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New York Times
2 hours ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Amelia Earhart's Complicated Legacy and Horrible Husband
THE AVIATOR AND THE SHOWMAN: Amelia Earhart, George Putnam, and the Marriage That Made an American Icon, by Laurie Gwen Shapiro In June of this year, The New Yorker posted an Instagram image promoting the magazine's excerpt from Laurie Gwen Shapiro's new biography, 'The Aviator and the Showman.' The headline — 'Was Amelia Earhart's Career a Publicity Stunt?' — was obvious clickbait: Of course Earhart's career wasn't a stunt. In her book, Shapiro, a journalist, lists at length Earhart's many landmark accomplishments, all of which required immense courage. She was the first female aviator to traverse the Atlantic Ocean. The first woman to fly nonstop solo from one North American coast to the other. And the first person to fly solo across the Pacific. That said, Shapiro reveals in painstaking detail that Earhart's storied career did indeed involve many reckless and publicity-seeking adventures, largely thanks to the near-depraved ambitions of her husband and Pygmalion-like manager, the publisher George P. Putnam. For many readers, the burning question isn't whether Earhart was a fraud, but whether Putnam essentially killed his wife, who disappeared in 1937 during an effort to become the first female pilot to circumnavigate the globe. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Unethical or inevitable? Artists question where to draw the line on AI-generated art
A Halifax photographer using ChatGPT to transform her images into illustrations is opening up a conversation about the purpose of art in the age of artificial intelligence. Lauren Thomander recently began selling a series of prints on her Etsy page inspired by the illustrated covers of The New Yorker magazine. But when they were reposted on Halifax Noise, a popular Instagram feed with more than 80,000 followers, the response was mixed. Some praised the work and eagerly followed the link to her shop to purchase a print, but others, including many illustrators themselves, were quick to criticize the idea. "People are kind of saying that AI trains itself with other people's work, and that it's not my work anymore," she said. "I don't see it that way because it is my picture that you can see there." In Thomander's view, using ChatGPT to make an illustration is no different than using software to edit photos. "Whether you're maybe changing the background of a photo, removing somebody that's in the way of your subject, or even putting a filter over it, I feel like that's all kind of in the same boat as AI," she said. 'The process is totally unethical' says illustrator Illustrator and printmaker Alex MacAskill strongly disagrees. The print may have originated from Thomander's picture, but she's a photographer and not an illustrator, he says. "I think if you flip the situation on the other end and take illustrations you want to convert into photography, I can't help but feel that the person on the other end of the equation would feel similar to how illustrators feel in this particular situation," said MacAskill, who owns and operates Midnight Oil Print and Design House in Halifax. He said Thomander could have realized her idea instead through collaborating with another artist. "To replace that with AI … and to remove that person from the process is totally unethical," he said. Large-language models, like those used to build ChatGPT or Google's Gemini or Anthropic's Claude, are trained by mining large data sets that include the creative output of many thousands of artists and writers, often without their consent. When you ask ChatGPT a question, for instance, it's using that data to answer the query, which is why it's able so quickly to translate Thomander's work into an illustration that wouldn't look out of place on the cover of The New Yorker. Photography was once seen as threat It's no secret that many previous innovations in the world of technology have been received skeptically in the art world. It wasn't that long ago that photography was viewed as an existential threat to painting, says Ray Cronin, a curator at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton. "When photography was introduced in the 19th century, people were convinced it was going to kill painting," Cronin said. Even more recently, when Mary Pratt, a renowned Canadian artist who was known for making lifelike paintings of everyday objects, began painting from photographs in the late 1960s, there were some people who thought she wasn't playing by the rules. "Her parents thought she was cheating because she wasn't inventing the images herself," said Cronin, who wrote a book about Pratt's life and work. Pratt would select an image from her collection of photos, maybe one she took herself. From there, she would project the image onto a blank canvas and trace the outline before starting to paint by hand. It was all part of what Cronin says was her desire to "make the human eye look at the world the way the camera looks at the world." "The skill to do that is immense," he said " It's not something that could just be fed into some kind of algorithm." When Pratt died in 2018, this was unquestionably true. The matter has become more complicated in the age of readily available generative AI. A simple prompt on ChatGPT asking to "create a painting with apples in