One nail to drive out another. Such is the way of the world ... ;-)
A critic is there to set out reasons for an artist’s claim on our attention. We need good critics, informed critics, and more of them. But the minds of editors are elsewhere Critical clowns ... devoured by a thirst for celebrity
Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: The way we were
As adults, we can go back and reread children’s literature with deep delight, but never with a child’s innocence
Why are adult readers so drawn to children's literature? A lavish new Norton anthology suggests some answers. As adult readers of children's stories, we're aware, as children are not, that their robust confidence in the world, at least while they are enraptured by a story, is ephemeral and fragile, endangered by every step they take toward adulthood. For us, the child becomes almost another character in the story, responding with a wonderfully heedless delight or dismay to things as unreal as the adult world she imagines. But we know what's coming, how evanescent the child's world is-and we feel for her what she cannot possibly feel for herself.
• The willing suspension of disbelief [The beauty of Dr. Johnson’s language is a moral beauty, hard won out of his lifelong struggles. Yet another reason to love him. Amazingly enough, the first great dictionary was basically the work of one man. ; The Boundless Chaos of a Living Speech ]
• · Green Roofs ; The daguerreotype began it, wailed Baudelaire: “Our squalid society rushed, Narcissus to a man, to gaze at its trivial image on a scrap of metal.” We soon drowned in images The Image Culture
• · · Europe Central, by William T. Vollmann, has won the National Book Award for fiction. Joan Didion took the nonfiction prize. Europe Central ;
• · · · So you’re overweight? Relax, and enjoy some ice cream. The fear of fat may kill you before the fat itself does Obesity: Epidemic or Myth? ; The Aboriginal art craze has run its course, says Germaine Greer. Oh well, Aboriginal art, in common with all other art, is mostly bad anyway Can you tell what it's worth yet?
• · · · · Closed, pre-rational, taboo-ridden, undemocratic, militaristic, and fearful of liberty: for Karl Popper the tribal society was deeply menacing. Roger Sandall explain - The enemies of the open society today Tribal Yearnings ; Men care for hair only if it can lead somewhere ; NATURE not nurture is the main determinant of how well children perform at school and university Good genes beat good homes as guide to pupils’ school success
• · · · · · She risked torture, imprisonment, perhaps even death to study literature and write poetry in secret under the Taliban. Last week, when she should have been celebrating the success of her first book, Nadia Anjuman, was beaten to death in Herat, apparently murdered by her husband. Woman poet ‘slain for her verse’ ; Book Hunting in Britain Best UK bookshop ; The Kindness of Readers Best virtual bookshop