And ‘the sound made by a research programme when it hits’ – Cambridge.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
In Defense of the Essay
Sep 19th, 2003 | By Christopher OrletIt is an article of the most unshakable faith that the personal, familiar, Montaignian–call it what you will–essay is minor stuff, a second-rate employment undertaken by bankrupt novelists and other failures. In literary rankings its place lay well below the novella and scarcely above the book review. “Essays, reviews, imitations, caricatures are all minor stuff,” wrote the New York Times critic in a recent review of a Max Beerbohm biography. In this conviction he has more support than a sports bra. Indeed, the personal essay’s most esteemed and acclaimed practitioners have to a man voiced misgivings about their trade. E.B. White called the essay a second-rate form. Cynthia Ozick, certainly one of the best contemporary essayists, may not specifically refer … Read the rest
Outmoded Authoritative Structures?
Sep 18th, 2003 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDid the makers of ‘The Matrix’ get Baudrillard wrong? Or were they making a subtle point about – oh never mind.… Read the rest
Richard Sennett on Patriotism
Sep 18th, 2003 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDissonance cannot be resolved by a cathartic destructive act.… Read the rest
The Colorado Question
Sep 17th, 2003 7:57 pm | By Ophelia BensonThere’s a heated debate going on in Colorado right now, over something called the ‘Academic Bill of Rights,’ planned legislation that would enforce or promote or encourage universities to adhere to or comply with said Bill of Rights, David Horowitz, the imbalance between registered Democrats and registered Republicans in the political science departments of Colorado universities, and whether and how something should be done about said imbalance. The Academic Bill of Rights itself sounds pretty unexceptionable, declaring for instance that scholars should be hired on the basis of their competence and appropriate knowledge, not their political beliefs. That provision, for instance, is simply another version of B&W’s mission statement. So far so good. But it is difficult to help being … Read the rest
Fluid Nations and Patriot Studies
Sep 17th, 2003 | Filed by Ophelia BensonNow Heavy Former Ballerinas; People Who Daydream Obsessively of Rescuing Someone Famous; and many more. … Read the rest
A Slightly Guilty Formalist
Sep 17th, 2003 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDenis Donoghue speaks of beauty in his latest book.… Read the rest
Perhaps There Are More Than Two Sides?
Sep 17th, 2003 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHow does one achieve ‘balance’ in a complicated subject that doesn’t always divide neatly along a left-right axis?… Read the rest
Hire a Conservative!
Sep 16th, 2003 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWhat kind? By whose definition as of what date? And what if she changes her mind?… Read the rest
What Are Children For?
Sep 16th, 2003 | Filed by Ophelia BensonJobs, nappies, sleep, time, vomit, money, servants, shopping, sexism, age – it’s all a bit complicated.… Read the rest
Women On Top
Sep 16th, 2003 | Filed by Ophelia BensonGirls beat boys just about everywhere.… Read the rest
Proliferation
Sep 16th, 2003 12:32 am | By Ophelia BensonIt’s interesting how ideas can go off in unexpected directions. Sort of a six degrees of separation thing – it can seem as if any given idea can lead to any other in three or four steps, however remote they may seem at the beginning. I noticed it yesterday, for instance: I started writing my TPM essay thinking it was going to be about one thing, and after the first paragraph found myself talking about something quite different. I started out thinking the idea led into one subject (and it did) but in the writing found that it also led into another, so followed it there instead.
The core idea was that of competing goods. A familiar enough idea: that … Read the rest
Moral Racism
Sep 15th, 2003 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWhen Other Races kill each other, western pundits blame the scars of colonialism.… Read the rest
What is Lost by Abandonment of Principle
Sep 15th, 2003 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAlan Ryan on Richard Posner’s view of pragmatism and democracy.… Read the rest
Just a Bit More
Sep 14th, 2003 11:36 pm | By Ophelia BensonJust a little more about the religion article. Because there really is a lot of nonsense in that piece. I only talked about some of it, and I find there’s another bit I just can’t leave alone, in the last paragraph.
… Read the restIt is often said that science answers “how” questions while religion asks “why”, but that is simplistic. The greater point lies in their scope. Religion, properly conceived, attempts to provide an account of all there is: the most complete narrative that human beings are capable of. Science, by contrast, is – as the British zoologist Sir Peter Medawar put the matter – “the art of the soluble”. It addresses only those questions that it occurs to scientists to ask,
Lies on the Front Page and the Back
Sep 14th, 2003 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWhy do journalists and comedians think they’re better than politicians?… Read the rest
Another Stack of Jumpers
Sep 14th, 2003 1:39 am | By Ophelia BensonOh good, more fuzzy-headed nonsense about religion. There does seem to be an inexhaustible supply of it out there. This one is so full of odd, vague, fuzzy statements it’s hard to know where to begin.
One of the highlights of this week’s meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science was a discussion on why, although the existing religions do not capture all of what’s out there in the universe, some at least of their endeavours must be taken seriously.
Well what on earth does that mean? ‘Endeavours’? What do you mean endeavours? For that matter, what do you even mean by ‘capture all of what’s out there in the universe’? What do you mean by ‘capture’, … Read the rest
Not the Same Old Thing
Sep 13th, 2003 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe state of scientific research into paranormal phenomena.… Read the rest
Nonsense
Sep 13th, 2003 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Religion, properly conceived, attempts to provide an account of all there is.’ Well no doubt, but it fails!… Read the rest