
Hugh Grant falling asleep at Wimbledon is his greatest role yet. He's an outstanding example in this sleepy world
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Winnipeg Free Press
3 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Notion of ‘genius' a fluid, ever-changing concept
Books about genius and geniuses abound. We are all fascinated by people who display otherworldly intellectual ability or whose creativity and inventiveness seem to exceed human limitations. However, this entertaining survey is not so much about individual geniuses themselves as it is about how society defines and regards those mental giants who walk among us. Andrew Harrer / Bloomberg Elon Musk gets plenty of ink in Helen Lewis' musings on the notion of genius. A key element in the thesis of British journalist and author Helen Lewis is that our notion of what constitutes genius changes given the time and place and yet there are also patterns that reappear throughout history. An observant reader will notice that the word 'Myth' on the book's cover is set in larger type than the word 'Genius.' This is not an accident. It is her central point. 'The argument over whether Elon Musk is a genius is really an argument about what our society values, and what it is prepared to tolerate,' Lewis writes. 'A suite of behaviours that would otherwise be inexcusable are forgiven when they are the price of greatness.' The South African-born electric vehicle and rocket ship entrepreneur gets a lot of ink here. As Lewis notes, this is because his talent for financial risk and organization control, not to mention his personal eccentricities, seem to be what the culture reveres at the moment. He also represents a 'poisonous' type of high achiever. This is a person, almost always male, who succeeds in one domain and begins to think of themselves as 'a superior sort of human' and an expert in everything (even government cost-cutting). With its conversational tone and often witty asides, The Genius Myth seems to take for its conceptual model Malcolm Gladwell's influential 2008 bestseller Outliers. She references it at several points, especially its idea that behind every brilliant person lie 10,000 hours of brute practice and hard work. She travels back to 19th-century England to examine 'the great age of classification,' in which its proponents, like the scientist Frances Galton, were obsessed with defining and measuring genius. Galton is credited today, or more accurately blamed, as being the father of eugenics, the terrible idea that the human species can be improved through selective breeding. The Genius Myth Lewis includes a fascinating chapter on the equally misguided work of Louis Terman, the early 20th-century American psychologist who led in the development of IQ testing. Mostly what Lewis finds is that genius is the eye of the beholder. It can't really be measured and it can't be predicted, though we do find similarities in types of geniuses. She devotes chapters to the so-called 'monsters' such as Pablo Picasso and Harvey Weinstein, who felt they had licence to abuse people around them, and 'rebels' such as Galileo and Monet, who broke new ground by rejecting previous orthodoxies. Currently on hiatus A review of funny, uplifting news in Winnipeg and around the globe. Although she admits she is weak on the subject of musical genius — writers and painters being her stronger artistic suits — she includes two interesting chapters on the Beatles (and the degree to which their accomplishments can be separated from time and place). Of the hundreds of names dropped in this book, the astute local reader will notice, her fellow chronicler Gladwell aside, a complete absence of Canadians. Are we as a nation inhospitable to genius or even superior talent? (Admittedly, in a book that limits itself to a discussion of Western accomplishment, the Australians don't rate either.) We know this can't be the case. In this time of raised elbows, there is room for a great Canadian mythologizer of genius. Morley Walker is a retired Free Press editor and writer.


