Sunday, March 15, 2020

We Try To Be Authentic. But Being Real Can Be A Bit Unreal

Does Democratization Of Culture Mean The End Of Audience?

“My current research situates audience development within work on culture as a vocation, and wider debates around the democratisation of culture and cultural democracy. Audience development both replicates and reproduces (rather than challenges) the dominant cultural hegemony – most notably in subsidised cultural institutions. As such, it has traditionally been seen as a management tool for the democratisation of culture.” – Arts Professional

What Happens To ‘The Merchant Of Venice’ When Shylock Is A Woman?

Carey Perloff, who directed Seana McKenna in the role last year in Calgary: “I am not always convinced that cross-gender casting helps illuminate Shakespeare; many of the plays focus so specifically on gender that swapping out men for women can sometimes muddy the actual narrative or intent of the play. But in the case of Shylock, who is the ultimate ‘other’ in the play, gender served to crack open the drama in fascinating ways.” –American Theatre

Was London’s Millennium Dome Really The Enormous Fiasco Everyone Remembers? Not Entirely …

It cost more than £750 million (that was well over a billion dollars then), the grand opening at the turn of the millennium was one snafu after another, actual visitor numbers were half of projections, and the UK government eventually sold it for a pound. But families loved it at the time, and it’s now the most popular live music venue on Earth. Imogen West-Knights recounts how it all happened in this week’s Guardian Long Read. – The Guardian


A Brutally Honest Account Of Capitalism, Motherhood, And Writing



Karen Russell: “When I fixate on this math, I begin to have the panicked sense that I gave up time with my son to delete three paragraphs; suddenly writing badly feels like stealing from him. This is obviously not a healthy way to approach creative work, or a pressure that yields good fiction.” Way to go, USA! – Wealthsimple

We Try To Be Authentic. But Being Real Can Be A Bit Unreal


This is the paradox of authenticity: In order to reap the many of the benefits of feeling authentic, you may have to betray your true nature. – Scientific American





From The Outsider to It, the joys and challenges of adapting Stephen King

To say it's possible to adapt King's work in a manner that satisfies everyone would be an exercise in absurdity. But what is it exactly that makes him so difficult to translate, and why do so many people try?
Let me say up front that, as a general rule, I am against competition. It pits creatives against one another so they’ll vie for an artificial scarcity of money, opportunities, and acclaim. Competition celebrates individual output over considering how works can complement or contrast one another when allowed to coexist. Perhaps more radically, it discourages approaching projects collectively. Fewer royalties for any one person when multiple people have their hands on the pen, right?
The 2020 installment of The Morning News' legendary Tournament of Books starts today

Superheroes As Metaphor For Technology

Superman and his contemporaries launched a fascination with technological superism that continues today. Here were individuals whose bodies and their capacities were somehow warped through being exposed to technology (the Flash); augmented by technology (Batman); or transported from one environment to another by technology (Superman). There is an underlying narrative in all their stories that treats technology as a source of powers that would traditionally have been described as divine. But, like Prometheus’ theft of fire from the gods, this has often been seen as a double-edged desire, seductive yet dangerous for humans. – Aeon
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