabic before they were translated into other European languages — including Latin. What is less well-known is that the point of translating foreign works was not to preserve them but to build on them." - Literary Hub

If Literary Theory Seems Too Abstract For You, Let’s Consider The Power Of A Novel

If faith in something as abstruse as literary theory seems absurd, consider a more familiar vehicle of human knowledge: the novel. As a form, “the novel” has the capacity to operate in two registers simultaneously, representing both the enormous breadth of the social world and the intricate minutiae of the individual life. - Public Books

The Inherent Tension In Children’s Books

 Should we pander to the little rotters’ desires (BURRRP!) or should we give them impossibly pious characters Doing Good? The answer, of course, lies somewhere in between. - Literary Review

Giller Prize Drops Bank From Its Name Over Controversies

The rebranding follows months of controversy surrounding Scotiabank’s investment in the Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems and comes amid an ongoing campaign calling on arts organizations like the Giller Foundation to distance themselves from the financial institution. - Toronto Star

Internet Archive Loses Appeal On “Fair Use” Of Books

Notably, the appeals court’s ruling rejects the Internet Archive’s argument that its lending practices were shielded by the fair use doctrine, which permits for copyright infringement in certain circumstances, calling it “unpersuasive.” - Wired

Might AI Kill Off Amateur Novels? Good!

The world needs fewer novels, certainly fewer novels that have been written in a month. And artificial intelligence is itchy for distractions; we need to give the robots something to do before they start messing with nuclear codes or Social Security numbers. - The Atlantic

The “Black List” Of Best Unproduced Screenplays Is Being Extended To Books

"The Black List … has morphed over two decades into a multifunctional web platform focused on screenplay development and discovery. … Now, with relations between Hollywood and New York publishing closer — and the book-to-screen pipeline bigger — than ever before, the Black List is shifting its gaze over to the slush pile." - Publishers Weekly

Why Reference Books Matter

I write today in praise of a third genre that few self-respecting intellectuals admit to reading regularly, though many do: the reference book. - Discourse Magazine

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