the style of Mary Pratt" will churn out an image that might, to a less discerning viewer, look just like the real thing. But this ignores a key quality of Pratt's work, Cronin said. Although photography played a role in the work, Pratt's paintings are special because they were made by a real person using real materials. "Everybody knows the experience of seeing something, whether it's a photograph or a painting or a sculpture, that you can't just walk by. You have to actually look at it. And the longer you look at it, the more you see," he said. Even still, Cronin is not ready to write off AI altogether. "I think AI is a tool and tools are only as good as the people who use them. And they're only as interesting as what's made with them." However, he hasn't found much art made with AI particularly interesting. "I'd rather see somebody with their mistakes and failures and experiments … than the kind of perfection AI always seems to create," he said. Art, in his view, isn't perfection. It's the absence of it. In Pratt's 1994 painting Glassy Apples, that much is clear. The painting, based on a photograph she'd taken of a crystal bowl filled with apples that had been a wedding present, was made as her marriage to painter Christopher Pratt was falling apart. "The thing she always pointed out about that work that was most important to her is that there's a chip in the rim of the crystal bowl," said Cronin. When she took the photo in advance of the painting, she turned the bowl so that a chip was visible. "She's showing that there's a crack in everything. It's breaking," he said. "That's not something you'd get from asking AI to make a bowl of apples in Mary Pratt's style." For both MacAskill and Thomander, how AI will affect art in the future is an open question. Beyond the ethical implications of using AI, MacAskill worries about what may happen if we lose sight of why art is valuable in the first place. "I think to value the convenience of creating something over the humanity behind it is really just doing a disservice to all of us," he said. But Thomander believes that as AI continues to develop as a technology, it will be prudent to get acquainted with how it works. "It's better to kind of get on board with it, otherwise you might just be left behind in the dust a little bit." MORE TOP STORIES
Chicago Tribune
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Amelia Earhart soars back into the headlines in new book ‘The Aviator and the Showman'
Where's Amelia? We're still looking, though recent events seem to offer the possibility, the I emphasize, that we may find out what happened to aviatrix Amelia Earhart, who, along with navigator Fred Noonan, vanished in their twin-engine Lockheed Model 10E Electra as they attempted to fly around the world. Here's a recent report from Travel Noire: 'U.S. researchers have announced a new mission to locate Amelia Earhart's lost plane. … The expedition … follows compelling satellite imagery that potentially shows parts of Earhart's Lockheed Electra 10E protruding from the sand on Nikumaroro, a remote island in Kiribati, approximately 1,000 miles from Fiji.' We shall see. But this 'news' has popped Earhart back into the news. She vanished in 1937, 88 years ago if you're counting, and few mysteries have been as durable, few people as eternally alluring as Earhart. You would be hard-pressed to find a contemporary comparison to match her. She has an official agent and website. Hilary Swank played her in a movie. There have been many books. And there's Amelia Earhart Elementary School at 1710 E. 93rd St. in the city's Calumet Heights neighborhood. Also an exciting new book, 'The Aviator and the Showman: Amelia Earhart, George Putnam, and the Marriage that Made an American Icon' by Laurie Gwen Shapiro. Set for formal publication on July 15, it has already created a buzz, with a lengthy excerpt in The New Yorker magazine and a number of favorable reviews. David Grann, the author of such bestsellers as 'The Wager' and 'Killers of the Flower Moon,' says the book is 'an exhilarating tale of the adventurous life of Amelia Earhart and the remarkable relationship that helped to forge her legend … stripping away the myths and revealing something far more profound and intricate and true.' Publishers Weekly calls it a 'nuanced reprisal of Earhart's life (that) certainly tarnishes her reputation, but thereby makes her saga all the more captivating.' And makes the story of her husband all the more disgusting. His name was George Palmer Putnam, who had published aviator Charles Lindbergh's hugely successful life story before he met Earhart. On the prowl for another such novelty and hero, he glommed onto her, taken by her modest accomplishments but also her physical attractiveness and charisma. He wooed her and he promoted her. He's the one who gave her the 'Lady Lindy' tag and further cemented their relationship by having her write her own book, tour the country in her own plane, give hundreds of interviews, embark on a lecture tour, serve as the 'aviation editor' of Cosmopolitan magazine and endorse all sorts of products, including cigarettes. Smart he was, shrewd too. And a master manipulator who left his own wife to marry Earhart. (And, unusually for the time, Earhart did not adopt Putnam's last name). No question he pushed her but did he push her too far? Read the book. But know that you will find a man about whom writer Gore Vidal, whose father was