Toronto Sun
21 hours ago
- Toronto Sun
Pride Toronto must return to its political roots, advocates say as sponsors leave
Published Jul 11, 2025 • 4 minute read Myles Sexton, second from left, and guests participate in the 2025 Toronto Pride Parade on June 29, 2025 in Toronto. Photo by Harold Feng / Getty Images As a major funding shortfall looms over Pride Toronto, some prominent LGBTQ+ advocates say it's high time to rethink the organization's corporate partnerships and return to its political grassroots. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account Ahead of last month's Pride parade, organizers sounded the alarm over Pride Toronto's $900,000 shortfall after sponsors such as Google, Nissan, Home Depot and Clorox pulled their support. Pride Toronto executive director Kojo Modeste attributed the corporate withdrawals to backlash against diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the United States, though some of the companies said their decisions were made solely because of budgetary considerations. Although this year's festivities went ahead as planned, Modeste warned that next year's Pride festival may have to be scaled back. Fatima Amarshi, a former executive director of Pride Toronto, says this is the right moment for a reset. Amarshi led the organization for three years starting in 2005, right after Canada legalized same-sex marriage, and helped lay the foundation of its current funding model. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. At that time, she said Pride Toronto vetted corporate sponsors only to ensure their internal policies were supportive of LGBTQ+ employees and the broader community. 'We weren't looking at how corporate sponsors were funding arms manufacturers or fossil fuels or efforts to suppress Indigenous land claims. We were linking queer rights to human rights at the level of state repression and legislative oppression, but not via those who fund those efforts,' she said. During her tenure, Pride Toronto's budget grew from a little under $1 million to around $3 million, Amarshi said. But as that budget expanded over the years thanks to major corporate sponsors, some criticized the increasing commercialization of the annual Pride festival at the expense of its original purpose. More recently, Pride Toronto has faced calls to cut ties with corporations that allegedly profit from Israel's offensive in Gaza. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Gary Kinsman, one of the founding members of the Lesbian and Gay Day Pride Parade — the organization that eventually became Pride Toronto — resigned in 2024 over that issue and what he called the organization's refusal to hear the demands of the group Queers in Palestine. Founded in 1981, the Lesbian and Gay Day Pride Parade was a grassroots picnic and political march formed in response to increasing right-wing opposition to the LGBTQ+ community and a series of violent raids by Toronto police at bathhouses in the city. The first event involved a march down a much shorter strip of Yonge Street in front of the police detachment that organized the raids. Kinsman said the grassroots spirit of the festival continued throughout the 1980s, but a turning point came in the '90s when organizers started looking to involve corporate sponsors, which prompted early signs of division that came decades later. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'This begins to change its (Pride) character fundamentally. It moves quite sharply from being a community-based organization to becoming an organization not defined by communities but by alliances with corporate forms of organization,' Kinsman said in an interview. Pride Toronto did not respond to requests for comment for this story. For Beverly Bain, who along with Kinsman co-founded a group called No Pride in Policing, the growing calls to break Pride Toronto's ties with corporate sponsors is long overdue. 'Pride Toronto, as it exists today, is a corporate pinkwashing Pride. I do not think it's an organization that should be continuing to exist,' Bain said. Pride Toronto hasn't adequately highlighted issues that disproportionately affect the LGBTQ+ community, such as poor access to housing, mental health struggles and increased substance use, Bain said. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'We go back to the political roots of Pride … a political struggle for the liberation of queer and trans and non-binary and those who are racialized and those who are Indigenous and two-spirited and Indigenous and queer.' Monica Forrester, executive director of Trans Pride Toronto, said she started attending the Pride festival in 1998, when it was still very much a protest organized by local shops, bars and community centres. 'We were still in a time of the bath house raids … and the transphobia and violence that a lot of queer people were facing, not only by people, but by systemic violence. It was really a time where we stood up to show our visibility, that we were here, we were queer and we weren't going anywhere,' Forrester said. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. But that changed over time, with corporate sponsors appearing to be at the forefront of Pride events, Forrester said. The fact that some of them have pulled support for the festival is 'a testament that they were never really our allies,' she added. Faisal Ibrahim, a spokesperson for the Coalition Against Pinkwashing, said it would be a 'bare minimum' for Pride Toronto to cut ties with sponsors who financially benefit from Israel's war efforts in Gaza, and agrees with Forrester that a heavy corporate presence can detract from the overall message of Pride. Looking back, Amarshi said it was 'incredibly short-sighted' to bring corporate sponsors into what she said has been a vital institution in advocating for queer rights. 'If Pride doesn't find a way to manoeuvre and be accountable to the community and continue to be in a position where the community feels it legitimately represents them, the community will find its own voice and will find its own path forward.' Amarshi said. 'It's never needed scale. It's needed to be loud and it's needed to be brave. That's what started Pride and that certainly hasn't gone away.' NHL Relationships Editorial Cartoons Toronto Maple Leafs Toronto & GTA


Toronto Star
a day ago
- Toronto Star
Hugh Grant falling asleep at Wimbledon is his greatest role yet. He's an outstanding example in this sleepy world
British actor Hugh Grant reacts in the royal box of Centre Court at Wimbledon. That Grant fell asleep during the match is cause for praise, not censure, writes Vinay Menon. Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP via Getty Images Opinion articles are based on the author's interpretations and judgments of facts, data and events. More details