A Republican idiot (even by their standards) has just won his second term as President. He has big and radical plans and the opposition is fragmented, disoriented. But then along comes an event - one that could and should have been foreseen and prepared for - and the President's visibly and undeniably terrible response takes... Continue Reading →
The (jaco)binfire that is the “left” – aka “extortation” (#ShoddyNeologism#094)
Climate change is bad, but for now I can cope (no kids, no expectations, no flooding where I am). Fascism is bad, but for now I can cope, because it is at least another six months until Starmer and Cooper extend the proscription to include the words "genocide" and "Palestine." Technofeudalsim is bad, but for... Continue Reading →
A poem to be excommunicated for
This verse is of t'chap called Jesus There's some say that from death he frees us But by many a priest We're constantly fleeced - With stories of "heaven" they tease us
Slogans, war-cries, thought-terminating cliches etc.
Just read Ali Smith's "Spring" (number three in her Seasons Quartet - highly recommended). Here's this, from near the end. Useful for reminding yourself with in the cacophony of war cries against peace, stability, happiness that you hear or see all the time... Did you know, Alda says, that the word slogan was a Gaelic... Continue Reading →
Much Ado About Nothing (Bard to the Bone #14)
Part of my effort to do remedial cultural capital accumulation and get up to speed with all the Shakespeare plays I had low or zero knowledge of.... Year written: 1599 Context of the writing (Shakespeare’s career, political events it was responding to): Just after Love’s Labour’s Lost and Merry Wives of Windsor, and before Julius... Continue Reading →
These grapes are sour* – or “A limerick about academia”
Academics are sadly "all in" with their dire neoliberal spin In articles and books They write paeans to crooks Or of angels on t'head of a pin. Footnote (1) To be "fair," I thought this all along, since Long Before, and I can prove it... To misquote Sigmund, sometimes an Aesop is just an Aesop...
Is it just me? – Anger in the Anthropocene
Every day, new horrors. And you can choose not to read things you can do nothing about. But then you wouldn't read much would you? (1) You'd disappear into reading all the Shakespeare you never read/saw or read/saw but have completely forgotten because you're older than Methuselah. To choose an example entirely at random. Every... Continue Reading →
Love’s Labour’s Lost (Bard to the Bone #13)
Year written: mid-1590s Context of the writing (Shakespeare’s career, political events it was responding to): Up and coming guy. Perhaps responding to a kind of “dare” about a good play not being able to include both clowns and kings? Plot in a paragraph: The King of Navarre and his three best mates are going to... Continue Reading →
Two Gentlemen of Verona (Bard to the Bone #12)
Year written: 1594 Context of the writing (Shakespeare’s career, political events it was responding to): Possibly his first play? Or first comedy, anyway. Plot in a paragraph: Valentine and Proteus are bezzies. Valentine heads to Milan and falls in love with the Duke’s daughter, Silvia. Proteus wanted to stay in Verona and woo Julia, but... Continue Reading →
The Comedy of Errors (Bard to the Bone #11)
Year written: 1594 Context of the writing (Shakespeare’s career, political events it was responding to): xx Plot in a paragraph: An old guy is about to be chopped merely for being in Ephesus. He’s given a day to come up with a ransom. Unbeknownst to him, one of his two identical twin sons (the one... Continue Reading →
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