Towards the end of last year I asked people on Twitter if they would be interested in a podcast. The response was incredibly positive so I'm delighted that Episode One is now out. It's a conversation with CrankyEthicist (someone you should all be following on Twitter) on things like psychiatry, gun violence and systemic discrimination. … Continue reading #LitCrank Episode One
One of the more constant questions I get is whether I archive or store my tweets anywhere. Whilst I understand this, there is something about the immediacy, the fleeting-ness of twitter as a medium that I like - it creates a kind of camaraderie of the people who are around at that moment which … Continue reading #TheoryTime – A Master Thread
In his Politics, Aristotle claimed that man was a political animal. By this he meant that the human was predisposed to life within a certain polis, a group, through which all the constituent members could flourish. Noting that other creatures had the same traits, Aristotle added a caveat. What distinguished the polis of man from … Continue reading Donald Trump: The Id of Republican Politics II
What is Europe? In one sense the question is painfully obvious — a geographical location, a collection of borders and cultures and nations. Europe is a place, a distinct over-there that all too often for the United Kingdom at least exists in travel magazines, idyllic photographs and some idealized notion of culture designed to appeal … Continue reading What is Europe?
Like any paradox, the rise of Donald Trump to the rank of serious political phenomena requires a certain amount of critical thinking. How else can we begin to approach this frequently bankrupt billionaire—a bloviating, catch-phrase spouting reality TV star suddenly proclaiming that he is going to be the greatest job’s president in American history? Just … Continue reading Donald Trump: The Id of Republican Politics
Monster (der) Latin: monstrum – to warn. To show. What does it mean to be a monster? In the era of postmodernity, where the notion of normativity has been systematically subjected to that Lyotardian scepticism that has permeated many of the old certainties, how do we approach the figure of the monstrous Other? Throughout culture … Continue reading Reframing The Monster: Politics/Ethics/Discourse
“We have to stay brave, energetic, and stubborn—we can’t walk away from the fight. Sparring is how you build endurance, how you learn to be quick on your feet and develop a sense of humour” Nadya Tolokonnikova in a letter to Slavoj Zizek It is a truth of structuralism, widely accepted and intuitively attractive, that … Continue reading Reflection, Refraction and Response
