[contextly_auto_sidebar id="Qq27kwhxLk22LnK6cMR3w47aN5iOTjFn"] WITH the national unemployment rate falling, and the persistence of digital utopianism, which tells us that we live in the best of all possible worlds, we've put that nasty recession stuff behind us, haven't we? The struggle of the creative class, which has not much abated, continues to be obscured. A new funny and poignant essay in … [Read more...]
Power and Culture on the Internet, and Saving College Radio
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="u4Dlzk0r3mKVO47xkZOYDpbn6EaCJhpT"] HOW has the Internet changed our culture, politics, and economic structures? One of the smartest answers to this complicated question comes from lefty filmmaker Astra Taylor. I spoke to Taylor, who also has a foot in the indie-rock world, about her new book The People's Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital … [Read more...]
Reading in the Digital Age, and Cassandra Wilson
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="dHp9P0RkCZ3f7i5yDaz9hEWZeYiwNVGG"] WHAT happens to us when we read on an electronic device? Does it alter our ability to connect with a nuanced piece of fiction? Two recent stories get into these questions from opposite angles. I wrote about this a few weeks ago, and the conversation still rages. This reported story from the Washington Post makes clear that … [Read more...]
A Return in Minnesota, and Kushner and Rodrick in Paperback
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="9ERXa4nuBab6v5CPcvsEksqMFVDobHPt"] ONE of the unpleasant recent developments in classical music -- the 16 month (!) lockout of the musicians in the Minnesota Orchestra -- may be resolving. But it may not go entirely smoothly. A report just today from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune describes newly restored music director Osmo Vanska. “We are terribly behind and must do … [Read more...]
Looking Ahead With Astra Taylor, Tallest Tree; and Rushdie
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="kNYZhxkhTXTFf6ORXY8ykY6cNtaDGWj8"] THE other day I spoke to Astra Taylor, a documentary filmmaker who was involved in the Occupy movement, about her new book The People's Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age. I'll be writing about her more fully shortly, but for now I'll just say this is one of the best books on the impact of digital technology … [Read more...]
Does Literary Fiction Exist? And, James Franco
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="g3odon0mIwRtjJWQanUkJ6akwgtLE0cd"] IS "literary fiction" just another genre? Over the years I've engaged in numerous discussions with writers, fans, and fellow journalists on the matter. Generally I've been sympathetic to the side that says that demeaned genres -- science fiction and hardboiled detective fiction especially -- can be as smart, well-written and … [Read more...]
Visual Art and Piketty’s “Capital,” and David Mitchell
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="38DeNwZGJisbGbTELS20TK8CUWph1kUR"] CULTURE and economics are connected, of course, in all kinds of ways, some simple, some complex. I often muse on the question of how rising income inequality relates to the arts, specifically the art market. A new story gets at some of it, using Capital in the Twenty-First Century, French economist Thomas Piketty's bestseller, as … [Read more...]
Housing for Artists, Upcoming Doc and What Twain Tells Us
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="hLRQi16APGHGAa7vr6agsGJdgdO8X6ef"] IT’S taken a while, but as rents and real estate prices have surged over the last few years, the issue of living space for artists has started to get the attention it deserves; David Byrne and Patti Smith have helped shine a light on the plight of creative folk in New York. A new story by fiction writer Catherine Lacey highlights … [Read more...]
The Future of Reading, and Farewell to Garcia Marquez
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="wpIfhTFr9kKtMpx4vb9kTfcqutjYEoQT"] ONE of the reasons we're all here -- as lovers of Beethoven quartets, long Kurosawa films, serious novels, challenging visual art -- is that we experienced the joys of immersive, uninterrupted reading at an early age. There's a lot of talk -- rightly so -- about how poor kids get less of this than wealthier ones. But are the … [Read more...]
How Important is a Writer’s Routine? Plus, McMansions
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="VwvlTpDOy3SsWouxN3cvJka5SISHA7pJ"] ONE of the many ironies of our age is that as creative folk find it harder and harder to keep afloat, a whole world of books, workshops, and other sorts of guides to creativity continue to spring up. A sub-genre is the book which tells you about an artist's or writer's daily routine: How eccentric waking hours or diets or various … [Read more...]