Ignorance and Bliss: On Wanting Not to Know. By Mark Lilla Reviewed by John Banville This is at once a wise and wonderfully enjoyable book. Mark Lilla treats weighty matters with a light touch, in an elegant prose style that crackles with dry wit. Almost every one of the short sections into which the narrative is divided… Read More The enduring power of stupidity
Unintelligible as it is, new book is part of a ‘manifesting’ trend offering the young and spiritually lost an illusion of control Martha Gill What links these two news stories? The first: “manifesting” has been declared Cambridge Dictionary’s word of the year. The self-help practice, based on the magical belief that mental rituals can move the… Read More Not quite religion, not quite self-help: welcome to the Jordan Peterson age of nonsense
The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting: Milan Kundera NEW YORK: I am in the The Krikor and Clara Zohrab Information Center next to the St. Vartan Armenian Cathedral in Manhattan. I am holding a bound, hand-written memoir, which includes poetry, drawings, and scrapbooked images, by Zaven Seraidarian, a… Read More Chris Hedges: Organized Oblivion
All wars are fought twice, the first time on the battlefield, the second time in memory: Viet Thanh Nguyen ‘Americans liked seeing people eye to eye, the General had once told me, especially as they screwed them from behind’ – (From Chapter One of The Sympathizer) From the author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning novel The… Read More Nothing ever dies: Vietnam and the memory of war / Viet Thanh Nguyen and Michael Vann in conversation
Hans Christian Andersen (1805 -1875) Many years ago there was an Emperor so exceedingly fond of new clothes that he spent all his money on being well dressed. He cared nothing about reviewing his soldiers, going to the theatre, or going for a ride in his carriage, except to show off his new clothes. He… Read More The Emperor’s New Clothes
As some reviewers of Rand’s novels recognized, and as Popoff stresses, Rand’s thought draws on Nietzsche’s idea of the superman. Just at this time, Popoff points out, Superman comics also achieved widespread popularity. Since the caped man of steel was created by two young American Jews, who were doubtless inspired by a desire to overcome… Read More Atlas Schlepped
In a world ravaged by war and sexual violence, a new edition of the great psychoanalyst’s works is a reminder of his continuing relevance Jacqueline Rose In 1935, Sigmund Freud wrote to a distraught mother that her son’s suspected homosexuality was no cause for lament, “nothing to be ashamed of, no vice, no degradation. It cannot be… Read More What Sigmund Freud can teach us about the Middle East and #MeToo
Revolutionaries on Trial Reviewed by Harish Jain Aparna Vaidik, a professor of history at Ashoka University, is among the few scholars genuinely and keenly interested in the stories of revolutionaries who, through their extraordinary deeds, captured the imagination of a disheartened nation but were subsequently marginalised. Over more than a decade of fieldwork, she has… Read More ‘Revolutionaries on Trial’ by Aparna Vaidik: Insightful new look at revolutionary past
First posted January 05, 2016 What Is Islam? The Importance of Being IslamicBy Shahab AhmedReviewed by Elias Muhanna Prominent Islamic scholar Shahab Ahmed laid to rest An Extraordinary Scholar Redefined Islam Ahmed described what he called a sixth madhhab, or school of Islamic law, beyond the orthodox five: the madhhab of love… Ahmed never overtly… Read More Has Islamic Orthodoxy Changed Over Time?
NB: The Rev Daniel O’Connor was pastor of St Stephen’s College during the years I was there, in the 1960’s. He and his dear wife Juliet befriended me and my comrades, at a time we were considered trouble-makers. They did not agree with our politics, but for all that, never withdrew their affection. One of… Read More India and the End of Empire. Selected Writings of Daniel O’Connor
After the truth-shower 