Not all that useful.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Textbooks in Gujarat Praise Hitler
Jul 24th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHuman rights campaigners protest, Gujarat government dismisses charges as baseless.… Read the rest
Dazed and Theorized
Jul 24th, 2005 4:15 am | By Ophelia BensonApparently in Australia schoolchildren are being taught Theory. Or postmodernism, or critical literacy, or deconstruction, or cultural relativism. Poor little tads. Bad enough there are all those dingoes around eating your babies – but critial literacy theory for schoolchildren? Ice cream, Mandrake? Children’s ice cream?
For Australian academics John Stephens, Ken Watson and Judith Parker, compilers of the manual From Picture Book to Literary Theory, the story of the Three Little Pigs is really about “the virtues of property ownership and the safety of the private domain” — both “key elements of liberal/capitalist ideology”.
Mind you – there is interesting stuff about the not very hidden messages in fairy tales – Jack Zipes, Marina Warner, and the … Read the rest
Present Mirth
Jul 23rd, 2005 9:12 pm | By Ophelia BensonHoward Jacobson’s a funny guy. Writes well, too.
The other proof of our philistinism is our politicising of literature…The old complaint that Jane Austen left out the Napeolonic wars is making itself heard again. If a novel isn’t politically au courant, if it isn’t ratified by events outside itself, we have trouble remembering what it’s for.
What used to be (tediously) called ‘relevance.’ How is Shakespeare ‘relevant’ to the yoof of today? Answer: he isn’t, so let’s not read the pesky old bastard any more.
… Read the restIt takes the most responsible of writers to see why irresponsibility is so important…Once upon a time, when we knew aesthetically what we were about, the novel was comic or it was nothing…Gargantua and
More Than 150 Polio Cases in Indonesia
Jul 23rd, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonOfficials trace outbreak to Nigeria, where radical Muslim clerics called vaccinations a US plot. … Read the rest
Art Needs Irresponsibility
Jul 23rd, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonNovels can liberate us from the debilitating certainties of God and hero worship.… Read the rest
Man Shot at Stockwell Not Connected to Bombings
Jul 23rd, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe human rights organisation Liberty said no one should ‘rush to judgment.’… Read the rest
Roger Scruton Has a Sensitive Side
Jul 23rd, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonLunch on sausages from the pig named Singer.… Read the rest
Car Bombs Kill At Least 43 in Sharm el-Sheikh
Jul 23rd, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonEgyptian resort on Red Sea is popular with tourists.… Read the rest
UN Report Puts Pressure on Mugabe
Jul 23rd, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAfrican leaders who have hesitated to condemn Mugabe may now feel it is time to speak out.… Read the rest
Pretentious! Moi?
Jul 22nd, 2005 4:56 pm | By Ophelia BensonI have to learn to write in words of one – um – syllable. I am too – er – pretentious. People keep telling me that. ‘OB,’ they say, looking all stern and disapproving (okay, mostly one syllable – anyway, I said I have to learn: I haven’t learned yet, I’m working on it) – looking all grim and censorious, ‘you are too pretentious. You use big words that you don’t know what they mean or that other people don’t know what they mean, and you only do it to be pretentious. You should be cool and ironic like us. We have 75 degrees and you have one, and that is why you are pretentious and we are cool and … Read the rest
Humour is Reason’s Greatest Ally
Jul 22nd, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonA racist assumption that we should privilege the beliefs of a minority.… Read the rest
UN Condemns Bulldozing of Zimbabwe Slums
Jul 22nd, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonKofi Annan said ‘catastrophic injustice’ had been done to Zimbabwe’s poorest. … Read the rest
Iran Executes Gay Teenagers
Jul 22nd, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘The latest barbarity by the Islamo-fascists in Iran,’ says Peter Tatchell.… Read the rest
Ian McEwan Felt Sickened With Anger
Jul 22nd, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWhat keeps getting forgotten is that the people committing massacres in Iraq belong to al-Qaida. … Read the rest
Polly Toynbee on the Death Cult
Jul 22nd, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThis is not about poverty, deprivation or cultural dislocation.… Read the rest
Two Observers
Jul 22nd, 2005 3:55 am | By Ophelia BensonIan McEwan, July 19.
Inevitably, we’re going to start seeing around the preposterous political correctness that allows us to have radical clerics preaching in mosques and recruiting young people. We have been caught too much by a sense that we can just regard these clerics as being like English eccentrics at Hyde Park Corner.
So being ‘devout’ isn’t enough then? Huh.
… Read the restI don’t buy the arguments in the Iraq war. What keeps getting forgotten here is that the people committing massacres in Iraq right now belong to al-Qaida…But the massacres in Iraq now are being conducted by al-Qaida against Muslims. I also think it’s extraordinary the way in which we get morally selective in our outrages. When there was
Roots
Jul 21st, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWhat to do about pupils suspended from school?… Read the rest
Bang Bang
Jul 21st, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDetonators set off on two tube trains and bus. Celebrate Grievance Day.… Read the rest