Arts

French President Georges Pompidou, shown here in 1969, launched an international competition in 1971 to design and build the museum.

At 40, Paris' Pompidou Center Is Still 'An Unexpected Trip'

3:04pm February 22, 2017

by Eleanor Beardsley

The modern art museum, which opened on Jan. 31, 1977, holds a secure place in the heart of Paris — and in Parisians' hearts. But it wasn't always so. Horrified critics compared it to an oil refinery.

My Favorite Thing Is Monsters explores the theme of "monstrousness" from various angles.

Books
Arts

'My Favorite Thing Is Monsters' Is A Dazzling, Graphic Novel Tour-De-Force

2:02pm February 22, 2017

by John Powers

Set amid the political swirl of late '60s Chicago, Emil Ferris' graphic novel debut reflects on race, class, gender and the holocaust. Critic John Powers says readers won't want to put it down.

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Director Seijun Suzuki, center, died last week at age 93. He's seen here with actors Zhang Ziyi, left, and Joe Odagiri, right, as they arrive for a screening at the Cannes film festival in 2005.

Arts

Seijun Suzuki, Director Of Delirious Thrillers, Dies At Age 93

10:28am February 22, 2017

by Bill Chappell

These days, Suzuki's Branded to Kill is widely seen as a masterpiece; when he made the absurdist thriller in 1967, he was fired.

An illustration from 1875 depicts the survivors of the frigate Cospatrick, which caught fire off South Africa's Cape of Good Hope in November 1874. Of more than 470 people on board, just three ultimately survived, and they were reduced to cannibalism.

Cannibalism: It's 'Perfectly Natural,' A New Scientific History Argues

10:00am February 22, 2017

by Angus Chen

It's gruesome, but from a scientific standpoint, there's a predictable calculus for when humans and animals go cannibal, a new book says. And who knew European aristocrats ate body parts as medicine?

Books
Arts

Adolescence Isn't The Only Horror In 'The Mercy Of The Tide'

7:00am February 22, 2017

by Jason Heller

Zinemaker and designer Keith Rosson's debut novel is set in a small Oregon town in the 1980s, where the rain pours down, jellyfish rot on the beach — and a strange supernatural force is on the move.

Of the 25 Best Picture nominees Stacy Smith examined, she found only two examples of an actor over 60 who was essential to the story. The characters appeared in Birdman and Spotlight -- and both were played by Michael Keaton.

Arts

In A Film Industry Focused On Youth, Older Characters Are Tough To Find

8:12pm February 21, 2017

by Ina Jaffe

A study of the 25 films nominated for Best Picture Oscars over the past three years found less than 12 percent of the characters were people over the age of 60.

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In 1852 — three years before Leaves of Grass — Walt Whitman anonymously published a short novel, in six parts, in New York's Sunday Dispatch.

Grad Student Discovers A Lost Novel Written By Walt Whitman

5:27pm February 21, 2017

by Glen Weldon

An ad in a March 1852 edition of The New York Times led Zachary Turpin on an electronic search that uncovered a rags-to-riches novella that Whitman published anonymously.

Are Cyborgs In Our Future? 'Homo Deus' Author Thinks So

5:00pm February 21, 2017

by NPR Staff

Yuval Noah Harari expects we'll soon engineer our bodies in the same way we design products. "I think in general medicine ... will switch from healing the sick to upgrading the healthy," he says.

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Books
Arts

The Circus Is A Glittering Wartime Refuge In 'The Orphan's Tale'

4:01pm February 21, 2017

by Jean Zimmerman

Pam Jenoff's new novel follows two women who sign on with a German traveling circus — and the Jewish baby they're both determined to protect as the darkness of World War II falls across Europe.

Gary Cooper plays the sheriff in the 1952 film High Noon. Author Glenn Frankel says the film can be viewed as a parable for the Hollywood blacklist era.

Books
Arts

What A Classic '50s Western Can Teach Us About The Hollywood Blacklist

2:58pm February 21, 2017

Author Glenn Frankel says the 1952 film High Noon was inspired by the toxic political climate of the time. "People ... felt they want to get their country back," Frankel says.

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