| 
Culture Shift is a weekly newsletter curated by the HuffPost Culture writers and editors.
This week we're talking about Virginia's Woolf's guide to grieving, the podcasts you need to listen to this year, the secrets of occult art, the story of a feminist babysitter, and the magical books Harry Potter fans should read.
Virginia Woolf's Guide To Grieving
In 1895, when Virginia Woolf was 13, her mother, Julia Stephen, died suddenly -- influenza turned to rheumatic fever, and in short order she was gone. Young Virginia had a moment to kiss her mother as she lay on her deathbed; as she left the room, Julia called her daughter by her nursery nickname, saying, "Hold yourself straight, my little goat."
In 2000, when I was 11, my mother died suddenly -- an aortic dissection caused her to collapse at my grade school spelling bee, and by the time my brothers and I were brought to the hospital, as we thought, to see her, she was gone. The last time I'd spoken to her, before my competition began, she'd given me a hug filled with encouragement and musky perfume.
A decade later, as an English major turning over potential thesis projects for my senior year of college, I gravitated toward Woolf. I hadn't read her until junior year. I wasn't a modernist, a huge fan of stream-of-consciousness or experimental structure, and to this day I haven't finished a full book by James Joyce. But when I first picked up Mrs. Dalloway, I'd fallen madly, impractically in love.
(Read more here)
Let's Try To Categorize All The New Podcasts We're Excited About
New year, new podcasts -- that's how the saying goes, right? Now that your aspirations to lose weight and be nicer have dissolved in this winter weather like so many Vitamin C-fortified tablets in a drink, it's time to move to your B-level resolutions: dusting off that ol' Podcasts app and putting some fresh content on it.
Sure, you use that one "This American Life" episode to fall asleep to every night (Ira Glass, why so soothing?), but it's clear your waking hours could use some audio excitement. Here are some new programs to delight your ears, including:
1. The Intern
2. Grow Big Always
3. Nerds on Tour
4. Ana Farris is Unqualified
5. Presidential
6. Orbital Path
7. The Bone Lab
8. Scieneish
9. Pilot
10. Sample Size: 1
11. Sampler
(Read more here)
Delving Into The Shadowy World Of Occult Art
"The word occult simply means hidden," curator and writer Pam Grossman explained to The Huffington Post.
Grossman is the curator of "Language of the Birds," an exhibition now on view at New York University's 80WSE Gallery. The exhibition's title alludes to the mystical belief in a perfect, divine language, devised entirely of symbols, through which the initiated can communicate to reveal secrets and ignite metamorphosis.
"We use [occult] to reference revealing things that were hitherto unrevealed," Grossman added. "More specifically, in the context of the show, it really is about magic, using ideas of symbolism and ritual and intention to create actual change in the material world."
(Read more here)
Womens' Bodies Go Unedited In All-Girls Photo Collective
Girls by Girls, is a mashup of Ophelie Rondeau and Ashley Armitage's photos displayed alongside submissions, which they aim to keep as diverse as possible in terms of expertise, orientation and race.
(Read more here)
10 Other Magical Books 'Harry Potter' Fans Should Read
You could re-read "The Goblet of Fire" for the umpteenth time, or, you could try something new. Here's a preview:
1. The High Mountains of Portugal by Yann Martel
2. Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
3. If on a Winter's Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino
4. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
5. Every Day by David Levithan
6. This Census-Taker by China Miéville
7. Mr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi
8. Sleep Donation by Karen Russell
9. 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
10. Man Tiger by Eka Kurniawan
(Read more here)
Video Of The Week!
Comedians SJ and Ginny, of "Drive-By Street Harassment" fame, are back with a three-part video series dubbed "Feminist Babysitter."
(Read more here) Follow HuffPost Arts and Books on Facebook and Twitter 770 Broadway, New York, NY 10003 | | |
