The ‘gift’ is a complicated notion. It is considered as a possession by natural right, whose possession carries with it no obligation to the giver and yet is seen as something that could not be ours without someone have gifted it in the first place. A ‘gifted’ person may possess some quality or talent that … More “O wad some Pow’r the giftie gie us / To see oursels as others see us! / “:
In Gaza, Palestinian Christians are undivided from Muslims as their holy place and places of family refuge are destroyed by Israel. They recognise a unity among Palestinians that must be destroyed. This gentleman’s whole family was wiped out while sheltering in the Church of St. Porhyry, a Byzantine jewel. This is greater than GENOCIDE. It … More “We can’t celebrate in Gaza or Bethlehem”.
Will there ever be a vocabulary that describes adequately the vengeful annihilation of a whole people? This is the more poignant in that this is a people that is already displaced and sequestered by international agreement and deprived of the definition and identity held by other recognised nation-states. Palestine 🇵🇸 is a nation whose very … More Marianne Hirsch, ‘a retired professor at Columbia University, whose field, traumatic memory, is interwoven with Holocaust and genocide studies’, says, “Genocide prevention is a responsibility,” but despite that, “Now, we’re watching on our iPhones, and still people are holding back.” Why study genocide at all, then?
The only thing that is usually certain about the many quotations attributed to Socrates is that he probably never said them. Both of the main sources of Socrates’ sayings in Plato and Zenophon are unreliable. It is clear that neither were as interested in Socrates per se, as in using him to promote their own … More What Socrates ought to have said: ‘The unchallenged life is not worth living’.
When Spain to monsters fell, OfeliaFollowed a Faun’s fairies to the hard heartLabyrinthine, there finding a Pale Man,Devoid of eyes in’s head, though in his palms,Hunted what they fed upon. Fair SpainBled when Pale Man bit off a fairy’s headAnd swallowed another because two grapesHad been consumed from off the fascists’ feast To tempt ordinary … More On First seeing Guillermo del Toro’s ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’.
This prompt ties itself up in knots. It is the nature of WordPress prompts, so to do, in order perhaps to draw ouf variants in response, or, in the worst case scenario, because they rely on assumptions about commonsense definitions of complex words. First of all, they nearly always invoke indeterminate categories, such as ‘impact,’ … More Relationships of Causation or Correlation: Some playful ‘statistical rigour’ about event categories and their impacts on oneself.
Roused from his torpor, on a set of sandAnd potted jungle plants – the pots by handBuried in that sand – Johnny’s torsoRose, in expectation, although more soAs to see what they who viewed him wantedFrom that body, so wondrously vaunted.”Weissmüller! Be wise”. A quick scan overCaught at a glance, what was a sad botherOf … More Hey Johnny: Me, Tarzan, ….you, Cecil. Some queer verse less lush than its subject.
‘Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket’, 1875, which earned Ruskin’s scorn. Oil on panel, by Whistler, James Abbott McNeill (1834-1903); 60.2×46.7 cm; Detroit Institute of Arts, USA; © Detroit Institute of Arts ; Gift of Dexter M. Ferry Jr.; American, out of copyright. Credit: Bridgeman Images One of the strangest aspects of my … More To have ‘flung a pot of paint in the public’s face’ is the dynamic of beauty in painting and proceeds when done properly as if it were done by the painting itself: the case of James McNeill Whistler’s ‘Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket’, 1875.
The ethical ideal is not to tamper with living things but does that extend to living tissue used in experimental study of brain connections? The example of laboratory cultured models of brain systems from living tissue in the laboratory in order to test what the variables are that might affect mental processes, as we think … More The ethical ideal is not to tamper with living things but does that extend to living tissue used in experimental study of brain connections? The example of laboratory cultured models of brain systems from living tissue
Technology – and the dream, of autonomy Posted on 17 December 2024 by Stevendouglasblog If we take the Wikipedia article on automobiles as an authority, the presumption of setting this as a prompt topic is surely that this is a blog for those interested in CARS. The term automobile, when first used in the Wiki entry … More Technology – and the dream, of autonomy
Castle Hill: A site from my childhood and its development as an idea about the nature of heritage. First submitted in another place: Sunday, 1 Apr 2018, 20:50 Castle Hill: A site from my childhood and its development as an idea about the nature of heritage. Submitted on April 1, 2018 Prompt Think about something … More Reissue: ‘Castle Hill: A site from my childhood and its development as an idea about the nature of heritage’.
Geoff and I are confined these days following Geoff’s serious illness, and we don’t think we can visit the great art exhibitions, theatre, or even cinema in the cities we would take pains to go to: Edinburgh, London, Manchester, Liverpool, or even the nearest of the great cities, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Macbeth knowing that his agents have … More Exhibiting the subject of ‘the local’ locally. What is local art? What do its images capture? A subject or a viewer?
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