“A constant theme in this book is the transmission of the past as an imaginative act; hence the title, Falstaff’s dying vision of `a table of green fields,’ probably a mishearing of his recitation of the Twenty-third Psalm, corrected by editors to ‘he babbled of green fields,’ a symbol of all fiction,an art that must be exact about the uncertain.” Richard Ewina at Yarra csalt
There’s a nice summing-up of Kay Ryan’s strategy: “an art that must be exact about the uncertain.”
- This is my favorite video of the day: MSNBC’s Courtney Kube is doing a live report when she is interrupted by … well, a special guest.
- An upcoming book has more allegations of inappropriate and unwanted sexual touching by Donald Trump. Here’s an excerpt in Esquire.
EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN: The Beatles’ Abbey Road Is UK’s No. 1 Again, 49 Years & 252 Days Later
Van Gogh and Gauguin are seen as two great loners. Nonsense. Whatever the painters sought to escape, it wasn't human contact... MEdia Dragon
The Dangerous Life of an Anthropologist - Quillette.
Scientific American has described the controversy as “Anthropology’s Darkest Hour,” and it raises troubling questions about the entire field. In 2013, Chagnon published his final book, Noble Savages: My Life Among Two Dangerous Tribes—The Yanomamö and the Anthropologists. Chagnon had long felt that anthropology was experiencing a schism more significant than any difference between research paradigms or schools of ethnography—a schism between those dedicated to the very science of mankind, anthropologists in the true sense of the word, and those opposed to science; either postmodernists vaguely defined, or activists disguised as scientists who seek to place indigenous advocacy above the pursuit of objective truth.
Where Are Artists Priced Out Of Gentrifying Berlin Neighborhoods Going? Here
They’ve been moving into abandoned East German factories along the Spree River. “Although the area’s landscape may look post-apocalyptic, with its giant weeds and empty power plants, strangely, the future here can seem positively Arcadian: Real estate is still cheap enough that artists are able to buy, rather than rent, their spaces. Here, four artists discuss how their work is shaped by the Spree.” – T — The New York Times Style Magazine
Artists, and their fans, who hit out at mixed reviews misunderstand the value of critical ambivalence
Jobs boom boosts NSW surplus to $1.2b - report that due to a drop in unemployment, payroll tax revenue has increased and helped lift the NSW budget surplus to $1.2b
Trump's whistleblower strategy backfires, new accuser comes ...
There's been more pre-prize coverage, of course, though not too much of great interest or information value -- but at least some entertainment value:
- Can the Nobel Prize in Literature overcome its scandalous year ? by Michael Redhil in the Toronto Star
- Your favorite author isn't going to win the Nobel Prizepromises Jeva Lange at The Week
- Alexandra Guzeva makes the case for Why Russian writer Ludmila Ulitskaya should win this year's Nobel Prize at Russia Beyond the Headlines
- A more creative and entertaining take on the prize-deliberations: Andreas Platthaus offers a dramolett in theFrankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Gewinnerkombination verzweifelt gesucht
- Nobelpreis für Literatur: Über Stockholm hängen noch immer Schatten des Skandals by Manuel Müller in theNeue Zürcher Zeitung
- A few more guesses as to who might/should take the prize(s), at Blekinge Läns Tidning, in Tio författare som kan få Nobelpriset
