In reviewing Claudia Roth Pierpont‘s Roth Unbound: A Writer and his Books, Adam Mars-Jones writes: Letting Go…hadn’t yet been published when Roth was given a hostile reception at a symposium organised by Yeshiva University….The topic was ‘The Crisis of Conscience in Minority Writers of Fiction’, and the idea seemed to be, if he didn’t alreadyContinue reading “Philip Roth and Writing for One’s ‘Community’”
Tag Archives: London Review of Books
The Elusive Art of the Book Review
A dozen or so years ago, my first ‘official’ book reviews were published. Both of them had been commissioned–that sounds so grand!–by the APA Newsletter on Teaching Philosophy: Philosophical Naturalism by David Papineau and What Is This Thing Called Science? by Alan Chalmers. (The always-ahead-of-the-curve APA website’s archive is incomplete and I cannot find copies of these reviews any more. PerhapsContinue reading “The Elusive Art of the Book Review”
Viscusi and Queneau: The Combinatorics of Poetry
Reviewing Daniel Levin Becker‘s Many Subtle Channels: In Praise of Potential Literature (‘Anticipatory Plagiarism‘, London Review of Books, 6 December 2012) allows Paul Grimstad to take a tour through the wild and wacky world of experimental literature by way of some of the usual suspects. Most notably, Georges Perec and Oulipo (‘Ouvroir de littérature potentielle’; ‘workshop of potentialContinue reading “Viscusi and Queneau: The Combinatorics of Poetry”
Writing: The Tools Change, the Neurosis Endures
Philip Hensher has written a book–The Missing Ink–on handwriting. In it, according to Jeremy Harding, he: [T]akes the view that we impress our individuality on a page when we make signs with a pen or pencil, that our culture is reaffirmed as we persist in the practice, and that the production of handwritten texts isContinue reading “Writing: The Tools Change, the Neurosis Endures”
Might Same-Sex Relations Be Evolutionarily Advantageous?
A prominent fallacious argument used against same-sex marriage is the good ‘ol ‘we’re only protecting our species’ one. I referred to it in a post a while ago: [R]oughly, same-sex marriage is problematic because a) marriage is all about procreation and the raising of children and because b) evolution tell us that reproductive success isContinue reading “Might Same-Sex Relations Be Evolutionarily Advantageous?”
Eagleton on Sex and Sexuality: Fun, and Not-So-Much (Respectively)
In yesterday’s post, I offered a couple of critical remarks in response to Stanley Fish‘s review of Terry Eagleton‘s Reason, Faith and Revolution. Those remarks were directed at a pair of passages excerpted from Eagleton. Today’s post features Eagleton too, but cast as reviewer, not reviewee, on everyone’s favorite topic: sex (and the considerably more seriousContinue reading “Eagleton on Sex and Sexuality: Fun, and Not-So-Much (Respectively)”
Seamus Perry on Samuel Palmer and the Laying Bare of the Artist
A quick pre-disclaimer: Pardon me for referencing the London Review of Books two days in a row, but that’s what weekend-catching-up-with-a-stack-of-unread reviews can do to you. In reviewing Rachel Campbell-Johnson‘s Mysterious Wisdom: The Life and Work of Samuel Palmer (‘The Shoreham Gang‘, LRB, 5th April 20120), and in particular, on Palmer‘s ‘The Valley Thick with Corn,’Continue reading “Seamus Perry on Samuel Palmer and the Laying Bare of the Artist”
Roald Dahl’s Magical Chocolate World
The editors of the London Review of Books blog have reminded me–not personally, silly, I don’t know them that well, or rather, at all–that September 13th was Roald Dahl Day. They do so by noting Michael Irwin’s review of George’s Marvelous Medicine (which, sadly, I have not read), one that references in turn, Charlie andContinue reading “Roald Dahl’s Magical Chocolate World”
The Problem with Nuclear Non-Proliferation
In ‘Who’s In, Who’s Out‘, (London Review of Books, 23 February 2012, Vol 34, No.4, pp 37-38), Campbell Craig and Jan Ruzicka provide us an important indictment of the so-called ‘non-proliferation complex’, which is, [A] loose conglomeration of academic programmes, think tanks, NGOs, charitable foundations and government departments, all formally dedicated to the reduction ofContinue reading “The Problem with Nuclear Non-Proliferation”
Fiction, Non-Fiction, “Popularity,” and “Seriousness”
Back in December-January, I wrote a series of posts on fiction and non-fiction writers, in particular, on the relative endurance of their writings in posterity. I wondered whether essayists and non-fiction writers stood less of a chance of having their work read by future generations than did novelists and fiction writers, what the causes forContinue reading “Fiction, Non-Fiction, “Popularity,” and “Seriousness””
Samir Chopra 