The written word wielded power in part because of the rarity of the skills required to comprehend it, let alone compose in it. In the later Middle Ages, books were produced in increasing quantities for increasingly diverse audiences, but even then, as earlier, in Christendom, literacy was always the reserve of the few. – Lapham’s Quarterly
China’s Curious Fascination With Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes was first introduced to Chinese readers in 1896, with translations of four stories appearing in Current Affairs newspaper. So popular were they with readers that in 1916 the Zhonghua Book Company published The Complete Stories of Sherlock Holmes, featuring 44 stories that rendered Conan Doyle’s prose into classical Chinese. Los Angeles Review of Books
World’s First Immersive Virtual Museum
The result is a 360-degree, fully immersive experience that lets museumgoers get as close as they want to, say, Manet’s Olympia or Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights. Using a computer’s arrow buttons, a visitor can virtually “walk” around the museum, zooming in on different works of art. The user-friendly setup feels much like a computer game. – Smithsonian
Uh-Oh! NY Post Is Afraid Beethoven Might Be Canceled
“To woke critics, Beethoven’s music has taken on a new, darker meaning. To musicologist Nate Sloan and songwriter Charlie Harding, stars of the “Switched on Pop” podcast produced in association with the New York Philharmonic, the Fifth Symphony is a stand-in for everything they don’t like about classical music and Western culture. As far as they’re concerned, it’s time to cancel Ludwig.” – New York Post
Finally: What The New LACMA’s Galleries Will Look Like
Other than necessary mechanical systems and bathrooms, the building’s entire second story will be devoted to galleries, a total of 110,000 square feet of exhibition space. The galleries are composed of two dozen rectilinear spaces — basically, boxes — arranged in clusters and surrounded by interstitial spaces that will also display art. – Los Angeles Times
Time To Rethink How We Classify Science Fiction
Realism is not a binary. It is at a minimum a spectrum. If you charted fictional realities on a football field, you’d find that work on the 45-yard “Realism” side is closer to the 45-yard “SFF” marker than it is to, say, Sally Rooney over the 8-yard line. But even a spectrum doesn’t accurately capture the vast ocean of fiction that takes our reality and heightens, stylizes, distorts, or warps it in different ways. – LitHub
Southern California’s KCRW Makes Large Cuts
The cuts represent a loss of 18% of the NPR affiliate’s staff, reducing it to 127 full- and part-time employees. It comes less than two years after the station began moving into its $38-million media center on the campus of Santa Monica Community College. – Los Angeles Times
Banksy Loses Trademark Claim Over His Work
“The artwork, which depicts a masked protester throwing a bouquet of flowers, appeared on a wall in Jerusalem in 2005. It has since been reappropriated by the UK card company Full Colour Black, which has used the artwork on cards. In 2014, Banksy successfully applied for an EU trademark for the work, which was then challenged by Full Colour Black. The company argued that the artist was not entitled to the trademark as he did not wish to use it for trade purposes or for branding.” – The Independent (UK)
Steve Carter, Playwright Of Black Arts Movement, Dead At 90
“An award-winning playwright who explored the African-American and Caribbean-American experiences with incisiveness, humor and a willingness to wrestle with difficult themes, … Mr. Carter was one of many playwrights to emerge from the renowned Negro Ensemble Company in New York City in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s.” – The New York Times
Why Cities And Towns Are Suing Netflix, Hulu, And Disney+
“Throughout the nation, one American town after another is struggling to figure out how to pay overtime for the city workers who disinfect public transit plus come up with funds so that schools can buy laptops for children learning remotely. Many officials have concluded that streamers should be contributing more for local government services and are shirking legal obligations by not doing so.” – The Hollywood Reporter
A New Wave Of BIPOC Leaders Takes Charge At U.S. Theater Companies
Peter Marks: “The hires and promotions mark what may be a turning point for a field coming to grips with a challenge from Black, Latinx, Asian American and other racial and ethnic groups: to examine its White bias and bring more diversity into its leadership ranks.” – The Washington Post
Gerhard Richter Says This Is His Final Major Artwork
Three tall twin-panel stained-glass windows unveiled at Tholey Abbey, Germany’s oldest surviving monastery building, constitute what the 88-year-old artist says will “certainly” be his last numbered opus. (He plans to limit himself to drawings and sketched from now on.) – Artnet
What Will This Week’s Virtual Emmys Look Like?
“TV broadcast has been our friend right through that whole period. It’s brought us together. … Let’s celebrate the role it’s had in our lives, as well as the people who made it, who are so extraordinarily talented.” – Washington Post
Co-Working Spaces That Work During A Pandemic?
Instead of occupying a sealed, monolithic glass office tower, Second Home inhabits a converted community center where the majority of the work spaces are housed in individual studios (there are 60) in a lush garden that was once a vast parking lot. – Los Angeles Times
A Non-Profit Strategy For Raising Money In A Pandemic
When nonprofits are under-resourced, their natural response is to turn to their donors. But is it realistic to expect a healthy stream of charitable contributions in the midst of the worst economic situation since the Great Depression? Absolutely — if you approach the right people. Because even as unemployment soars, as tens of thousands of businesses close, and as default and eviction rates rise, a small but significant portion of the population is doing just fine, thank you. – Harvard Business Review
“Birkenau” Blunder: Metropolitan Museum Says Richter’s Riffs on the Holocaust are “Poignant”
“Poignant” is a word that I’ve never before seen (and hope never to see again) in connection with the Holocaust. These paintings soft-pedal and aestheticize photos that were taken of gas chamber victims while their remains were being burned and disposed of. – Lee Rosenbaum
Anna Netrebko Hospitalized With COVID
The soprano was admitted to a Moscow hospital with pneumonia on Sept. 12, just days after she sang in two performances of Verdi’s Don Carlo, the Bolshoi’s first production since the pandemic shutdown. A third performance, scheduled for Sept. 10, was cancelled after another cast member, bass Ildar Abdrazakov, fell ill and tested positive for the coronavirus. – The New York Times
Arts Groups Could Finally Get Insurance Companies To Pay COVID Claims Following UK High Court Ruling
“Many companies whose revenues have been severely hit by the COVID-19 pandemic have been disappointed when told by their insurers that the very add-on policies that they thought would protect them in such instances do not apply in the case of havoc wreaked by a previously unknown virus. So the [Financial Conduct Authority] stepped in on their behalf to clarify the situation, examining 21 sample wordings from policies. The High Court ruling largely found in favour of the FCA.” – The Art Newspaper