May 30, 2008
Posted at 8:32 AM in Art for Art's Sake
I sat in on John Updike's Jefferson Lecture--" 'The Clarity of Things': What Is American About American Art?"--at the Warner Theatre here in D.C. last week. The Jeff Lec, sponsored by the NEH, is the federal government's highest honor "for distinguished intellectual achievement in the humanities." The President's Own Color Guard marched the flag in and out, and there was a rousing military band. That may sound silly, but it's not often that anybody trots out a color guard and Sousa marches for the humanities.
And Updike's talk? I sat next to a friend of mine, a journalist for a Major Metropolitan Daily, who found it about as stimulating "as listening to a docent." Judge for yourself.
May 22, 2008
Posted at 11:17 AM in Reading and Writing
Even the New Yorker has a book blog now. But this one ("loose leafs from the New Yorker books department") looks like it's worth keeping an eye on. I've already seen more female bylines there than I do in most issues of the print mag.
May 14, 2008
Posted at 8:42 AM in Reading and Writing
One of the things I love best about my job at the Chronicle is getting to do stuff like talk to people who spend their days wrestling Latin dactylic hexameters into English. A poet and classicist named Sarah Ruden has just published what appears to be the first major translation of Virgil's Aeneid by a woman. Her version, put out by Yale University Press, is the fourth new translation of the martial epic in three years, and there are at least two more in the works (one by another woman, Jane W. Joyce, and one by David Ferry, whose translations of Horace's odes are sheer poetry, in every sense).
Why so many Aeneids, and why now? And why have women steered clear of epic? Read on.
May 12, 2008
Posted at 3:27 PM in Publish or Perish
A nonprofit "publishing collective," the Open Humanities Press, wants to do for humanists what the open-access movement has done for scientists--or at least make a start in that direction. They're handling 7 journals to start with, and have lined up some impressive names for their editorial board, including Stephen Greenblatt and Alan Badiou. Best of luck, kids.
May 5, 2008
Posted at 12:21 PM in Publish or Perish
Princeton University Press has recalled all 4,000 copies of Peter Moskos's Cop in the Hood after discovering more than 90 errors of spelling and grammar in the 245-page book. They say an inexperienced copy editor is to blame, and promise to have a corrected version of the book back in stores by the end of the month.
It's a first--and a big black eye--for the presitigious press. Princeton UP's director called the matter "terribly embarrassing" and said they're proud of the book, "which makes the embarrassment all the worse."
And the author? He's been writing about the setback with remarkably good cheer over at his blog.
As we say in the journo trade, though, this raises new and troubling questions. What's the state of quality control in scholarly publishing these days? If you have thoughts on that, let me know.
May 1, 2008
Posted at 3:06 PM in The Way We Live Now
Yesterday was International Anti-Noise Day. If only I'd known. Greg McNamee has a quiet meditation on our noisy lives over at Britannica Blog. Read it in a quiet place, if you can find one.
