Tag: Books and literature

Ralph Steadman: 'We're really living in a hell of a year, aren't we?' Interview by Nadja Sayej

“All I wanted to do when I started was change the world, and now, 60 years on, I’ve succeeded,” says the 84-year-old artist. “But it’s worse now than when I started, we’re really living in a hell of a year, aren’t we?”….  When the Welsh artist Ralph Steadman picks up the phone, he sounds a bit paranoid.… Read More Ralph Steadman: 'We're really living in a hell of a year, aren't we?' Interview by Nadja Sayej

Dilip

Book Review – Supriya Gandhi’s Biography of Dara Shukoh Separates the Man From the Myth

Dara Shukoh, along with Akbar, remains among the two well-loved personalities of Mughal India. In the case of Dara, he finds appeal even among Hindu nationalists. As the figure of Dara is inscribed with modern labels of liberal and secular, the nuances and complexities in the personality of Shah Jahan’s eldest son remain hidden. The… Read More Book Review – Supriya Gandhi’s Biography of Dara Shukoh Separates the Man From the Myth

Dilip

Book review: How Did Josef Mengele Become the Evil Doctor of Auschwitz?

If anyone embodies the archetype of the evil that was Auschwitz, it is surely Josef Mengele. Dubbed by the inmates and survivors of the camp the “Angel of Death,” the immaculate doctor – with a slight flick of the finger – would casually select those permitted to live and work and those destined to die… Read More Book review: How Did Josef Mengele Become the Evil Doctor of Auschwitz?

Dilip

Journey To A War by W.H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood (1939) // W. H. Auden 'In Time of War' (1939)

Leave Truth to the police and us; we know the Good;   We build the Perfect City time shall never alter;    Our Law shall guard you always like a cirque of mountains… (p 266)    But ideas can be true although men die,   And we can watch a thousand faces    Made active by… Read More Journey To A War by W.H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood (1939) // W. H. Auden 'In Time of War' (1939)

Dilip

Book review: The Hamlet Doctrine: Knowing Too Much, Doing Nothing

Around 1905 or 1906, Sigmund Freud wrote an essay, unpublished in his lifetime, called “Psychopathic Characters on the Stage.” The essay addressed the question of what we, as spectators, get out of watching people go crazy. Freud’s theory was that we’re fascinated by crazy characters because they help us express our own repressed impulses. Drama,… Read More Book review: The Hamlet Doctrine: Knowing Too Much, Doing Nothing

Dilip