News, reviews, latest trends, breakthroughs, disputes, and gossip in arts and culture http://aldaily.com/ en-us Copyright 2012 The Chronicle of Higher Education Sun, 5 Feb 2012 07:00:02 EDT rss@chronicle.com rss@chronicle.com http://aldaily.com/ald01.gif http://aldaily.com 128 70 Today's News http://aldaily.com Sun, 5 Feb 2012 00:00:00 EDT <p> In Brazil, every student studies philosophy - Plato, ethics, the will of the gods. Impressive, right? Academic philosophers don't think so... <a href="http://www.bostonreview.net/BR37.1/carlos_fraenkel_brazil_teaching_philosophy.php">more</a> </p> <p> "Intellectuals with job security in a university carry a responsibility in troubled times," argued Tony Judt. And so he was outspoken, sometimes to a fault... <a href="http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/2012/01/orwell%E2%80%99s-heir-tony-judt-pankaj-mishra-liberalism/">more</a> </p> <p> How does a poet of despair survive in rock &#699;n' roll? Ideas are the engine of Leonard Cohen's success. His ideas are old and radical and, on occasion, surprisingly persuasive... <a href="http://www.tabletmag.com/arts-and-culture/music/89715/leonard/?all=1">more</a> </p> http://aldaily.com Sat, 4 Feb 2012 00:00:00 EDT <p> In Brazil, every student studies philosophy - Plato, ethics, the will of the gods. Impressive, right? Academic philosophers don't think so... <a href="http://www.bostonreview.net/BR37.1/carlos_fraenkel_brazil_teaching_philosophy.php">more</a> </p> <p> "Intellectuals with job security in a university carry a responsibility in troubled times," argued Tony Judt. And so he was outspoken, sometimes to a fault... <a href="http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/2012/01/orwell%E2%80%99s-heir-tony-judt-pankaj-mishra-liberalism/">more</a> </p> <p> How does a poet of despair survive in rock &#699;n' roll? Ideas are the engine of Leonard Cohen's success. His ideas are old and radical and, on occasion, surprisingly persuasive... <a href="http://www.tabletmag.com/arts-and-culture/music/89715/leonard/?all=1">more</a> </p> http://aldaily.com Fri, 3 Feb 2012 00:00:00 EDT <p> Artists in the Arab world tend to be politically engaged, says Adonis, who is no exception. But has the Arab Spring made him irrelevant?... <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2012/jan/27/adonis-syrian-poet-life-in-writing">more</a> </p> <p> Criticism is secondary to writing novels, said Lionel Trilling, who published just one work of fiction. It wasn't great, and he couldn't settle for merely good... <a href="http://www.the-tls.co.uk/tls/public/article866052.ece">more</a> </p> <p> Touring the Wild West, Oscar Wilde was delighted by a sign on the wall of a saloon, "Don't shoot the piano player, he's doing his best." Alas, far too many pianos now go unplayed... <a href="http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/Let-s-tickle-the-ivories-7274">more</a> </p> http://aldaily.com Thu, 2 Feb 2012 00:00:00 EDT <p> Few questions divide the classical-music world as starkly as this: Philip Glass - mind-numbing bore or bliss-inducing genius?... <a href="http://nymag.com/print/?/arts/classicaldance/classical/reviews/philip-glass-2012-2/">more</a> </p> <p> What happened to Sinology? Recent books, scholarly and popular, suggest a turn toward rank boosterism, historical whitewashing, and hagiography... <a href="http://www.lrb.co.uk/v34/n03/perry-anderson/sino-americana">more</a> </p> <p> Orwell called them "disgusting tripe," Camille Paglia considers them a "corrupt practice," Stephen King winces at their "hyperbolic ecstasies" - Book blurbs have been a scandal since antiquity... <a href="http://www.themillions.com/2012/02/i-greet-you-in-the-middle-of-a-great-career-a-brief-history-of-blurbs.html">more</a> </p> http://aldaily.com Wed, 1 Feb 2012 00:00:00 EDT <p> The adolescent brain. Children are reaching puberty earlier and entering adulthood later. The result: Considerable weirdness... <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203806504577181351486558984.html">more</a> </p> <p> Film schools are trade schools playacting as art schools and moonlighting in business courses. Their value is dubious, but the demand is insatiable... <a href="http://lareviewofbooks.org/post/16632160468/true-story">more</a> </p> <p> The intellectual glitterati are at it again, pontificating on "G-Zero World" and the "Rise of Regions" (whatever that means) from an otherwise obscure Swiss village. Welcome to Davos... <a href="http://prestowitz.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/01/26/clueless_in_davos">more</a> </p> http://aldaily.com New material is added to Arts & Letters Daily six days a week. We continually test links for reliability. Despite our best efforts, links may fail (often only temporarily) without warning. We apologize for any inconvenience. Our motto, "Veritas odit moras," is from line 850 of Seneca's version of Oedipus. It means "Truth hates delay." Arts & Letters Daily is a service of The Chronicle of Higher Education.