a partner with Putnam and Earhart in an aviation venture, said, 'I never knew anyone who liked Putnam. It was quite interesting. Everybody who knew him disliked him. Some people disliked him and found him amusing and some people disliked him and found him unamusing.' Certainly, many of you know some basics of Earhart's life and a few know of her local connections, even though she wasn't here long. Born and raised in Kansas in 1897, she and her family moved around a bit before coming here in 1914. Her father, Edwin, was a lawyer with a dangerous relationship with booze, and her mother, also named Amelia but called Amy, was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. So, in 1914, Amy and her two daughters (Amelia and Muriel) came to Chicago at the invitation of friends and lived in the Beverly neighborhood home of their friends. Amelia, soon to begin her senior year, found the chemistry lab at nearby Morgan Park High School looked 'just like a kitchen sink.' So she traveled north to spend her senior year at the highly regarded Hyde Park High School, graduating as a member of the class of 1915. She did little to distinguish herself — no activities noted in the yearbook — and then it was off to college. She worked as a social worker and got hooked on airplanes. She had her first flying lesson early in 1921 and, in six months, bought her first plane. In 1928, she was asked to be a passenger with male aviators on a flight across the Atlantic Ocean, emphasis on . Together with pilot Bill Stultz and co-pilot Louis Gordon, she flew in the airplane Friendship, acting as navigator on the flight. On June 18, after 20 hours of flying, they landed in Wales and she became the first woman to cross the Atlantic by air. Acclaim was fast and furious. After lively visits to New York City and Boston, she came here and the celebrations and events were all but overwhelming. She visited Hyde Park High School, where a band played 'Back in Your Own Back Yard'; spoke at the Union League Club and at Orchestra Hall; was cheered by large crowds as she was paraded through the Loop; heard about Mayor Thompson's idea for a lakefront airport to be named Amelia Earhart Field. Headlines blared: 'Old Hyde Park School Friends Fete Girl Flyer.' Earhart spoke: 'I've always loved Chicago.' Famous forever for being lost, there is no denying that she was an inspiration for self-determined feminists and everyday daredevils, but I now think of her also as shy and vulnerable, a victim of shrewd manipulation by a slick operator. Doris Rich, author of 'Amelia Earhart: A Biography,' published by the Smithsonian Institution in 1989, has said, 'The one thing that she really feared was that nothing would happen. She had to have an important life, and that meant you had to have adventure.' That she did, but at what cost?
7 days ago
- Entertainment
'Superman' star Anthony Carrigan shares how Christopher Reeve helped him embrace his alopecia
Anthony Carrigan is opening up about the deeply personal connection he has to Superman. The actor, who plays Metamorpho/Rex Mason in the upcoming James Gunn-directed "Superman" film, told "Good Morning America" that Christopher Reeve, who starred as the DC Comics superhero in the 1978 "Superman" film and its sequels, helped him embrace his alopecia, with which he was diagnosed as a child. "When I was a kid, my mom told me about all of these actors and people who had alopecia, and she told me about Christopher Reeve," Carrigan said at the film's premiere in Los Angeles on Monday night. Carrigan continued, "That was really special, because I really figured, well, if Superman could have alopecia, then I can have alopecia." Reeve, who portrayed the Man of Steel in four "Superman" films, was diagnosed with alopecia areata as a teen. He opened up about the disease in an interview with The New Yorker in 2003 and also spoke about the condition in his 1998 autobiography, "Still Me." Reeve died in October 2004 at the age of 52. Alopecia is a blanket term for hair loss. According to the National Institutes of Health, there are different types of alopecia, and experts believe some types occur when a person's immune system inappropriately targets their own hair follicles, which stifles hair growth. There is no cure for alopecia but there are treatments, including steroid injections and oral steroids or various immunotherapies. Red light therapy may have benefits for some patients with certain types of hair loss, but not all, according to research published in the journal Clinical, Cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology, available on the National Library of Medicine's website. The disease can take an emotional and physical toll on those who have it. Carrigan said knowing about Reeve's struggle with alopecia was "a big deal for me" growing up. "So knowing that I'm now part of 'Superman,' I'm now part of this legacy," he added. In Gunn's "Superman," Carrigan's character, Metamorpho, also known as The Element Man, has the power of manipulation. In production notes for the film, Carrigan said his character can "turn himself into whatever he wants" because of this power. "So, it's a blessing and a curse. He, I think, sees it more as a curse," he said. "He does not like the way that he looks, which I can certainly relate to. You know, growing up with alopecia, that was something that I wished that I could change about myself back then, and it really affected my self-esteem. It