THE FEED: JAN 20TH

What we're reading:

What happens when we look back?
(Scientific American): Studies show that imagining 'what could have been' might have a useful "ironic and tonic effect"

"Words and deeds"
(New Yorker): Parsing the language of the Gabrielle Giffords shooting

The Sylvia Plath effect
(Wall Street Journal): Do we judge an artist's work differently if they commit suicide at a young age?

Today's quote:

“This high-flying Taylor extravaganza, in which actors have been regularly commuting from the theater to the hospital and preview audiences have been made unwitting witnesses to the construction of a second act, is a special case if ever there was one. It's reasonable to give a new musical time, but there's a difference between fine tuning a show and workshopping a commercial enterprise on the backs of overcharged consumers..”

~ Charles McNulty "Critic's Notebook: 'Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark' needs some light shed on it by critics, and soon" (Los Angeles Times)

Picture credit: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com