Common Pace

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Two Quotes, Connected Somehow

Under monopoly all mass culture is identical, and the lines of its artificial framework begin to show through. The people at the top are no longer so interested in concealing monopoly: as its violence becomes more open, so its power grows. Movies and radio need no longer pretend to be art. The truth that they are just business is made into an ideology in order to justify the rubbish they deliberately produce.

--from Dialectics of Enlightenment, by Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorn

I said how all purebloods have a hunger, a dissatisfaction in their eyes, xcept for the colonists I had met.
The Abbess nodded. If consumers found fulfillment at any meaningful level, she xtemporized, corpocracy would be finished.

--from Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell

Monday, October 8, 2012

LongReads Round-Up Volume Three

#Education

The issue with teaching self-expression in place of the mechanics of writing to children:

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/09/how-self-expression-damaged-my-students/262656/

A series of articles on the supposed fall of the Liberal Arts in America:

The reflection of liberal arts in the pop culture mirror: http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/09/pop-culture-has-turned-against-the-liberal-arts/262955/ #LiberalArts #Media

The case for Entrepreneurship as the new Liberal Arts Degree: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/09/how-liberal-arts-colleges-are-failing-america/262711/ #LiberalArts #College

I was really into the following article until this paragraph:

Soon [professors], in their hunger for relevance and their penchant for self-indulgence, began teaching books for reasons external to their intrinsic beauty or importance, and attempted to explain history before discovering what actually happened. They politicized psychology and sociology, and allowed African-American studies an even higher standing than Greek and Roman classics. They decided that the multicultural was of greater import than Western culture. They put popular culture on the same intellectual footing as high culture (Conrad or graphic novels, three hours credit either way). And, finally, they determined that race, gender, and social class were at the heart of all humanities and most social science subjects. With that finishing touch, the game was up for the liberal arts.”

http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/who-killed-liberal-arts_652007.html

Epstein’s apparent inflexibility to the diversifying of the cultural canon to make accords for those who have been historically marginalized and oppressed is just pathetic. He lauds himself as a defender of the liberal arts, but only as far as it extends to the brethren of Dead White Men of the Western World.

#Essay

What are ethics in the age of instant communication and constant change? http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/23/reinventing-ethics/ #Ethics

Bereavement Advice: http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/six-pieces-of-highly-autobiographical-bereavement-advice #Mourning #Humor

The similarities between “extinction” sleep techniques and political torture: http://nplusonemag.com/torture-and-parenting #Parenting

The Left needs to get it together: http://www.thenation.com/article/170202/letter-my-liberal-allies# #Politics

You're Average, I'm Average, We're All Average. http://therumpus.net/2012/10/on-being-average/

#Feminism

One feminist is swearing off anymore books about the author's "naughty bits": http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the-f-word

Fawzia Koofi is Afghanistan's first woman parliamentary speaker and a serious contender for presidency: http://womennewsnetwork.net/2012/08/27/afghanistan-woman-parliamentarian-dreams/ (this article is informative but almost frustratingly poorly written/edited.)

Article and accompanying photoset on women priests: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/30/opinion/sunday/women-as-priests.html?ref=world&_r=0 #Religion

Most Recommended Read about women in the workplace by feminist/mother/foreign policy expert Anne-Marie Slaughter: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/07/why-women-still-cant-have-it-all/309020/?single_page=true

(and a follow up piece) http://www.salon.com/2012/09/27/anne_marie_slaughter_im_a_card_carrying_feminist/

“Men Explain Things to Me” http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175584/

#Film

Casablanca still has its swagger after all this time:

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/09/happy-70th-anniversary-casablanca/263040/

Five lesser-known horror films to give you the willies: http://www.themorningnews.org/article/secret-horror

#Food

Brooklyn’s Foodie Historian, Sarah Lohman: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2012/09/sarah-lohman-foodie-historian.html

Sarah Lohman’s blog: www.fourpoundsflour.com

#Health

New research from Washington University in St. Louis shows dramatic dip in abortion rates among participants in a free contraceptive program

Summary from Mother Jones: http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/10/free-contraception-fewer-abortions-pregnancies-study

