Samizdat: Russia’s Underground Press (1970)

By Albert Parry CENSORSHIP existed even be fore literature, say the Russians. And, we may add, cen sorship being older, literature has to be craftier. Hence, the new and re markably viable underground press in the Soviet Union called samizdat. The word is a play on Gosizdat, which is a telescoping of Gosudarstvennoye Izdatelstvo, the… Read More Samizdat: Russia’s Underground Press (1970)

1st February 20231st February 2023 Dilip

Climate Change as Class War

Matthew T. Huber, Climate Change as Class War: Building Socialism on a Warming Planet (2022) Reviewed by Casey Williams The US Congress passed its largest ever investment in clean energy in August – the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) – and yet it remains impossible to shake the feeling that, as Matthew T. Huber puts it, ‘the climate… Read More Climate Change as Class War

1st February 20231st February 2023 Dilip

Salman Rushdie will not promote new novel after attack

Sarah Shaffi Rushdie’s Twitter account was inactive for a period following the attack, but the author begun posting again at the end of last year. He has also supported friend Hanif Kureishi’s recovery from a fall and spinal surgery, with Kureishi tweeting: “My friend Salman Rushdie, one of the bravest men I know, a man who has… Read More Salman Rushdie will not promote new novel after attack

1st February 2023 Dilip

The Death of Sigmund Freud: Fascism, Psychoanalysis and the Rise of Fundamentalism

First posted February 01, 2019 The Death of Sigmund Freud: Fascism, Psychoanalysis and the Rise of Fundamentalism: by Mark Edmundson Reviewed by Jonathan Derbyshire What progress we are making. In the Middle Ages they would have burned me. Now, they are content with burning my books. Sigmund Freud, on the burning of his books by the… Read More The Death of Sigmund Freud: Fascism, Psychoanalysis and the Rise of Fundamentalism

23rd January 2023 Dilip

Peace literature is the new boom in South Asia

URMI CHANDA A lot of literary writing recognised as peace literature is retrospective, as few writers set out with the intention to write about peace. However, in a couple of new releases, the intention is rather palpable. Sahana Ahmed’s Amity, which released in December 2022, is an anthology of 95 poems by 47 writers from France,… Read More Peace literature is the new boom in South Asia

22nd January 2023 Dilip

Dag Herbjørnsrud – The African Enlightenment

First posted December 15, 2017 The highest ideals of Locke, Hume and Kant were first proposed more than a century earlier by an Ethiopian in a cave The ideals of the Enlightenment are the basis of our democracies and universities in the 21st century: belief in reason, science, skepticism, secularism, and equality. In fact, no… Read More Dag Herbjørnsrud – The African Enlightenment

20th January 2023 Dilip

A philosophy professor’s final class

A tribute to Richard Bernstein, 1932-2022 “All academic thinking, whether right, left or middle, is conservative in the extreme,” Arendt had written to him. “Nobody wants to hear what he hasn’t heard before.” Recalling these words, Bernstein leaned toward his laptop camera, growing bigger on our screens. We must all fight off this tendency to… Read More A philosophy professor’s final class

18th January 2023 Dilip

Nadoja Sara Aboobacker

Chandan Gowda Sara Aboobacker and her husband, an engineer with the government, moved to Bangalore in 1981. He had been transferred from Mangalore. One day, as she was heading out of a public library in Halasur, Lankesh Patrike, which was dangling in a roadside stall, caught her eye. She bought a copy of the eight-page Kannada… Read More Nadoja Sara Aboobacker

15th January 2023 Dilip

Rabindranath Tagore’s essay on the cult of the nation

The Cult of the Nation is the professionalism of the people. This cult is becoming their greatest danger, because it is bringing them enormous success, making them impatient of the claims of higher ideals. The greater the amount of success, the stronger are the conflicts of interest and jealousy and hatred which are aroused in men’s… Read More Rabindranath Tagore’s essay on the cult of the nation

14th January 2023 Dilip

After the truth-shower

Philosophy, history, literature, current affairs, and other stuff. Posted by Dilip Simeon

Tag: Books and literature