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 →
Doomer dirges: “No, we ain’t gonna make it”
This post, about Tom Lehrer, might help explain where I am coming from. In 1965 Tom Leher said that if we were going to get any songs about World War 3 “we’d better start writing them now.” Ditto for the Anthropocene (others have made a start - I will blog separately on that). So I... Continue Reading →
Tom Lehrer as the first great song-writer of the Anthropocene
The 37 or so songs of American satirist Tom Lehrer (1928- ) should all be part of the vocabulary of, well, everyone. They are dirty (Smut, I’m a market they can’t glut), sick (I hold your hand in mind and “Be Prepared” - “don’t solicit for your sister, that’s not nice; unless you get a... Continue Reading →
Of the Anthropocene, types of denial and William Connolly
It's good to have a really good handle on why it is "unravelling" (1). Might help us spot some of the hows of the unravelling before they quite arrive. No averting, that's a 20th century delusion... Anyway thanks to a smart and compassionate friend (who took me out to the coast last Tuesday, when I... Continue Reading →
Video: Professor Clive Hamilton on the “Anthropocene”
Interview with Professor Clive Hamilton on the "Anthropocene", in the startlingly noisy cafe at the John Rylands Library (the first few minutes are the worst - it gets easier to hear as time goes on).