Summary from Scientific American: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2012/10/04/free-birth-control-access-can-reduce-abortion-rate-by-more-than-half/

Link to primary source: http://journals.lww.com/greenjournal/Abstract/publishahead/Preventing_Unintended_Pregnancies_by_Providing.99945.aspx

Gonorrhea is evolving for the modern day hook up culture: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/10/01/121001fa_fact_groopman?currentPage=all&pink=GjJ6ve&mobify=0 #Sexuality

Cats Are Not To Be Trusted:
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/03/how-your-cat-is-making-you-crazy/308873/

TB should probably have its own horror film franchise: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2003/03/patient-predator

We should fear rabies: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/07/ff_rabies/

#Literature #Poetry #Comics

Art of Fiction interview with David Mitchell, author of soon-to-be-motion-picture-adapted Cloud Atlas:

http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/6034/the-art-of-fiction-no-204-david-mitchell

Art of Comics interview with R. Crumb:

http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/6017/the-art-of-comics-no-1-r-crumb #Comics

"October" by Charles Wright:

http://apoetreflects.tumblr.com/post/32654992480/october-the-leaves-fall-from-my-fingers #Poetry

Short story by Etgar Keret, the most popular author in Israel:
http://www.granta.com/New-Writing/Accident #ShortFiction

#Music

Rappers putting pen to paper for memoirs and autobiographies: http://nplusonemag.com/it-was-written #Rap

The lead singer of Against Me! recently began touring after her transition, becoming one of the most mainstream trans performers in America: http://prospect.org/article/laura-punk-rocker #Sexuality #Trans

New CD coming from eternally cantankerous Mountain Goats frontman, John Darnielle: http://entertainment.time.com/2012/09/25/mountain-goats-john-darnielle-on-songwriting-for-tormented-souls/

#Religion

Cargo Cults and other incidental deifications: http://killingthebuddha.com/mag/dogma/accidental-gods/

Religion, politics, and intrigue surrounds the volcano of Mt. Merapi in Central Java: http://killingthebuddha.com/mag/dispatch/burning-faith/ #Indonesia

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Expanding Words Volume Two

admixture (n) a mixture; something mixed with something else, typically as a minor ingredient.

cachectic (adj) signs of physical wasting with loss of weight and muscle mass due to disease.

hagiography (n) a biography that idealizes or idolizes the person, typically a saint or other venerated person.

mimesis (n) the imitation or representation of aspects of the sensible world, especially human actions, in literature and art.

pecadillo (n) a small, relatively unimportant offense or sin.

prelapsarian (adj) characteristic of the time before the Fall of Man; innocent and unspoiled.

recidivist (n) one who relapses into a previous behavior or condition; especially a habitual criminal.

strewth (exp) an expression of surprise or dismay.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

"The Mindy Project" Round-Up

Last week, Mindy Kaling's new show, "The Mindy Project," premiered on Fox. This is a Big Deal for Women in the Media, as Kaling is creator, star, and head writer of the tongue in cheek rom-com lampoon of a show. 2011 had a surge in female-led comedies ("New Girl," "Whitney," "Two Broke Girls") but "The Mindy Project" is different right out of the gate: our heroine is a thirty-something OB-GYN woman of color, while last years shows centered on aimlessly drifting white girls.

Here are some articles on "The Mindy Project," also a #LongListen from NPR, and a piece Kaling wrote for The New Yorker last year about rom-com tropes:

from Salon: http://www.salon.com/2012/09/24/mindy_kalings_entitlement_project/

from The New Republic: http://www.tnr.com/article/books-and-arts/107812/mindy-kaling-tvs-smartest-airhead

#LongListen from NPR: http://www.npr.org/2012/09/25/161745528/mindy-kaling-loves-rom-coms-and-being-the-boss

The New Republic asking, where are the female writers? http://www.tnr.com/blog/plank/107818/the-woman-project

By Kaling for The New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2011/10/03/111003sh_shouts_kaling?currentPage=all

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

LongReads Round Up Volume Two

#Biography

The Texan who designed for Hermes http://www.texasmonthly.com/2012-10-01/feature2.php #Biography #Fashion

