He had taught that the truth tends to be a profanation of our expectations.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Alas, Poor Dworkin
Apr 18th, 2005 2:47 am | By Ophelia BensonJust a couple of comments on Katha Pollitt’s excellent article on Andrea Dworkin. One to quibble, the other not.
The antipornography feminism Dworkin did so much to promote seems impossibly quaint today, when Paris Hilton can parlay an embarrassing sex video into mainstream celebrity and the porn star Jenna Jameson rides the New York Times bestseller list. But even in its heyday it was a blind alley. Not just because porn, like pot, is here to stay, not just because the Bible and the Koran–to say nothing of fashion, advertising and Britney Spears–do far more harm to women…
Not to quibble with Pollitt’s basic disagreement with Dworkin. But – ‘to say nothing of fashion, advertising and Britney Spears’ – … Read the rest
Why Are China and South Korea So Angry at Japan?
Apr 17th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonBecause new history textbooks by nationalist scholars deny or omit known facts.… Read the rest
What’s in the Daily Pope Today?
Apr 16th, 2005 11:39 pm | By Ophelia BensonHurrah for Ian Jack. Hurrah for Polly Toynbee and now for Ian Jack. I love this comment on the Guardian’s popification – I feel like flapping my hands and saying ‘that is so true‘ like a Valley Girl. (I am a Valley Girl at heart, actually. I just cover it up well. But underneath the cynicism, the sneers, the bad language, the bloodshot eyes, the duelling scar – underneath all that I’m basically just a San Fernando valley high school sophomore who wouldn’t hurt a fly.)
… Read the restThe Pope — this is a crude and prejudiced paraphrase of the coverage — had ended the Cold War, brought down the Berlin Wall, and defended the world’s poor against the depredations of
Ian Jack Nails the Dictatorship of Grief
Apr 16th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonTV and newspapers offer not an invitation to know but an order to feel.… Read the rest
Andrew Motion on Book About Dictionary-writing
Apr 16th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIt was the Dictionary, not Boswell, that made Johnson’s reputation.… Read the rest
Fire the Canon
Apr 16th, 2005 3:15 am | By Ophelia BensonThat discussion of literary theory I mentioned a couple of days ago was in large part about the Association of Literary Scholars and Critics and whether it is a conservative organization and if it is who cares and if people do care why do they care. Kind of a ‘you have unfashionable trousers’ argument, as Chris Williams described it in a comment on ‘Not Either Silly.’ Bizarrely irrelevant. This is certainly not the first time I’ve heard the assumption, but it sounds just as fatuous the 500th time as it did the first. Henry makes the point in his post at CT.
… Read the restCultural Revolution then goes on to attack the Association of Literary Scholars and Critics for using such retrograde
Saudi Religious Boffin Bans Forced Marriage
Apr 15th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWomen still forbidden to travel alone, work most jobs, talk to men, vote.… Read the rest
Islamists in Pakistan Focus on Women
Apr 15th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSuccess in banning women from sport, now ban on women in advertising.… Read the rest
Computer-generated Gibberish Accepted at Conference
Apr 15th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Rooter: A Methodology for the Typical Unification of Access Points and Redundancy.’… Read the rest
Protesters Explain Manipur Arson
Apr 15th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘The books in the library were all written in Bengali script and so we set the building on fire.’… Read the rest
145 Thousand Books Lost in Manipur Library Arson
Apr 15th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonProtesters torched library because the books were in Bengali not Mayek script.… Read the rest
No, No Way, You Mooks
Apr 15th, 2005 | By Nick SlaterA furore was set off here last year with the news that parts of New Jersey’s sizeable but non-homogenous Wise-guy community intended to use an obscure law to set up arbitration tribunals for disputes involving hoodlums’ ladies running numbers, shaking down and generally behaving like low-bred mooks when they should be attending to the kids.
Wise-guy and non-Wise-guy critics alike protested that the 140-year-old body of Cosa Nostra-inspired laws considers Non-Sicilian broads inferior to Goodfellas and would infringe their equality rights as guaranteed by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
However, a six-month study by former Teamster’s Moll Maria Pantonello concluded in December that, with new safeguards in place, Wise-guy women would still be protected by the ‘Mob law’. Her … Read the rest
Canine Cognition
Apr 14th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDogs can predict social events, request information, obey rules, imitate human actions.… Read the rest
Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury
Apr 14th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonChoudhury, journalist, columnist, magazine editor, is in prison.… Read the rest
Equality Bill Excludes Action on Homophobia
Apr 14th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDiscrimination against lesbians and gays is okay, against religious believers it’s not. … Read the rest
Another Miscellany
Apr 13th, 2005 10:36 pm | By Ophelia BensonA few miscellaneous items worth a look.
At Crooked Timber, one on Christopher Hitchens. This includes Jimmy Doyle giving some quotations from the Guardian and the New Statesman from the autumn of 2001 to show sceptics that there really were people saying just the kind of thing that other people on the thread had said no one other than ol’ Ward Churchill actually said. Quite amusing, in a morbid way. And one
on literary theory and whether literary criticism that is interested in, say, formal or aesthetic aspects of literature, or uses the dread word ‘imagination,’ is automatically ‘conservative’ and if so in what sense and according to whom and why should we care and who asked you anyway. … Read the rest
Not Either Silly
Apr 13th, 2005 6:28 pm | By Ophelia BensonI’m going to have to disagree with my friend Norm on Polly Toynbee’s comment on the pope. I hate to do it – but he’s off on his travels, so that’s all right. David Hadley of Stuff and Nonsense alerted me to Norm’s post. (How busy I am these days. I don’t even have time to get around to checking Norm every day. Terrible.)
… Read the restI really don’t get it. Every time there’s an event that brings forth a manifestation of religious belief by large numbers of people, some militant secularist or other will give out an opinion that would be jejune coming from an intelligent sixth-former…But how she can speak in so trivializing a way of world-wide reaction to
Salon Visits David Horowitz
Apr 13th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAnd finds that mild criticism is on a level with terrorism.… Read the rest
Lakoff’s Vocabulary Overhaul as Road to Victory
Apr 13th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonJust get the frames right, and everyone will finally understand.… Read the rest