Fragments of a blog
Fragments of a blog
Mark O’Connell writes this in a piece on James Joyce’s proposed reinterment in Dublin: Joyce could neither live nor work in the Ireland of his time – a suffocating theocracy that foreclosed every possibility of freedom: intellectual, sexual and existential.…
The latest comment from Stephanie Grisham, the White House press secretary: I worked with John Kelly, and he was totally unequipped to handle the genius of our great President. I wish she’d added “stable” but the comment is immeasurably amusing…
Russians haven’t gotten politically smarter in the past decade, according to the latest Pew report (as compared with these polls from 2009). Only 38% believe that free media are important, a negligible increase from 37% in 2009. Only 40% believe…
Russians are still pretty apolitical animals but they are gradually realizing that their passivity is contributing to the country’s stagnation and general hopelessness. When they quit the “quiet desperation” mode, they look to others who have made it farther into…
It is often said that, lately, the Kremlin has been successfully punching above Russia’s economic weight in the global arena. Surprisingly, Russia has positioned itself as a reliable partner, an actor that would never betray its allies or clients. Not…
I wrote this two and a half years ago: If President Trump is truly an aging Narcissus, few things would please him more than toppling a powerful leader whom he, Trump, has previously considered close to a peer… If the…
Before it can be exported or refined, half the country’s oil output (and 5% of the world’s) must be processed at a single, supersized facility. Located in a politically and militarily unstable region, it has been poorly protected from a…
Early in 1892, Chekhov bought a modest estate in Melikhovo, forty miles south of Moscow. In March, he moved there from Moscow together with his parents and sister, and would live in Melikhovo until 1899. From time to time, he…
Seeing that Himadri has a new post up discussing The Catcher in the Rye, I feel it’s time to wrap up my Japrisot and Salinger mini-series. A brief recap: The first and best-known Russian translation of The Catcher (1960) had…
In January 2018, the Argumentative Old Git wrote about Goya’s Self-portrait with Dr. Arrieta: It is a striking image, but what fascinates me most are the other faces on the canvas – shadowy faces, as if vaguely glimpsed, behind the…
From Camille Paglia’s introduction to Gore Vidal’s 1968 hit, Myra Breckinridge, written for a new printing of the novel: …[Vidal] admitted taking inspiration from John “Bunny” Breckinridge, a wealthy drag queen from a prominent American political family whose sex change…
John Naughton, professor of the public understanding of technology at the Open University in London, writes in The Guardian: …as it has become clear that the US Federal Trade Commission is about to impose a fine of $5bn (£4bn) on…