The Woman King of Egypt, Hatshepsut: http://www.laphamsquarterly.org/biography/the-woman-who-would-be-king.php?page=all #Biography #Egypt

#CurrentEvents

An argument that our relational duties to other humans should outweigh the validity or invalidity of “blasphemy:” http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/25/whats-wrong-with-blasphemy/ #Religion #Philosophy #CurrentEvents

Religious Lampooning in Cartooning, a brief survey: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/cartoonists/2012/09/cartoon-of-atonement.html #Cartoon #CurrentEvents

Transcript of President Obama’s Sept. 24 UN Speech (that I cried a little during reading): http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/09/25/did-obama-stand-up-for-a-free-society-at-the-un0.html #CurrentEvents #International

#Development #Education

Evaluating Children Sponsorship Programs (primary source): http://usf.usfca.edu/fac-staff/wydick/csp.pdf #Development #Aid

Child Sponsorship- the big feel good flack or effective outreach?: http://devpolicy.org/child-sponsorship-works/ #Development #Aid

Education reform that is best for the children: http://devpolicy.org/are-we-neglecting-childrens-participation-in-school/ #Development #Education

The dearth of skilled workers in India, and how education isn’t helping the situation: http://www.economist.com/node/21563418 #Education #India

#Essay

Watching your parents age and the places where they do so: http://www.guernicamag.com/features/the-last-place-you-ever-live/ #Essay #Aging

Like an email you’d love to receive: http://thoughtcatalog.com/2012/how-i-know-i-love-you/ #Essay #Love

#Feminism

Oral Remembrances of early feminist activist Shulamith Firestone: http://nplusonemag.com/on-shulamith-firestone-part-one; http://nplusonemag.com/on-shulamith-firestone-part-two #Feminism #Obituary

#History

Charles Kaiser’s afterword from gay rights activist Merle Miller’s new collection of writing, a brief snippet of modern history for the American homosexual: http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/sep/25/when-new-york-times-came-out-closet/ #History #Gay

#Literature

A great interview with Martin Amis: http://www.themorningnews.org/article/martin-amis-redux #Literature

The strange inaccessibility of JK Rowling and her upcoming novel of small parish politics and life: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/10/01/121001fa_fact_parker?currentPage=all #Literature

Martin Amis’s bromance review of Don Delillo's 2011 short story collection: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2011/11/21/111121crbo_books_amis #Literature

Salman Rushdie writing about George Orwell and the politics of the artist: http://www.granta.com/Archive/11/Outside-the-Whale/Page-1 #Literature #Politics

A revived interview with Ray Bradbury, first begun in the seventies: http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/6012/the-art-of-fiction-no-203-ray-bradbury #Literature #Writing

#Media #Film

You know you’ve made it when your video gets parodied by North Korea: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/21/world/asia/gangnam-style-video-gets-north-korean-propaganda-treatment.html #PSY #Media

“[C]omputer-generated imagery has introduced a radical impurity into a motion picture apparatus that, save for the introduction of synchronous sound, remained markedly consistent for a hundred years:” http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/sep/26/trapped-total-cinema/ #Film #Technology

#Politics

What does your beer say about your voting stance: http://hotlineoncall.nationaljournal.com/archives/2012/09/the-politics-of-3.php #Politics

#Psychology

Is the pursuit of happiness making Americans nervous wrecks? http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/22/america-the-anxious/ #Psychology

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Expanding Words Volume One

apparatchik (n) an official in a large organization, typically political. derogatory- member of a party apparat.

atavism (n) the reappearance of a characteristic in an organism after several generations of absence, usually caused by a chance recombination of genes.

cicerone (n) a guide who gives information about antiquities and places of interest to sightseers.

euphony (n) the quality of being pleasing to the ear, especially through a harmonious combination of words.

felicific (adj) relating to or promoting increased happiness.

folderol (n) trivial or nonsensical fuss.

indexicality (n) in pragmatics and linguistics, the features of a language that refer directly to the circumstances or context in which the utterance takes place.

obstreperous (adj) noisy and difficult to control.

scrofulous (adj) of, relating to, or affected with scrofula. having a diseased, run-down appearance; morally contaminated.

tsuris (n) trouble or woe; aggravation.