I watched a script reading recently that really illustrated the need for an emotional journey in a play. I believe you can make a satisfying film without one, but for a play, emotional arcs are required. Peter Craig, novelist and screenwriter, says this: “Per Aristotle, while we may still think of a story having three acts — Beginning, Middle, End …
This is one of Pablo Neruda’s odes to ordinary objects. The odes are far from ordinary. Translated by Robert Bly. Maru Mori brought mea pairof sockswhich she knitted herselfwith her sheepherder’s hands,two socks as softas rabbits.I slipped my feetinto themas though intotwocasesknittedwith threads oftwilightand goatskin.Violent socks,my feet weretwo fish madeof wool,two long sharkssea-blue, shotthroughby one golden thread,two immense blackbirds,two cannons:my …
Of course, computers are not moral agents, so “ethical algorithms” are not possible. We have to count on the people who are making/developing these AI devices to be ethical. Increasingly, though, it seems they don’t care that much about ethics. Applying AI to take over evaluations and judgements in social services and financial and legal systems can be problematic. Frank …
By Sandra Cisneros If peaches had armssurely they would hold one anotherin their peach sleep. And if peaches had feetit is sure they wouldnudge one anotherwith their soft peachy feet. And if peaches couldthey would sleepwith their dimpled headon the other’seach to each. Like you and me. And sleep and sleep.
by Cynthia Zarin, a poem about the things we carry. This morning I was walking upstairsfrom the kitchen, carrying yourbeautiful flowers, the flowers you brought me last night, calla liliesand something else, I am notsure what to call them, white flowers, of course you had no way of knowingit has been years since I boughtwhite flowers—but now you have and …
A new tool available online links email addresses to Facebook accounts in bulk, according to a video shared with researchers and Motherboard. Video shows churning through emails, finding the associated account. The news presents another significant privacy issue for Facebook, which is continuing to face a series of data leaks around phone numbers and other data. Source. Facebook is such …
a poem by Jane Hirshfield 10 25 moleculesare enoughto call wood thrush or apple. A hummingbird, fewer.A wristwatch: 10 24. An alphabet’s molecules,tasting of honey, iron, and salt,cannot be counted— as some strings, untouched,sound when a near one is speaking. So it was when love slipped inside us.It looked out face to face in every direction. Then it was inside …
After a truly humiliating reading on Saturday, I spent 48 hours renouncing playwriting. The draft is really, really bad. Now, I knew I was writing a bad draft. I acknowledged it openly. But THIS bad? Jesus wept. So, after the career renunciation phase (what happened to denial?), I moved to “Okay, what did I learn?” Because at this advanced age, …
A poem about science that Sarah Howe wrote for Stephen Hawking. When we wake up brushed by panic in the darkour pupils grope for the shape of things we know. Photons loosed from slits like greyhounds at the trackreveal light’s doubleness in their cast shadows that stripe a dimmed lab’s wall—particles no more—and with a wave bid all certainties goodbye. …
I was honored to be one of the playwrights featured on The Subtext Podcast hosted by Brian James Polak. Early in the pandemic, Brian asked playwrights to call in and leave messages about how we were feeling, the state of our work and our psyches, and so on. One year later he asked us to call back in and do …