Marriage

My dictionary definition of promiscuity maintains that it means "indiscriminant" and gives promiscuous "massacre" and "hospitality" as examples. It goes on to define sexual promiscuity as "having sexual relations not limited by marriage or co-habitation". Here, already, is a basic confusion – promiscuity in general means being undiscriminating, whereas sexual promiscuity means only sex outside a regular relationship. No wonder we unconsciously label that indiscriminant where it might be most carefully discriminating. No wonder, too, that when we call someone promiscuous we almost always mean it pejoratively, implying that they have too much sex with too many people and don't care who those people are. … [Read more...] about From the archive, 7 December 1978: Promiscuity and the trouble with sex

‘She does inappropriate things all the time,’ Deena said. ‘I like Chris and Angelina together. I don’t want to see a really good relationship get torn apart. I want her to know that there’s girl code, guy code, then there’s the relationship code. And you don’t cross those lines.’ … [Read more...] about Jersey Shore: Mike Sorrentino reveals he was ‘looked after’ during his prison stint after Vinny’s Uncle Nino ‘put out the word’ for him among the inmates

Games The Last GuardianFumito Ueda’s trio of works – 2001’s Ico, 2005’s Shadow of the Colossus and 2016’s The Last Guardian – share similarities both aesthetic and thematic: a determined child protagonist, an ancient, forsaken ruin, a textless plot, a sidekick who must be both protected and relied upon. In The Last Guardian, your collaborator is a towering, abused creature who must be whistled and cajoled into position to act variously as stepping stone and transport as you work to escape a lonely castle. Unlike many other directors, Ueda is not in thrall to Hollywood, which has freed him to explore and develop his chosen medium’s unique narrative qualities – perhaps more successfully than any other. Simon Parkin … [Read more...] about Inspiring culture: 50 works that changed our critics’ lives

This is to deploy the critical vocabulary developed to describe the work of Jackson Pollock: firstly the stress on the artist’s actions and the marks it leaves on the surface of the canvas rather than the subject; secondly the use of the word “event” to describe a canvas - a nodal point in 20th-century criticism after the American critic Harold Rosenberg used it to signify so-called action painting. Brookner feels it too much of an historical solecism to make the explicit link between the way Delacroix handles paint and the way Pollock drips it, so she merely implies it – which is the method of fiction, not of art history, and the better for it. … [Read more...] about Anita Brookner obituary

But like it or not, celebrity is part of contemporary public life. Even in the academic world, Professor David Shumway of Carnegie Mellon University has claimed, a star-system operates, offering fans the illusion of personal connection and an imaginary relationship with the star. Moreover, he argues that "contemporary celebrities are often distinguished by their pathologies or deviances", traits that make them seem closer to us. As a result, not only mega-celebrities such as Princess Diana but also mini-celebrities such as Hillary Clinton tend to be polarising figures, upon whom disproportionate adulation and loathing is projected. … [Read more...] about In search of heroines