I’m writing this post on the second floor of the CUNY Graduate Center (to be more precise, in the library). My desk is by a window, and looking out from it, I can see the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 34th Street. That confluence of streets, of course, marks the location too, of the EmpireContinue reading “The Empire State Building: From Picture to Window View”
Author Archives: Samir Chopra
Bagdikian on the Media’s Corporate Values and Overreliance on Official Sources
I’ve owned Ben Bagdikian‘s The Media Monopoly for some twenty years, and have only just managed to get around to reading it. The edition I own dates back to 1987; its analysis of the growing monopolies in media ownership and their pernicious effect on political life in the US ring truer than ever before. As IContinue reading “Bagdikian on the Media’s Corporate Values and Overreliance on Official Sources”
Shame, Rage, and Fascism
Jonathan Lear, in the course of a memorial address to the American Philosophical Association–dedicated to Bernard Williams–noted: For Williams, shame needs to be conceived in terms of its inner psychological structure, in particular, in terms of internal objects and our relations with those objects. The basic experience connected with shame is of being seen inContinue reading “Shame, Rage, and Fascism”
Sandor Clegane, The Hound, on the Hypocrisy of Knighthood
A Song of Ice and Fire‘s Sandor Clegane, the Hound, is a vile man, a murderous mercenary who knows no scruples. But his impassioned rants against the hypocrisy of the knights of the Seven Kingdoms–besides providing him with some wonderful lines–give him a little redemptive touch. In A Storm of Swords, before his battle with BericContinue reading “Sandor Clegane, The Hound, on the Hypocrisy of Knighthood”
On Almost Drowning
I’ve almost drowned twice. Once during the whitewater rafting trip I described here a while ago. The other occasion came many years before, on a school trip in India, close to a river known for its fearsome flooding, for the toll it often extracts when its swollen waters disdain its banks and make their wayContinue reading “On Almost Drowning”
The Black Absence in Academic Philosophy
Jason Stanley recently posted the following interesting status message on his Facebook page: The first sentence of this article is “Nationwide, just over 5 percent of all full-time faculty members at colleges and universities in the United States are black”. If that is so disturbing as to give rise to this headline, what are weContinue reading “The Black Absence in Academic Philosophy”
Professional Academic Philosophy’s Blind Spots
A few years ago, I read an email–or a post on an online forum, I am not sure–written by a very accomplished senior philosopher (a logician to be precise.) In his argument, the logician–adept at providing mathematically elegant proofs of recondite logical problems–seemed to have committed at least two logical fallacies in the first paragraphContinue reading “Professional Academic Philosophy’s Blind Spots”
Losing and Gaining Citizenships
I became an American citizen more than fourteen years ago. Ironically, my decision to do so was prompted by my leaving the US–for what was supposed to be a two-year stint as a post-doctoral fellow in Australia. I was then a permanent resident of the US, equipped with the famed ‘green card.’ Subject to certainContinue reading “Losing and Gaining Citizenships”
Deadly Success: ‘The Summit’ On the 2008 K2 Disaster
Anatomies of disasters always provoke the most detailed of analyses for understandable reasons: as the hoary proverb has it, success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan. Disclaimers of paternity are thus to be expected when ugly offspring makes their appearance. In Nick Ryan‘s The Summit, the story of the deadliest day–1 August 2008–onContinue reading “Deadly Success: ‘The Summit’ On the 2008 K2 Disaster”
Reflections on Translations-VII: Capturing Class Distinctions
In yesterday’s post, in an attempt to analogize Tea Partiers with demagogues, I included an excerpt from Aristophanes‘ The Knights. Once I had posted a link to the post on Facebook, I made the following note in the comments space–directing it at a pair of friends of mine who work in Brooklyn College’s Classics department:Continue reading “Reflections on Translations-VII: Capturing Class Distinctions”
Samir Chopra 