Over a decade ago, a friend of mine killed himself. As we, his many shocked and grieving friends, exchanged notes of commiseration and regret and nostalgic remembrance of a life we had all drawn pleasure from, one refrain made the rounds: “I guess I didn’t know him as well as I thought I did.” Indeed.Continue reading “Suicide And Our Many Personas”
Author Archives: Samir Chopra
Jordan Peterson Is A Sexist Tool
Jordan Peterson gets quite upset when he is accused of being sexist and misogynist. Unfortunately, his latest response in the ongoing series of debates over whether he is the reincarnation of Nietzsche or merely the latest in a long line of privileged provocateurs claiming the mantle of ‘radical’ while committing themselves to defending conservative socialContinue reading “Jordan Peterson Is A Sexist Tool”
Ayer On Wittgenstein As Pragmatist
In Wittgenstein (Random House, New York, 1985), A. J. Ayer writes: [Wittgenstein] never adopted the phenomenalist thesis that physical theories can be translated into the set of propositions describing the observable states of affairs that would confirm them…he declared the confirmation of a hypothesis is never completed. In the same set of remarks he characterizedContinue reading “Ayer On Wittgenstein As Pragmatist”
Science And The Provision Of Existential Comfort
Stephen Asma offers a well-worn and reasonable defense of religious belief in The Stone–but ironically enough, in a plea for more tolerance, strikes a rather dogmatic note himself. The defense of religious belief and ritual is a familiar one: religion may be an opiate but it is an effective painkiller as a result. Asma offersContinue reading “Science And The Provision Of Existential Comfort”
Confessions Of An American Ambien Eater, By Roseanne Barr
I here present you, courteous net surfer and peruser of the productions of bloggers, with the record of a remarkable period in my life: I trust that it will prove not merely an interesting record, but useful and instructive too. That must be my apology for breaking through that delicate and honourable reserve which restrains us fromContinue reading “Confessions Of An American Ambien Eater, By Roseanne Barr”
Resisting Big Data: Interfering With ‘Collaboration,’ Nonconsensually
Consider the various image-sharing databases online: Facebook’s photo stores, Instagram, Flickr. These contain trillions of photographs, petabytes of fragile digital data, growing daily, without limit; every day, millions of users worldwide upload the images they capture on their phones and cameras to the cloud, there to be stored, processed, enhanced, shared, tagged, commented on. AndContinue reading “Resisting Big Data: Interfering With ‘Collaboration,’ Nonconsensually”
Some Philip Roth Moments
Philip Roth is dead. I read many of his books over the years. Here, in no particular order, are some recollections of those encounters: I discover Portnoy’s Complaint in graduate school. This, I’m sure you will agree, is a strange time for someone to ‘find’ Roth, especially when you consider that the person doing theContinue reading “Some Philip Roth Moments”
Don’t Know What You Got Till It’s Gone: A Climbing Lesson
This past Saturday, after falling, for the proverbially umpteenth time, off a climbing route at The Cliffs in Long Island City, I walked off, wondering yet again, this time loudly enough for gym staff members to hear me, whether it was worse to have never climbed a route in the first place or to keepContinue reading “Don’t Know What You Got Till It’s Gone: A Climbing Lesson”
On Getting Stopped For ‘Shoplifting’ In Barnes And Noble
Some fifteen or so years ago, shortly after beginning my professorial employment at Brooklyn College, I stopped in at a Barnes and Noble store at Fifth Avenue and 18th Street in Manhattan; then, and perhaps even now, for I’m no longer sure it still exists, this ‘branch’ was the largest B&N store in New YorkContinue reading “On Getting Stopped For ‘Shoplifting’ In Barnes And Noble”
The New York Times’ Op-Ed Page Is An Intellectual Dark Web
The New York Times Op-Ed page has been an intellectual dark web for a long time. Few corners of the Internet can lay claim to both Thomas Friedman and David Brooks, two of the most widely ridiculed, mocked, and parodied ‘thought leaders’ ever to have deigned to grace us swine with their pearls of wisdom;Continue reading “The New York Times’ Op-Ed Page Is An Intellectual Dark Web”
Samir Chopra 