The fault I find with our journalism is that it forces us to take an interest in some fresh triviality or other every day, whereas only three or four books in a lifetime give us anything that is of real importance.’
We act recklessly and pretend we can order nature around, and are shocked when nature overwhelms us. We fail to plan for the worst and then act shocked when eminently predictable crises occur. Usually we can spend or rebuild our way out of them, but shouldn't we at least ask whether it's a good idea to do so? Why Isn't House Speaker's Question On the Table?
Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Bad Vibrations
Modern social science has banished concepts of good and evil. But, argues Amos Oz, literature, from Shakespeare and Goethe to Grass and Böll, gives us truer insights into human nature
Job's Satan, like Faust's Satan, enters upon a wager. His big prize is neither a hidden treasure, nor the heart of a beautiful woman, and not even a promotion to a higher position in the heavenly hierarchy. No: Satan enters a gamble out of some kind of didactic urge. He wishes to make a point. To prove something, and to refute something else. With enormous argumentative zeal, the biblical Satan and the Aufklärung Satan try to show God and his angels that man, when given the choice, will always opt for evil. He will choose bad over good, willingly and consciously.
• The devil's progress [Spielberg? Hitchcock? Ed Wood? Kevin Smith? Who should be given the task to direct the film of your life story? Based on action/romance, comedy/drama, complex story, and financial budget requirements, this test will select the most appropriate of 24 selected film directors to commit to celluloid the story of your life ; The fastness of friendship; the treachery of one's nearest; the destruction of good by good. Passion which overrides reason VIOLENT AND PROUD DEATH! ; I'm delighted to report that Cold River mania continues to spread, slowly but surely, through the web: Ralph Kaiser writes: 'It's hard to read this work and not shout, Bloody Hell!' Experimental River ]
• · Does allowing a man to open a car door or to slide out a chair at a restaurant perpetuate sexism? A Feminist’s Dilemma ; Sierra Club at a Crossroads; Fiction and Memoir ; The gift of the perfect sentence
• · · There's no place like ancient Rome—except for sweltering modern-day New York City All hail the "monstrous city"; "Teledildonics," quick and easy cybersex is becoming an option for anyone with a mouse Single, white with dildo ; Is monogamy dead? ; The saddest thing about the whole rather sad story of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa is the publication of his one, world-famous novel, The Leopard, because it could be said that it was the only extraordinary thing to have happened in his life, although it happened, in fact, in death, sixteen months after he had departed this world How To Be Bored
• · · · Once it was a secret; then it was a "right"; now it is a duty Good Vibrations ; If size really matters, pornography now ranks as one of America’s most prominent industries How Pornography Is Transforming Our Lives
• · · · · Image is (almost) everything ; Local communities in a big, tough world ; Authors, Librarians Unite
• · · · · · Increasingly, I'm interested either in forgotten greats of world literature or modern marginal stuff (mostly, but not exclusively, in translation) Odds and Ends ; Ready Steady Blog ; Polish poetry and history