Ursula Le Guin‘s appearance in a recent conversation I had with some friends about favorite science fiction novels brought back memories of the time I used The Left Hand of Darkness in a class. In the fall semester of 2007, I asked to teach Philosophy of Feminism. I had long wanted to do so, andContinue reading “Ursula Le Guin and Philosophy of Feminism Reading Lists”
Category Archives: Writing
The End is Nigh: The ACA Is Upheld (Sort Of)
Today’s blog post writing hasn’t gone so well. I thought of writing a post on the correspondence between Voltaire and Rousseau, as a way of reminding ourselves of the 300th birth anniversary of the latter, then, perhaps commenting on the connections between Frankenstein and Romanticism, and then finally, noting Aquinas’ resolution of the theological problemsContinue reading “The End is Nigh: The ACA Is Upheld (Sort Of)”
Wellington, Shwellington: Waterloo and Napoleon, Perfect Together
In September 2008, I visited Waterloo. I was visiting Brussels for work, and on arriving there in the morning, quickly realized that the best way to spend my first, jet-lagged day would be to travel to the site of Napoleon’s Last Stand. Armed with directions, train time-tables, a restless stomach, a camera, a thin sweatshirt,Continue reading “Wellington, Shwellington: Waterloo and Napoleon, Perfect Together”
David Brooks Went to a Springsteen Concert, And All I Got Was A Stupid Op-Ed
David Brooks, the man who claims to have his finger on the pulse of down-home, All-American, Middle-American, (heck, Any-Which-Way American), plain-n-simple, family-values-oriented folks is a man who jets off to Europe for a Bruce Springsteen concert tour. No big deal. Lots of those good folk take vacations in Europe too. (If they can get toContinue reading “David Brooks Went to a Springsteen Concert, And All I Got Was A Stupid Op-Ed”
Distraction and Writing: Pen and Keyboard Tales
A couple of days ago, I wrote my post on fountain pens with, er, a fountain pen; this one is being written in the old-fashioned way, on a keyboard, in the WordPress blogging tool/scratchpad. Writing a few hundred words with a fountain pen was a revelatory experience in several ways. (I realize this is self-indulgentContinue reading “Distraction and Writing: Pen and Keyboard Tales”
Nietzsche’s ‘Robber-Genius,’ the Public Domain, and Intellectual Property
‘Intellectual property‘–and its rather ludicrous understanding of it by our modern legal and political regimes–is often a concern of mine on this blog. To this end, I have, for instance, noted David Mitchell’s recounting of the provenance of his novel Cloud Atlas and Schopenhauer’s caustic remarks on the influence of copyright on writing. My choiceContinue reading “Nietzsche’s ‘Robber-Genius,’ the Public Domain, and Intellectual Property”
The Return of the Ink-Stained Finger: Writing with a Fountain Pen
As a youngster, I used fountain pens to write. I started my school career by writing in pencil, and then at some point, we were switched over to fountain pens by fiat. School work had to be done in ink; ball-pens didn’t count; and that was that. I do not remember my first shopping tripContinue reading “The Return of the Ink-Stained Finger: Writing with a Fountain Pen”
That Beehive in Your Head? That’s Just the Net Calling
Like many users of the Internet I suffer terribly from net-induced attention deficit disorder, that terrible affliction that causes one to ceaselessly click on ‘Check Mail’ buttons, switch between a dozen tabs, log-in-log-out, reload, and perhaps worst of all, seek my machine immediately upon waking in the mornings. My distraction isn’t unique, but it hasContinue reading “That Beehive in Your Head? That’s Just the Net Calling”
The Pleasures of Etymology Lessons
A persistent reaction of mine while reading is to react with little starts of pleasure when I encounter a little etymology lesson tucked away in the pages of my read. Recently, for instance, I found out that ‘hornbook‘–referring to treatises that aim to provide balanced summaries of a particular area of legal study–originated in EnglandContinue reading “The Pleasures of Etymology Lessons”
Reflections on Translations – IV: Embedded, Untranslated Text, and Tintin
Louis Mackay has an interesting article at the London Review of Books Blog (‘Tintin in China’, 11 June 2012) , which continues an examination–commenced by Christopher Taylor (LRB, 7 June 2012)–of the Chinese artist Zhang Congren’s influence on Tintin‘s creator Hergé. (In particular his influence on one of Hergé’s earliest Tintin adventures, The Blue Lotus.) Zhang influencedContinue reading “Reflections on Translations – IV: Embedded, Untranslated Text, and Tintin”
Samir Chopra 