The Age of Austerity and the Assault on Britain’s LibrariesReading United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights Professor Philip Alston’s report on his visit to Britain and…5h ago5h ago
James Ponsoldt’s The Circle and the Tyranny of Generic ClassificationI missed James Ponsoldt’s The Circle when it first came out back in 2017 but caught it on streaming some years later. As I had largely…1d ago1d ago
“Entrepreneurship” and Self-Made Millionairedom in H.G. Wells’ Tono-BungayReflecting upon the rise and fall of his uncle’s pharmaceutical empire in H.G. Wells’ Tono-Bungay (1909) George Ponderovo remarks “the…1d ago1d ago
What Do We Mean by “Freedom of Speech?” And the Defense of the Right to That Freedom?The remark “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it” is famously attributed to the eighteenth…1d ago1d ago
Why Are We Always Being Told to “Be Grateful?”It is the conventional view that the feeling and expression of gratitude — of thankfulness — is a great virtue, and its lack a great…1d ago1d ago
“Traditional vs. Self-Publishing”Back when there was more talk about the phenomenon of self-publishing than we hear now due to the comparative novelty of e-book readers…1d ago1d ago
Where Do People Get the Idea That They Are Temporarily Embarrassed Millionaires?In Slaughter-house Five Kurt Vonnegut’s narrator presents a lengthy passage from a (fictional) monograph about America intended to help…1d ago1d ago
The Waning of Nostalgia for the Rat PackI remember that in the late ’90s there was a resurgence of interest in the old “Rat Pack” and its members and their works. Thus did we see…1d ago1d ago
Of Generalizations, Sweeping Generalizations, and the Idiots Who Refuse to Respect the Difference…The word “generalization” may be defined as “a general proposition about the world, typically obtained from observation of the world, and…1d ago1d ago
Stanley Kubrick and the “F” WordSome time ago I looked over those charges and countercharges about the politics of A Clockwork Orange between its director Stanley Kubrick…1d ago1d ago