Listen to Culture Gabfest No. 491 with Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens, and Isaac Butler with the audio player below.
And join the lively conversation on the Culturefest Facebook page.
On this week’s Slate Plus, Isaac, Dana, and Stephen talk about the Quincy Jones interview in New York magazine.
Go to slate.com/cultureplus to learn more about Slate Plus and join today.
This week, the critics discuss the French movie BPM, about the ACT UP movement working to fight AIDS in 1990s France. The film made many critics’ lists of the best movies of 2017, so why was it snubbed for an Oscar nomination? Then, the gabbers talk about the new Netflix series Babylon Berlin, a German drama set during the Weimar Republic in the 1920s. Finally, things get Shakespearean: Scholars have checked William Shakespeare’s work against plagiarism software and found multiple similarities with a 16th-century manuscript. Does this discovery threaten his reputation as a literary genius, or is it time for us to rethink the relationship between the artist and his influences?
Links to some of the things we discussed this week:
- An excerpt from Isaac’s book with Dan Kois, The World Only Spins Forward: The Oral History of Angels in America, in Slate
- BPM
- Dana’s disappointment at BPM’s Oscar snub in Slate’s Movie Club
- Babylon Berlin
- L.A. Confidential
- “Plagiarism Software Unveils a New Source for 11 of Shakespeare’s Plays” by Michael Blanding in the New York Times
- “Plagiarism Software’s New Discovery About Shakespeare Is an Opportunity to Rethink His Genius” by Isaac Butler in Slate
Endorsements:
Dana: The Class
Isaac: “The Ecstasy of Influence” by Jonathan Lethem in Harpers, and the Danh Vo exhibit “Take My Breath Away” at the Guggenheim
Stephen: “Desperados Under the Eaves” by Warren Zevon
Outro: “Desperados Under the Eaves” by Warren Zevon
You can email us at culturefest@slate.com.
This podcast was produced by Benjamin Frisch. The production assistant is Daniel Schroeder.
Follow us on Twitter. And please like the Culture Gabfest on Facebook.
