Sadean tax break in France
The French government has issued an official call for corporate help in order to purchase the manuscript of the Marquis de Sade's The 120 Days of Sodom (plus étui), dangling generous tax breaks as an incentive.
The Ministry of Culture declared the manuscript a 'national treasure' in 2017, meaning also it could not be sold abroad, but now they're apparently hoping to purchase it themselves; the value is currently pegged at an impressive €4,550,000. I do wonder what companies will want to explain to their shareholders that they contributed to the purchase of this -- having the company's name associated with that in perpetuity; it is, after all, a very controversial (and problematic) text. But, yes, attitudes towards culture are different in France (at least than in the US) -- and there's no denying this object's cultural-historical significance.
Beyond any literary considerations, the manuscript -- a roll, rather than the usual pile of papers -- is pretty neat itself; see some images at this Marquis de Sade site.
Should ATO introduce Whitlamean tax?
Mourid Barghouti (1944-2021)
Palestinian poet Mourid Barghouti has passed away; see the BBC report or, for example, the Maya Jaggi profile in The Guardian from 2008, A life in writing: Mourid Barghouti.
He is probably best-known for his memoir, I Saw Ramallah
Why thousands are flocking to the soothing, digital rooms of YouTube
Welcome to the world of so-called ambience videos, a genre of YouTube video that pairs relaxing soundscapes with animated scenery.
Where Sydney Swims 2020–21 - Why millions flog to Little Bay Beach 🏖
The Cultural Significance Of Magazines
“The best way to think about magazines is as the analog Internet—they’d foster communities of people, just like on social networks,” Steven Lomazow, a seventy-three-year-old New Jersey neurologist who created the exhibition from his personal collection of more than eighty-three thousand magazine issues, said the other day. – The New Yorker
8 Ways to Read the Books You Wish You Had Time For
HBR: “…A University of California reportshows we’re consuming more information now than we ever have before — more than 100,000 words per day. Think about how many texts and alerts and notifications and work emails and personal emails and news headlines and fly-by tickers and blog feeds and Twitter spews and Instagram comments you’re reading each day. With all that garbage reading, who has time for books anymore? In an earlier HBR piece called “8 Ways to Read (a Lot) More Books This Year,” I shared how for most of my adult life I read five books a year, tops. I had a few slow burners on my nightstand, and read a couple of books on vacation if I was lucky. But then three years ago, I read fifty. Fifty books! In one year. I couldn’t believe it. I could suddenly feel books becoming this lead domino towards being a better husband, a better father, and a better writer. Since then, I’ve tried doubling down on reading. I’m now reading somewhere above 100 books a year. Sure, I sometimes hit slow patches, and bare patches, and slip into social media black holes. But here are eight more things I do to get back on track…”