Alexandra Harris believes that in his new novel ‘Day’, Michael Cunningham writes again of ‘intimate, domestic love of many kinds: straight, gay, motherly, brotherly and avuncular love, and the love between old friends, to name a few, though the writing works against discrete categorisations’. I read it, however’, as a novel about the specificities of queer life; making it the monumental novel it is. Am I wrong or is Harris queer-blind?

Alexandra Harris believes that in his new novel Day, Michael Cunningham writes again of ‘intimate, domestic love of many kinds: straight, gay, motherly, brotherly and avuncular love, and the love between old friends, to name a few, though the writing works against discrete categorisations’. Moreover, Harris also seems to thinks that that the focus of … More Alexandra Harris believes that in his new novel ‘Day’, Michael Cunningham writes again of ‘intimate, domestic love of many kinds: straight, gay, motherly, brotherly and avuncular love, and the love between old friends, to name a few, though the writing works against discrete categorisations’. I read it, however’, as a novel about the specificities of queer life; making it the monumental novel it is. Am I wrong or is Harris queer-blind?

O, my centarian, I would like you to be a model of a better self than I am.

Write a letter to your 100-year-old self. Dear illusion, I do not (indeed I can not) know the entity to whom I am writing. You are an idea in my head evoked by some request to imagine you. As I read colleagues attempting the same task, they seem confident that the person they imagine is … More O, my centarian, I would like you to be a model of a better self than I am.

Still waters run deep perhaps, but certainly dark! Douglas.

What is your middle name? Does it carry any special meaning/significance? The world of given names is one where silliness runs deep; not least where associations between name and ‘special meanings’ are evoked. My middle name is DOUGLAS. It was given to me so that I bore my father’s first name as well as his … More Still waters run deep perhaps, but certainly dark! Douglas.

‘… a child who was robbed of his belongings by a greedy world’. Sex, love, power and variations of politics in developing queer sexualities. A blog on: Chukwuebuka Ibeh (2024) ‘Blessings’.

‘… a child who was robbed of his belongings by a greedy world’.[1] Sex, love, power and variations of politics in the world of developing queer sexualities and why queer men feel they have to ‘learn to face loss’ in a rather wider range of life-situations than their heteronormative peers. This is a blog on … More ‘… a child who was robbed of his belongings by a greedy world’. Sex, love, power and variations of politics in developing queer sexualities. A blog on: Chukwuebuka Ibeh (2024) ‘Blessings’.

‘It is not surprising that each year Balfour Day is celebrated by the friends of Israel and mourned by Palestine’s Arabs’. Does a thrilling and beautiful film like Michael Winterbottom’s ‘Soshana’ (2024) help us to understand the role of British colonialism in creating the problems of the land between ‘the river (Jordan) and the sea’.

‘It is not surprising that each year Balfour Day is celebrated by the friends of Israel and mourned by Palestine’s Arabs’.[1] Does a thrilling and beautiful film like Michael Winterbottom’s Soshana (2024) help us to understand the role of British colonialism in creating the problems of the land between ‘the river (Jordan) and the sea’. … More ‘It is not surprising that each year Balfour Day is celebrated by the friends of Israel and mourned by Palestine’s Arabs’. Does a thrilling and beautiful film like Michael Winterbottom’s ‘Soshana’ (2024) help us to understand the role of British colonialism in creating the problems of the land between ‘the river (Jordan) and the sea’.

This blog is a preparation for seeing the National theatre screening of ‘The Motive and the Cue’ at the Gala cinema, Durham, on the 21st February 2024.

In Jack Thorne’s script from The Motive and The Cue, the character  named as the film actor Hume Cronyn, the husband of Jessica Tandy, says when he is reminded of the fact that his wife is better known than him, says: ‘Darling, better to touch the stars than never to know them at all’.[1]  This … More This blog is a preparation for seeing the National theatre screening of ‘The Motive and the Cue’ at the Gala cinema, Durham, on the 21st February 2024.

‘Why write me up’, said life to me: ‘I haven’t done with you yet’.

Autofictions are fictional life stories that look like an autobiography and have autobiographical elements from the author but are told about the life of a fictional character. Some openings of both autobiographies and autofictions are a kind of closure as well as an opening. They assume a summing up of self in some take on, … More ‘Why write me up’, said life to me: ‘I haven’t done with you yet’.

Sean O’Hagan says that ‘The Zone of Interest’, is ‘… the embodiment of the Jewish writer Primo Levi’s insistence that it is ordinary people, rather than monsters, who are capable of committing atrocity. This is a blog on Jonathan Glazer’s film.

Sean O’Hagan says in recounting an interview in The Observer with Jonathan Glazer that the film he directs, The Zone of Interest, is ‘… the embodiment of the Jewish writer Primo Levi’s insistence that it is ordinary people, rather than monsters, who are capable of committing atrocity. “Monsters exist,” wrote Levi, a Holocaust survivor, “but … More Sean O’Hagan says that ‘The Zone of Interest’, is ‘… the embodiment of the Jewish writer Primo Levi’s insistence that it is ordinary people, rather than monsters, who are capable of committing atrocity. This is a blog on Jonathan Glazer’s film.

The dominance of aspirations to growth: the illusion of the economic and psychosocial versions of growth in capitalist societies.

What experiences in life helped you grow the most? Do you remember this messianic moment in Toryism when Liz Truss announced her discovery of an ‘Anti-Growth Coalition’ in British politics and then forced her ideas into action causing widespread economic decline. The notion of ‘growth’ as the panacea of all ills ought to have had … More The dominance of aspirations to growth: the illusion of the economic and psychosocial versions of growth in capitalist societies.