Geoffrey Fox

Reflections & Inquiries

Let’s wake up, guys!

2019.11.17

Heart of Maleness: Deconstructing Gender Inequality by Raphaël Liogier My rating: 3 of 5 stars This little essay I hope many men will read, especially if you have been skeptical or puzzled by the vehemence of the MeToo movement. Liogier says he wrote it because he was “aghast” (his word) at some of the things … read more »

Tense night in Fulton, KY — civil rights in the ’60s

2019.11.14

I just heard from a great-grandson of Jubie Henderson, the hero of this little anecdote about some rough days in the struggle for racial justice.: “Freedom Drivers.” Jubie was not only a good mechanic. John O. Jones, editor of the Fulton Leader in Fulton, Kentucky, saw this note on my blog back in 2004 and … read more »

Dubliners

2019.10.23

Dubliners by James Joyce My rating: 4 of 5 stars The first of these stories, “The Sisters,” was originally published in 1904, when Joyce was 22, in the Irish Homestead, the weekly publication of the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society. A collection of 12 of these stories was to be published in 1905 by the London … read more »

Riots and grief in Catalonia

2019.10.21

The massive and increasingly violent demonstrations — or insurrection — in Spain’s second city, Barcelona, fabled for its architecture and culture and what Catalans call seny (“good sense”), with echoing mayhem in Girona and Lleida and blockages of highways connecting those cities with the outside world have nearly monopolized the news in Spain. It seems … read more »

A bit of wisdom, a lot of conversations

2019.10.19

The Hidden Pleasures of Life: A New Way of Remembering the Past and Imagining the Future by Theodore Zeldin My rating: 3 of 5 stars “One is only nominally alive if one is incapable of giving birth to thoughts one had never had before and of being inspired by what others think.” (p. 394) Theodore … read more »