http://logopolis.org.uk/blog Mon, 16 Aug 2010 20:22:00 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en An article from Ballardian examines the thesis in Ballard's last novel correlating fascism and consumerism: "Beyond the details, there seems to be a conspicuous problem with the novel’s underlying theme, since fascism was always anti-consumerist in its temperament. As Peter N Stearns puts it in his review of Consumerism in World ... http://logopolis.org.uk/blog/?p=214 John Sutherland reviews Gabriel Josipovici in the Literary Review: "Widely as Josipovici has read, why has he not, one may ask, engaged at any length with critics who have defended unregenerate 'Englishness'? Donald Davie, for example, who eloquently argued that the main strand in our national poetry is not Eliot, ... http://logopolis.org.uk/blog/?p=206 This interview with David Shields raised some interesting points "There are novels I like a lot, but they tend to be almost exclusively not very novelly novels, as Geoff Dyer calls them. I love J.M. Coetzee's book Elizabeth Costello. Is it a novel? Not really.... I have a whole theory ... http://logopolis.org.uk/blog/?p=204 I've never voted for any party in an election other than the Liberal Democrats. Even when tactical voting might have been a more expedient proposition given that I have never voted in an election where the Liberal candidate could win, I still ended up voting Liberal Democrat. One the one ... http://logopolis.org.uk/blog/?p=199 Stanley Fish summarises a dialogue between Habermas and a group of Catholic theologians: "The counterpart of science in the political world is the modern Liberal state, which, Habermas reminds us, maintains "a neutrality . . . towards world views," that is, toward comprehensive visions (like religious visions) of what life means, ... http://logopolis.org.uk/blog/?p=197 Reality Hunger continues to be much discussed: "The fiction vs non-fiction debate has become intense in recent years, and Shields cranks it up a notch... Every artistic movement is a bid to get closer to reality, he argues, and it's in lyric essays, prose poems and collage novels that such impetus ... http://logopolis.org.uk/blog/?p=194 I wrote previously of how novels increasingly seem to be recastings of previous novels. This article caught my attention recently, presenting a similar thesis: "Mannerism is the most commonly despised period in Western art history and, I think, the one that best befits creative culture today. We are mostly Mannerists now... ... http://logopolis.org.uk/blog/?p=187 Fantastic Journal has an interesting article on Terminal Five and the modern airport:"The contemporary airport is probably the perfect architectural encapsulation of the strange complexities and iniquities of modern (western) life. They are glossy and expensive playgrounds offering endless diversions that never mask the ennui of actually being there. They ... http://logopolis.org.uk/blog/?p=181 A glancing reference in a somewhat recursive Zadie Smith essay on essays, drew my attention to David Shield's Reality Hunger:"Standard operating procedure for fiction writers is to disavow any but the most insignificant link between the life lived and the novel written; similarly, for non-fiction writers, the main impulse is ... http://logopolis.org.uk/blog/?p=180 As I read this article, I realised that it reminded me of a certain contemporary figure: "The West, it seems, is living through a golden age of civilisational anxiety, marked by endless agonising about the uncertain future... The sum of these fears – or their apotheosis – is the belief ... http://logopolis.org.uk/blog/?p=179