At the New York Review of Books online journal for 11 June, James Fenton discusses religion, audience reaction, the prejudices of the Mormon church and blindness in “The Book of Mormon: No Offense”: “When the audience rises to its feet at the finale, a blow has been struck on behalf of the Mormons and their crazy African mission. What the Ugandans must feel about being depicted as such fools is quite another matter.”
In an article for the 14 July print edition of the same journal, Marcia Angell provides a searing critique of pharmaceutical-based psychiatry in “The Illusions of Psychiatry”: “We need to stop thinking of psychoactive drugs as the best, and often the only, treatment for mental illness or emotional distress. … In particular, we need to rethink the care of troubled children. Here the problem is often troubled families in troubled circumstances. Treatment directed at these environmental conditions — such as one-on-one tutoring to help parents cope or after-school centers for the children — should be studied and compared with drug treatment. In the long run, such alternatives would probably be less expensive. Our reliance on psychoactive drugs, seemingly for all of life’s discontents, tends to close off other options. In view of the risks and questionable long-term effectiveness of drugs, we need to do better. Above all, we should remember the time-honored medical dictum: first, do no harm (primum non nocere).” It is the second of a two-part article, the first part of which is “The Epidemic of Mental Illness: Why?”
The only review to date of Howard Barker’s new play Blok/Eko, which recently premiered at the University of Exeter, is this thoughtful and sensitive response, written and published by Hannah Silva on 12 June. The play will have its London premiere tomorrow night at RADA in a concert version with Jane Bertish, Suzy Cooper, Alan Cox, Shaun Dooley, Megan Hall, Melanie Jessop, Gerrard McArthur and Liam Smith. More information about tomorrow night’s event and tickets is here.
In “Gone with the Papers,” his latest column for Truthdig, Chris Hedges interviews former New York Times reporter and columnist Sydney Schanberg and provides cogent reasons why you should continue to maintain your print subscription to the Times: “The death of newsprint represents the end of an era. And news gathering will not be replaced by the Internet. Journalism, at least on the large scale of old newsrooms, is no longer commercially viable. … The steady decline of the news business means we are plunging larger and larger parts of our society into dark holes and opening up greater opportunities for unchecked corruption, disinformation and the abuse of power. … Once this bedrock of civil discourse is eradicated, people will be free, as many already are, to believe whatever they want to believe, to pick and choose what facts or opinions suit their world and what do not. In this new world lies will become true.”
According to the Supreme Court, video games are indeed art — and protected as artistic expression by the first amendment. I hope this settles the matter. It’s not that I would want to ban the sale of these violent games to children (or adults, for that matter); it’s that I would prefer to live in a culture in which nobody, especially children, wanted to play them.
Finally, from the Sheer Idiocy Department comes Greg Sandow‘s comments on the Philadelphia Orchestra bankruptcy in the 4 June issue of the Australian: “Sandow says that if the Philadelphia Orchestra were to suddenly discharge all its musicians and replace them with young players on contract, what might be lost in polish could easily be made up for in pizazz. ‘I wonder if that wouldn’t be more exciting to hear,’ he says. ‘It might really surprise people.’” “Surprise” may not be quite the word.