I enjoy coincidences. They make me feel like part of the Divine Plan. (That’s a joke, but actually there was a coincidence last week that made me feel tempted to go all New Agey. I resisted, though.) So it amused me a couple of days ago that I started the day reading a new collection of ‘theoretical’ articles (by which you are to understand articles written by people who once would have been called literary critics but who have now moved Up in the world) – articles of a badness, a pretension, a tortuously protracted emptiness, that has to be read to be believed, and then after I’d done that until I couldn’t stand it any more I got on … Read the rest
All entries by this author
Terrorism for Humanity? 
Oct 22nd, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Richard Wolin has suspicions about Ted Honderich’s acuity.… Read the rest
Buffy Yes, Philosophy No
Oct 22nd, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
A set of pretty good essays about Buffy the Vampire-Slayer – but not about philosophy.… Read the rest
Official State Witch
Oct 22nd, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Good to know – there’s nonsense in Norway, too.… Read the rest
Muslims in India
Oct 22nd, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
M J Akbar: ‘it is a myth that Islamic law is not amenable to re-interpretation.’… Read the rest
Human Nature
Oct 22nd, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Pinker and Wilson do a much more impressive job with the humanities than any humanist I know has been able to do with the sciences.’… Read the rest
When in Doubt, Beatify
Oct 21st, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Christopher Hitchens is not a fan of ‘Mother’ Teresa.… Read the rest
‘Stress De-briefing’
Oct 21st, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Therapeutic practices should be founded on research.… Read the rest
Nature Will Have Her Little Joke
Oct 21st, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Organically grown milk found to have more toxins than GM milk has.… Read the rest
Denis Dutton on Bad Writing
Oct 20th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
From 1999, but relevant to ‘not bad, only difficult’ writing.… Read the rest
It’s Not Bad! It’s Difficult!
Oct 20th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘…a teeming mass of abysmal sentences, yearning to be coherent.’… Read the rest
Why is Rights Talk a Problem?
Oct 20th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘…people often use rights talk to avoid justifying their position. It reverses the burden of proof.’… Read the rest
Don’t Like It? Adapt!
Oct 20th, 2003 1:19 am | By Ophelia BensonThere is a new book out by Frank Furedi, Therapy Culture: Cultivating Vulnerability In An Uncertain Age, which sounds highly interesting in itself and which also resonates with a lot of cultural oddities we talk about here on B and W.
… Read the restIt is the society-wide belief that people cannot cope on their own that leads to the features of therapy culture that we are all too familiar with today: the burgeoning counselling industry, the relentless emphasis on boosting ‘self-esteem’, the expansion of categories such as ‘trauma’ to encompass more and more life events. What gave rise to this downbeat view of human agency, this ‘fatalistic epistemology’ that recasts people as victims?…The decisive reason, Furedi says, is a broader political
The Most Neglected Great English Poet?
Oct 19th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Andrew Motion reviews Jonathan Bate’s ample and judicious biography of John Clare. … Read the rest
‘Out of Touch’ With What?
Oct 19th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Iraqi exiles are out of touch with Ba’athist dictatorship and in touch with democracy – and this is a bad thing?… Read the rest
Good News for Indian Secularists
Oct 18th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The crowd in Ayodhya was much smaller than expected this time.… Read the rest
Human Activities or Natural Causes?
Oct 18th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Climate change has always happened, and the causes are not easy to figure out.… Read the rest
Matt Ridley on ‘Superweeds’
Oct 18th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
All farming techniques have environmental benefits and drawbacks.… Read the rest
One Person’s Bizarre Degree is Another’s…
Oct 17th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Listen, Tom and Nicole’s divorce is an important subject.… Read the rest
Martha Nussbaum Remembers Bernard Williams
Oct 17th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘his liberal-democratic sympathies made him eschew obscurity, seeking a style that could be grasped by anyone who was willing to face the issues along with him.’… Read the rest
