Vandals attack Bhandarkar oriental research institute, staff, books and manuscripts.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Samantha Power Reviews Chomsky
Jan 7th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
A glib and caustic tone; exaggerated claims not backed up; but worth reading.… Read the rest
Judith Butler Superstar
Jan 6th, 2004 8:17 pm | By Ophelia BensonOkay, what’s the deal with Judith Butler. Why does everyone who writes about her call her a celebrity or a superstar. A superstar?? Someone who teaches gender studies at Berkeley? A superstar?
Berkeley’s Judith Butler, a superstar of gender and literary studies, drew a packed house with her analysis of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s bad grammar and slippery use of the term “sovereignty.”
I’m not making it up, that’s from the Boston Globe, from a story on the MLA convention. Not a very affectionate or over-impressed story, either – and yet Scott Jaschik calls Butler a superstar. Well if she got married in Las Vegas and then had the marriage annulled the next day, would we hear about it? … Read the rest
Anthropocentric Conceit
Jan 6th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The creator of the fifteen-billion-year-old, multibillion-star universe thinks we’re just swell. Right?… Read the rest
Ha’aretz Meets Judith Butler
Jan 6th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
She’s a celebrity, she exudes charisma, followers line up for her talks. Hmm.… Read the rest
Daniel Mendelsohn on Donald Kagan
Jan 6th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
What does the Peloponnesian War mean in a world with only one superpower?… Read the rest
Adonis on the Veil
Jan 6th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Arab poet has harsh words for the hijab and its fans.… Read the rest
Should NGOs be Accountable?
Jan 6th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Who decides, and what are the criteria, and who decides that?… Read the rest
No Thank You
Jan 5th, 2004 9:52 pm | By Ophelia BensonI read something interesting and even (very slightly) encouraging in a month-old New York Times magazine article on Pakistan by Barry Bearak.
Government by ”the mullahs” has long been a dreaded prospect by the vast majority of Pakistanis with less doctrinaire views, and the M.M.A.’s unexpected victories intensified fears that ”Talibanization” was creeping its way across the land.
It is good to know that the vast majority of Pakistanis (which I think is what that not very clear clause means: the vast majority of Pakistanis, who have less doctrinaire views, as opposed to the vast majority of Pakistanis-with-less-doctrinaire-views, which of course could be a much smaller number) dread the prospect of government by the mullahs. But it’s only a little … Read the rest
Incautious Precautionary Principle
Jan 5th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Philip Stott on morally bankrupt opposition to GM crops in developing world.… Read the rest
Football Coach Millionaires
Jan 5th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Many wonder how healthy it is to pay a football coach more than the president of a university.’… Read the rest
Uh, Er, Um, Like, You Know
Jan 5th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Disfluency matters, but wait for tenure before studying ‘like.’… Read the rest
‘Superstars’ at the MLA
Jan 5th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
English professors used to criticize the Taliban, but that was then.… Read the rest
Jesting Pilate Goes to Hollywood
Jan 5th, 2004 12:24 am | By Ophelia BensonThe World Service, part 2. Another thing I heard this morning, while standing around with my nose in my first cup of coffee (or perhaps it was the second) and waiting for the living room to warm up a little, was a lively and too-brief discussion of the vexed question: does it matter if movies tell enormous lies about history? The historian Anthony Beevor argued that it does, some entertainment boffin whose name I instantly forgot argued (of course) that it doesn’t. If I’ve heard the boffin’s argument once I’ve heard it a thousand times. Movies are movies, they have to entertain (what does he mean ‘have to’?), they have to tell a story; nobody cares about the truth they … Read the rest
Souvlaki
Jan 4th, 2004 9:24 pm | By Ophelia BensonI heard something very irritating on the BBC World Service on the radio early this morning as I was bumbling around in waking-up mode. In beginning a feature on the religious avowals being made by all nine Democratic presidential candidates, the reporter said ‘The United States is a deeply devout country…’ I gave a kind of mental yowl of disgust and rage. It is not! It does have a lot of religious believers in it, to be sure, but the figure is not 100% yet! And it is possible to ignore the stuff most of the time. Really it is. People who’ve never been here will hear that kind of thing and imagine that every other building is a … Read the rest
Reports From the MLA
Jan 4th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Interviews, paranoia, clothes, panels no one attends – life at an academic convention.… Read the rest
The ‘Little People’
Jan 4th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
It’s fashionable to turn down a gong, but what does that say to unfashionable recipients?… Read the rest
What’s Wrong With US Schools?
Jan 4th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Three new books examine the problems.… Read the rest
Postmodernism, Hindu Nationalism and ‘Vedic Science’
Jan 4th, 2004 | By Meera NandaThe Vedas as books of science
In 1996, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) of the United Kingdom (U.K.) produced a slick looking book, with many well-produced pictures of colourfully dressed men and women performing Hindu ceremonies, accompanied with warm, fuzzy and completely sanitised description of the faith. The book, Explaining Hindu Dharma: A Guide for Teachers, offers “teaching suggestions for introducing Hindu ideas and topics in the classroom” at the middle to high school level in the British schools system. The authors and editors are all card-carrying members of the VHP. The book is now in its second edition and, going by the glowing reviews on the back-cover, it seems to have established itself as a much-used educational resource in … Read the rest
Why Did Bam’s Houses Fall Down?
Jan 3rd, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Iran is still being ruled by a useless, incompetent semi-theocracy…’… Read the rest