Thursday, August 10, 2017

Arts Journal - Words

First Person Account: The New Republic As A Cautionary Journalism Tale

“Data have turned journalism into a commodity, something to be marketed, tested, calibrated. Perhaps people in the media have always thought this way. But if that impulse existed, it was at least buffered. Journalism’s leaders were vigilant about separating the church of editorial from the secular concerns of business. We can now see the cause for fanaticism about building such a thick wall between the two.”

Read Annie Dillard’s Classic Essay About Solar Eclipses

“I had seen a partial eclipse in 1970. A partial eclipse is very interesting. It bears almost no relation to a total eclipse. Seeing a partial eclipse bears the same relation to seeing a total eclipse as kissing a man does to marrying him, or as flying in an airplane does to falling out of an airplane. Although the one experience precedes the other, it in no way prepares you for it.”
In honor of this month’s event, The Atlantic brings back Dillard’s 1982 piece “Total Eclipse.”

Twitter Vigilantes Poison Social Media Discussion Of Young Adult Novels

“Led by a group of influential authors who pull no punches when it comes to calling out their colleagues’ work, and amplified by tens of thousands of teen and young-adult followers for whom online activism is second nature, the campaigns to keep offensive books off shelves” – often waged by people who haven’t read the novel they’re condemning – “are a regular feature in a community that’s as passionate about social justice as it is about reading.”
 

No comments: