Architecture, Assault, Authors, Music, Star Wars
The Future Of Classicism
Clive Aslet | New Criterion | 11th June 2018
Classicism in architecture has always been a revival; even the Ancient Greeks were reviving traditions now lost to us. In the post-war fatigue of the 1950s it seemed that classicism was dying. But revulsion against the modernism of the 1960s has returned classicism to the mainstream. “Classicism is one style among other styles — but it is a valid style, recognized by almost everyone. Harmony reigns. Increasingly, it is a classical harmony. The Corbusian vision is dead” (4,200 words)
Mutually Nonconsensual Sex
Caitlin Flanagan | Atlantic | 1st June 2018
“Is it possible for two people to simultaneously sexually assault each other? This is the question — rife with legal, anatomical, and emotional improbabilities — to which the University of Cincinnati now addresses itself. The one important thing you need to know about the case is that according to the lawsuit, a woman has been indefinitely suspended from college because she let a man touch her vagina. What kind of sexually repressive madness could have allowed for this to happen?” (1,900 words)
What If I Am Just A Minor Writer?
Karl Taro Greenfeld | Literary Hub | 24th May 2018
“How do you know when a promising career turns sodden with mediocrity? I can’t point to the moment or ascertain the cause of my being a minor writer. It could be a lack of talent. I could be bad luck. I’m not asking for sympathy or pity, merely identifying a common enough condition: I didn’t become what I dreamed. I convince myself that the next book will be the one that elevates me, that the critics will suddenly take notice. I will be anointed a major writer” (1,190 words)
The Aesthetics Of Playing Piano
Mary Beth Willard | Aesthetics For Birds | 5th June 2018
The pleasures of playing music differ from the pleasures of listening to music. “The aesthetics of music is the aesthetics of the experience of the audience. So when we investigate how music expresses emotions, we adopt the perspective of someone whose relationship to the artwork is that of the consumer. The player is close enough to hear every little resonance and feel every vibration, pleasant or not. A player can feel the bass notes on her face, and through the vibration in the floor” (1,030 words)
What If Star Wars Never Happened?
Kevin Lincoln | Polygon | 7th June 2018
Counter-factual culture. George Lucas takes up Francis Ford Coppola’s offer to direct Apocalypse Now, and misses the window for Star Wars. Without the earnings from Star Wars, Twentieth-Century Fox implodes. Without Fox News, George W. Bush loses the 2000 election. “George Lucas, now in his 70s, has moved into video games, where he’s experimenting with an old idea: an intergalactic MMORPG that pits good versus evil, with players able to choose either side. He plans to call it The Star Wars” (2,900 words)
Video of the day Cat Explorer
What to expect:
Not, of course, that you wish to disassemble your cat. But if you did, here is what you would see (1’05”)
Thought for the day
Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes clean to the bone
Dorothy Parker
Podcast Hungry Hippocampus | Hidden Mind
Shankar Vedantam on the psychology of eating: What we want, what we need, and what we reject
(28m 39s)