The World as It Is
The World as It Is in the Eyes of Margaret Atwood, Wole Soyinka and Ai Weiwei is the second volume in our Cultura Animi series, presenting the best of Nexus to our international readers. This beautifully bound hardcover edition contains the text of the Nexus Lecture by Margaret Atwood, an essay by the Nobel Prize-winning author Wole Soyinka and the Nexus Lecture by Ai Weiwei: three fascinating essays on human rights, good and evil and the responsibility of the artist.
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Index
Greetings, Earthlings!
What Are These Human Rights of Which You Speak?In her 2018 Nexus Lecture, Margaret Atwood offers an extraterrestial perspective on human rights and relations between male and female earthlings.
Men shed fewer tears than women, it is true. But they shed more blood. So in the wet-dry contrast, you might say that men are wetter. And on Mashupzyx, we do say that.
Of Good and Evil
Trial by InnocenceNigerian Nobel Prize laureate Wole Soyinka reflects on the question of good and evil. Crimes against innocent children he considers to be the epitome of evil – but where can we find the good?
Evil feeds on good, and where on earth can we confidently seek the habitation of good in humanity? Only within that space of innocence, known as childhood.
The Responsibilities of an Artist
On 25 May 2019, the renowned artist and social activist Ai Weiwei gave the 26th Nexus Lecture. He discussed his upbringing and education, the relation between China and the West, truth and beauty in contemporary art and the social responsibility of the artist.
Art, I think, is about necessity. It’s about struggle. It’s about human struggle, about the deep layers of humanity, because our aesthetics always relate to our philosophy and moral judgments.