I, here, now: Confronting the Trump
We are still recovering from shock of the Trump triumph, as in the days after watching the Twin Towers burn and collapse on September 11 fifteen years ago. (See my notes from those days, link below.) The two events are completely different in other ways, except that each has felt like a blow to the … read more »
Saving the world and other scams
I just received an invitation to this “Summer of Peace.” I then looked into it, because at first glance it seemed similar to Abdennour Bidar’s proposal of local actions to heal the world in Les tisserands, a book I reviewed very favorably. Then I looked at the roster of speakers on this and related pages. … read more »
Capitalism
In reviewing my past reflections on the state of the world, I see I’ve made frequent references to this book: Ellen Meiksins Wood, The Origin of Capitalism (Monthly Review Press, 1999). So that readers may know what I’m referring to, here is my capsule summary from 2000. Elegant & persuasive critique of all theories (including … read more »
Miserable people with hard-to-forget voices
Hardcore: 3 Novels: The Kill-Off / The Nothing Man / Bad Boy by Jim Thompson My rating: 3 of 5 stars I finally got around to reading one of the short novels by the man Stephen King has called “My favorite crime novelist”, The Kill-Off. The narrative voices — a different one for each chapter … read more »
Blaming her (for turning him into a monster)
Un roman russe by Emmanuel Carrère My rating: 2 of 5 stars I bought this book in Paris because I wanted to get acquainted with this celebrated author, because I hoped to learn more about Russia, and because I wanted to improve and update my French. I did learn a lot of obscene vocabulary in … read more »