“Is sex the only thing that matters ? Is there nothing else ?” Father threw the pile of manuscripts to one side, shaking his head furiously. “Let me ask you a question: how come you only pick up on the sex in what I write, and nothing else?” “A writer ought to offer people something positive, something [...]
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
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 [...]
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
“Cultural Amnesia” – Clive James
October 1st, 2011 · No Comments · Culture, History, Uncategorized
(Memo to a young student of cultural flux: when you buy old books, keep the wrappers if you can. Nothing gives you the temperature of the time like the puffs and quotations.)
Tags:Culture·History·literature
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.
