For decades, the celebrated author ruled the public’s imagination. But times change—how will he be read now?
In her new novel, Songs for Angel, Blais proves that the twenty-first-century heir to modernism is a francophone octogenarian living in Florida
Weimar is world-famous. A number of important philosophers, musicians, and literary figures used to live here – including renowned poets Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller. Weimar Classicism attracts tourists even today. But the city of Thuringia is also home to a dark chapter of German history. There, the Nazis built built one of their largest concentration camps, Buchenwald, where a total of around 266,000 people were imprisoned.
With the G.O.P. in control of a majority of statehouses, Democrats are fighting for seats in battleground states. Is it too late?
Russia’s meddling in Trump-era politics was more directly connected to the current war than previously understood.
Every year along the Texas border, high school teams battle it out in one of the nation’s most intense championship rivalries. But they’re not playing football.
Inside the November 6, 2022 Issue:
Three writers go searching for echoes of a vanished culture — or a resurrected one.
– Spain: In the country’s churches and streets, the remnants of eight centuries of Islamic rule are hiding in plain sight.
– Singapore: Cuisine is one of the few ways to define Peranakan culture, a hard-to-pin-down blend of ethnic and racial identities.
– Tajikistan: While the nation’s history is being hidden behind glimmering new facades, its artisans hold on to tradition with quiet determination.
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France and the French can remain globally relevant only in English. Or so says British journalist Simon Kuper in one of a series of articles published recently by Le Monde. According to him, French is losing its utility, while English reigns supreme.
Who better than this jovial linguist to champion the French language? Bernard Cerquiglini holds a doctorate in literature, formerly directed the Center for French and Francophone Studies at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge and the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie, and has been the vice-president of the Fondation des Alliances Françaises for the last two years.
It is now forty years since Melina Mercouri, the Greek Minister for Culture from 1981 to 1989, famous also as a film star and singer, addressed UNESCO’s World Conference on Cultural Policies to draw international attention to the campaign with which she would be identified until her death in 1994, the repatriation to Athens of the Parthenon sculptures in the British Museum. ‘We are not asking for the return of a painting or a statue’, she said: ‘We are asking for the return of a portion of a unique monument, the privileged symbol of a whole culture’.
As images, ancient Roman wall paintings command attention for their bold compositions, vibrant and saturated colours, convincing naturalism and the fantastical mythologies they depict. As objects they also captivate for the dramatic circumstances surrounding their near- destruction, the miracle (or rarity) of their survival and the alchemical nature of lime plaster and pigment.
There’s plenty of bad news. But thanks to real progress, we’re headed toward a less apocalyptic future.
This is what success looks like in the creator economy: Sometimes you have to beg millions of fans for mercy.
