As critics have labored to account for the almost aggressive whiteness of her characters.… Read the rest
Kelley-Hawkins Due to be Reforgotten
Apr 8th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonNot a conflicted black writer after all, just a dull white one. Oh.… Read the rest
A Slight Mix-up
Apr 8th, 2005 4:28 am | By Ophelia BensonI know I shouldn’t laugh. But oh dear, it is funny. They must have worked up such a sweat trying to think up a good theoretical explanation – and all for nothing.
… Read the restLiterary rediscoveries form a routine part of cultural life. They have a certain protocol. A given author has been “unfairly neglected.” The reissue of a book is “long overdue.” The rescue from oblivion is, in effect, the righting of a wrong. The most striking thing about the case of Emma Dunham Kelley-Hawkins is that, for once, the process is running in the opposite direction. Now that it’s clear the author was not African-American, her novels seem destined for something for which we lack a familiar language —
Odd
Apr 7th, 2005 7:49 pm | By Ophelia BensonHe’s right you know, Krugman is.
… Read the restBut studies that find registered Republicans in the minority at elite universities show that Republicans are almost as rare in hard sciences like physics and in engineering departments as in softer fields. Why?…In the 1970’s, even Democrats like Daniel Patrick Moynihan conceded that the Republican Party was the “party of ideas.” Today, even Republicans like Representative Chris Shays concede that it has become the “party of theocracy.”…Consider the statements of Dennis Baxley, a Florida legislator who has sponsored a bill that – like similar bills introduced in almost a dozen states – would give students who think that their conservative views aren’t respected the right to sue their professors…His prime example of academic
Why Do Some Leftists Ally With Islamists?
Apr 7th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDifferent people have different ‘shibboleths’…… Read the rest
Simon Baron-Cohen: Autism and Sex Differences
Apr 7th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Time to distinguish politics and science, and just look at the evidence.’… Read the rest
Nostalgia and Primitivism
Apr 7th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe most important features of civilization are soap and toilet paper.… Read the rest
Hitchens on Bellow
Apr 7th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWhat other American novelist has so influenced non-American writers?… Read the rest
A Game, a Game
Apr 7th, 2005 2:49 am | By Ophelia BensonOh dear, I feel like the White Rabbit, rushing along looking at his watch and fretting at how late he is. I’m very late. But that’s because I didn’t know. I wasn’t told. No one told me. I only found out by accident, dropping in for a read of Eric the Unred. He’s got this Book Meme thing going, and he said he was going to pass the stick to three people, and one of them was My Humble Self. Is my face red. He passed me this stick and I promptly dropped it and went downtown to hang around the pool hall and frighten people. That’s not co-operative.
Right then.
You’re stuck inside Fahrenheit 451, which book do … Read the rest
From Party of Ideas to Party of Theocracy
Apr 6th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonPaul Krugman on why so few scientists are Republicans these days.… Read the rest
David Aaronovitch on Received Wisdom on the Left
Apr 6th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonOrthodoxy as stifling as anything imposed by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.… Read the rest
Philosophy is Gaining Popularity in Schools
Apr 6th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonStudents find the subject interesting, ‘which makes a change.’… Read the rest
Ted Honderich
Apr 6th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonForce-fed religion in childhood, could see that nothing in religion could possibly be true.… Read the rest
New York Times Bellow Feature Page
Apr 6th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonLinks to reviews, interviews, articles, excerpts, from 1943 to today.… Read the rest
An Appreciation of Saul Bellow
Apr 6th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHe closed the gap between Thomas Mann and Damon Runyon.… Read the rest
Saul Bellow
Apr 6th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHad no wish to be part of the ‘Hart, Schaffner and Marx’ of American letters.… Read the rest
We’ll Run Out of Straw, at This Rate
Apr 5th, 2005 8:44 pm | By Ophelia BensonA little wisdom from Foucault. ‘Truth and Power.’
Truth is a thing of this world: it is produced only by virtue of multiple forms of constraint. And it includes regular effects of power…’Truth’ is to be understood as a system of ordered procedures for the production, regulation, distribution, circulation and operation of statements. ‘Truth’ is linked in a circular relation with systems of power which produce and sustain it, and to effects of power which it induces and which extend it.
That’s a pretty glaring bit of rhetorical sleight of hand. It’s fairly obvious that he’s talking about truth-claims, not truth itself. There’s a big (and important) difference! Obviously truth-claims can be (and often are) power-moves. The same is not … Read the rest
Japanese History Textbooks Anger Neighbours
Apr 5th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonNanjing massacre of 300,000 called ‘incident.’… Read the rest