affected the way that I moved through the world. And so, that's certainly a kind of aspect of this character that I feel like I can really relate to. But since then, since accepting that, it really has become a kind of superpower of mine, this different, unique look of mine." Carrigan told "GMA" at the premiere that he hopes audiences who watch "Superman" walk away feeling joy, hope, and a "renewed sense of being a good person and doing right." "I think getting in touch with your humanity too," he added. "Because it's in short supply these days. I think people are really disenchanted with the world, so we need movies like this that [are] going to inspire hope and inspire us to do good in the world." Gunn's "Superman" also stars David Corenswet as Superman/Clark Kent, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane and Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor. Also starring in the upcoming film are Skyler Gisondo as Jimmy Olsen, Sara Sampaio as Eve Teschmacher and María Gabriela de Faría as The Engineer. The cast also includes Isabela Merced, who plays Hawkgirl; Edi Gathegi, who plays Mister Terrific; Nathan Fillion, who plays Guy Gardner/Green Lantern; and Wendell Pierce, who plays Daily Planet Editor-in-Chief Perry White. "Superman" flies into theaters July 11.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Why Lena Dunham 'broke up with New York' and made London her home
Lena Dunham made her name with New York-set sitcom Girls, and at the height of the show's success she seemed to embody everything about living in the city. But now, the writer, director and actor has moved to the UK, swapping NYC for London. Her new show for Netflix, Too Much, takes inspiration from her own move across the pond, casting Megan Stalter as heartbroken New Yorker Jessica looking for a fresh start in London. She soon crosses paths with musician Felix (Will Sharpe) and finds communicating with a Brit holds a whole new set of problems. But what was behind Dunham's own move to the UK as a born-and-bred New Yorker? In May, Dunham wrote about her reasons for "breaking up with New York" in The New Yorker, opening up on how, from childhood, she had found the city's busyness anxiety-inducing. Although her parents loved the city, she admitted she had never felt at home despite having written and starred in Girls, a series where her character Hannah believes she'll find her true self there. She wrote of Girls: "The irony was that the series cemented me, in the minds of everyone I met, as a New York girl through and through. How could they have known that the safest I'd ever felt in New York was either hiding under the covers or pretending to be someone else under klieg lights?" Dunham spent some time living in Wales but eventually migrated to London, where she says she was won over by the spaciousness compared to her home town. She wrote: "Three decades of urban sense memory cleared, as if I had woken up to a system upgrade and damaged files had been erased in the process." Adding that "London is my home now", she said that despite some similarities, London does not "jangle" her in the same way. The move to London was never supposed to be permanent - Dunham expected to leave after a work project ended - but she met her now-husband, Luis Felber, after a mutual friend set them up on a blind date and realised she did not want to take him away from his life in London. In another interview with The New Yorker, Dunham claimed that she fitted in perfectly in England because she is uncomfortable with receiving compliments and "I don't like having 'Happy Birthday' sung to me". Dunham's husband is British-Peruvian musician Luis Felber, who she met in 2021 just after coming to London for a filming project. She was in the UK making the film Catherine Called Birdy, starring Bella Ramsey, when she was introduced to Felber and they worked together on the film's soundtrack. Dunham also shot the music video for one of Felber's songs recorded during lockdown. Felber is one of the founders of the label and club night Young Turks, and has performed as part of various bands and groups, as well as under the name Attawalpa. They made the Netflix sitcom Too Much together, inspired by their own romance. Although Dunham knew she didn't want to star in another TV show she'd written, Too Much takes plenty of inspiration from her own experiences of moving from New York to London and falling in love with a Brit. She told Netflix: "When I first started coming to the UK for work… I thought to myself, 'I want to write something about the experience of being a foreigner here, and the fantasies we have of [London] versus the realities'. Then when I met my husband, Luis, I felt like I was experiencing all of that, but in the context of a relationship." However, while Dunham does have a small part in the show, she isn't the lead, explaining that she was "just not up for having my body dissected again" after her experience of fame on Girls. Asked by The New Yorker whether comparisons would be drawn between her real life and Too Much, she replied: "Totally. I can't escape it. It's about an American woman in London who has had a bad breakup in New York and is confused, meeting a recovering punk musician and trying to figure out if they can make a life together. It's not a huge leap. But I knew from the very beginning I would not be the star of it." Too Much begins streaming on Netflix on Thursday, 10 July.
