Robert Fisk on writing from World War I Nov 11, 2009
" Thus the Great War, in the words of its veterans, either gave their lives a sense of hopelessness, a vacuum of meaning, an experience that would forever encourage them to avoid war; or, in the case of men like Jnger, a new kind of purpose, forged in blood and pain, that would necessitate yet another war in order to prove its worth. No wonder that in 1919, a great French leader, Clemenceau, predicted that the Versailles Treaty was merely a 20-year ceasefire. His timing was absolutely correct.... (Sydney Morning Herald -- Opinion)
On Indonesia's Islamic road Oct 17, 2009
" One of the more endearing aspects of the book is Dhume's struggle to become a writer in the truest sense of the word - nearly a lost pursuit in the Internet age, where blogs and Twitter feeds manufacture stars at the expense of literary substance. Dhume's living room sofa is cluttered not with newspapers but short stories from heavyweight literary journals like Ploughshares. He quit his job at the Asian Wall Street Journal and the Far East Economic Review to pursue his book. He references D H... (Asia Times Online)
Dan Browns worst sentences (or at least twenty of them) Sep 19, 2009
" Which is nonsense. His plot twists are ridiculously unconvincing. The way his characters behave is laughable. It isn't "elitist" to point this out, any more than it would be to say that a Philippe Starck chair is too uncomfortable to actually sit on. DJ on September 18, 2009 at 01:00 PM To be fair about the entanglement/manta rays thing, it's a fairly common device to illustrate something about a character's personality-- have them say or think something completely wrong or ignorant about a... (Harper's Magazine)
61 postmodern reads Jul 25, 2009
The thing about postmodernism is it's impossible to pin down exactly what might make a book postmodern. In looking at the attributes of the essential postmodern reads, we found some were downright contradictory. (Harper's Magazine)
From Venice to Varanasi Apr 13, 2009
Geoff Dyer s wandering eye. Dyer is a Romantic fl. (New Yorker)
Simon Carr: If science and St Valentine say women are the superior ... Feb 16, 2009
Two moons in opposite orbits, as D H Lawrence said. But ideas change as stray facts attach themselves to our minds. (Independent)
