What other American novelist has so influenced non-American writers?… Read the rest
All entries by this author
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
Scientific American Repents
Apr 5th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonLate conversion to fair and balanced reporting. What a relief.… Read the rest
The University of Minnesota is Touching
Apr 5th, 2005 | By PZ MyersYesterday, I was alerted by my wife about some announcements on the state of the University of Minnesota. We are a public institution, you know, which is synonymous with “cash-strapped and struggling to make ends meet” in these days of Republican antipathy to higher education. The university is cutting some substantial programs to save money, which is bad news, but what caught my eye was a related news item in the Star Tribune: the University of Minnesota is being sued for promoting religion.
As you might guess, my interest was pricked. It seems we are being sued by Wisconsin’s Freedom From Religion Foundation for mingling religion with our health care.
… Read the restThe lawsuit was filed on Friday, March 25. It
Ms Magazine on the Pope
Apr 4th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonCould have done a great deal better.… Read the rest
Outrage! Press Release on Pope
Apr 4th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAttacks on human rights of women and gays immoral; condom ban cost millions of lives.… Read the rest
The Pope Has Blood on his Hands
Apr 4th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe Vatican condemned condoms, which might have saved countless Catholics from an agonising Aids death. … Read the rest
Pope Ignored Reformists, Vatican Banned Condoms
Apr 4th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonJohn Paul replaced reformist cardinals and bishops with traditionalists.… Read the rest
On Happiness
Apr 4th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonBentham, economics, envy, Freud, Klein, alientation, solidarity.… Read the rest