You could find anything you wanted here. CDs, with a hole punched into the middle by customs. VCDs and DVDs of old classics like The Goddess with Ruan Lingyu, Zhao Dan’s Crossroads, even the 1940s film Spring in a Small Town. And so many foreign films. Mamma Roma. Central Station. The Lost Weekend. Plus films [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Culture'
Piracy as a Window to the World – “Twenty fragments of a ravenous youth” – Xiaolu Guo
January 19th, 2012 · No Comments · Culture, Elitism, Intellectual Property, Policy
The Janissaries – “The Reluctant Fundamentalist” – Mohsin Hamid
December 12th, 2011 · No Comments · Culture, History, Pakistan, Religion, War
“Have you heard of the janissaries?” “No,” I said. “They were Christian boys,” he explained, “captured by the Ottomans and trained to be soldiers in a Muslim army, at that time the greatest army in the world. They were ferocious and utterly loyal: they had fought to erase their own civilisations, so they had nothing [...]
On Autobiography – “Notes on Dali” from “Fifty Orwell Essays” – George Orwell
November 10th, 2011 · No Comments · Art, Autobiography, Culture, Quotes
Autobiography is only to be trusted when it reveals something disgraceful. A man who gives a good account of himself is probably lying, since any life when viewed from the inside is simply a series of defeats.
English Public Schools – “The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius” from “Fifty Orwell Essays” – George Orwell
October 27th, 2011 · No Comments · Culture, History, Politics, War, WW2
Probably the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing-fields of Eton, but the opening battles of all subsequent wars have been lost there. One of the dominant facts in English life during the past three quarters of a century has been the decay of ability in the ruling class.
Criticism as a Defence of Values – “Cultural Amnesia” – Clive James
October 4th, 2011 · No Comments · Campaigning, Criticism, Culture, Humanism, Philosophy, Politics
Critics are always remembered best for how they sound when on the attack. Schadenfreude lies deep in the human soul, and to read a tough review seems a harmless way of indulging it. But the only critical attacks that really count are written in defence of a value. It was because of his admiration for [...]
Pronunciation and Culture – “Cultural Amnesia” – Clive James
October 2nd, 2011 · No Comments · Art, Civilisation, Culture, Elitism
Gauguin did the same for me before I could pronounce his name. (I called him Gorgon.) Degas I gave an acute accent over the “e,” not realizing that the “De” was an honorific prefix: “duh” would have been closer to the right sound, and certainly would have conformed to my general reaction when faced with [...]
Tags:art·Culture·elitism·Pronounciation
Art and the Hierarchy of Needs – “Cultural Amnesia” – Clive James
September 28th, 2011 · No Comments · Art, Civilisation, Culture, History, Humanism, Literature, Totalitarianism
We also have to grasp that art proves its value by still mattering to people who have been deprived of every other freedom: indeed instead of mattering less, it matters more. Very true – the willingness of people in repressed regimes to risk their lives in the name of artistic expression is telling.
The Richest Cultural Moment in History – “Cultural Amnesia” – Clive James
September 27th, 2011 · No Comments · Art, Civilisation, Criticism, Culture, ICT, Music, Poetry
It would be a desirable and enviable existence just to earn a decent wage at a worthwhile job and spend all one’s leisure hours improving one’s aesthetic appreciation. There is so much to appreciate, and it is all available for peanuts. One can plausibly aspire to seeing, hearing and reading everything that matters. The times [...]
Humanism – “Cultural Amnesia” – Clive James
September 27th, 2011 · No Comments · Art, Culture, Humanism, Philosophy
Humanism wasn’t in the separate activities: humanism was the connection between them. Humanism was a particularized but unconfined concern with all the high-quality products of the creative impulse, which could be distinguished from the destructive one by its propensity to increase the variety of the created world rather than reduce it. Builders of concentration camps [...]
Tags:art·Culture·Humanism·philosophy
