‘Theory’ as shibboleth.… Read the rest
Nannying is Not Such a Bad Thing 
Oct 20th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Julian Baggini on freedom, Britney and papal infallibility.… Read the rest
Joys and Sorrows of Independent Scholarship
Oct 19th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Irregular income if any, inaccessible libraries; but it’s worth it.… Read the rest
That Dream Again
Oct 18th, 2004 6:05 pm | By Ophelia BensonI just wanted to call your attention to this post on Normblog. It’s his reaction to yet another of those helpful lectures on how impoverished and pathetic secularism is and how we have to give up and admit that we ‘need’ religion. Of course, as always, the writer makes the case by 1) pretending that religion is the only possible source of things like meaning and solidarity, and 2) by redefining religion. Okay. At that rate – if there’s enough taking away combined with enough redefinition – I could be brought to agree with that idea too. But what of it? Of what use is it to assume that secularism is something it isn’t and that religion isn’t what … Read the rest
The Scottish Enlightenment
Oct 18th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Conservative and radical at the same time.… Read the rest
Hannah Arendt Was Not Entirely Wrong
Oct 18th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Not even as wrong as this article claims.… Read the rest
Anti-Semitism at Frankfurt Book Fair?
Oct 17th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Holocaust denial in Frankfurt? Uh oh.… Read the rest
More on Derrida
Oct 17th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Reading familiar works against the grain.… Read the rest
The Modernity of Muslim Fundamentalism
Oct 16th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The French are better at political anatomy.… Read the rest
Torn Between Contempt and Hilarity
Oct 16th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Nicholas Lezard approves Francis Wheen’s attack on unreason.… Read the rest
Eagleton Defends Derrida Against Philistinism
Oct 16th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
He loosened up such paranoid antitheses as inside and outside.… Read the rest
Another Satirical Dictionary
Oct 14th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
A bit long-winded…… Read the rest
Review of Dawkins’ The Ancestor’s Tale
Oct 14th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Seeing the world in a fresh, exhilarating way.… Read the rest
Spiked on Derrida
Oct 14th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Insistence on multiplicity of meanings more attractive to literary critics than philosophers.… Read the rest
It’s a free country
Oct 14th, 2004 | By Julian BagginiAt 3.15pm protesters moved towards the barricades facing the Houses of Parliament. "Come on, chaps, it’s a free country," said our half-blind friend. Scuffles broke out; police hats flew in the air. People were being pushed from behind and couldn’t go back. Women raised their hands in an attitude of surrender as the batons came down. An old man in a tweed suit and tie staggered out, blood pouring from his head.
Leanda de Lisle, the Guardian, 17 September2004
Who were these protestors storming the British parliament, only to be beaten back by baton-wielding policemen? Anarchists? Anti-globalisation campaigners? Foot soldiers in the class war? In a surprising way, perhaps the last guess would be right. The clue is in … Read the rest
Pogo
Oct 13th, 2004 8:30 pm | By Ophelia BensonI love this. There are those who think that people like me who insist, whether petulantly or earnestly or flintily, that Shakespeare (as it might be) is quite a good writer and better in many ways than quite a few other writers, are ‘elitist’ and snobbish and mindless enemies of all of popular culture. But ’tis not so. It’s just that I insist in the same kind of way there too – some of it is better than other of it, that’s all. I don’t love all of popular culture. But then I don’t love all of the putative ‘canon’ either – some of it I think is over-rated. Gatsby, for instance.
But one bit of popular culture I do … Read the rest
