weekend links: plot shapes, Philip Guston, Roni Horn
Lynn Maphies, Here (2014). Image courtesy of Covered with Fur.
Roughly six archetypal plot shapes exist in literature, a University of Nebraska professor concluded via data from sentiment analysis. Read this article and then watch Kurt Vonnegut’s five-minute lecture on the shapes of stories. [The Daily at the Paris Review]
Robert Storr examines the evolution of Philip Guston’s art. My takeaway: high school Guston and Jackson Pollock were expelled for the nerdiest rebellion of all time. [New York Review Blog]
A couple of firsts at last night’s National Book Critics Circle Awards: a graphic novel—Can We Talk about Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast—took home the prize for autobiography, and Claudia Rankine’s Citizen:An American Lyric was nominated in two categories. (Rankine won the poetry category.) Check out interviews with Chast and Rankine, as well as a full list of winners. [PBS]
Lynn Maphies discusses the work of minimalist artist Roni Horn, lonely places, and the connections between Iceland and Texas. [Covered with Fur]
Robin Ticciati is not a stereotypical conductor, but he may be this generation’s most important classical musician. He is also, apparently, an adventurous eater. [Intelligent Life]
Paola Antonelli, MoMA’s senior curator and a keynote speaker at this year’s SXSWi, defends video games as art; Roger Ebert rolls over in his grave. [Austin Chronicle]
Guy Debord’s The Society of the Spectacle, as told through interpretative dance. [Hyperallergic]
—Alyssa G. Ramirez