Tag: books

Should we ever regret taking the risk of giving a straight answer to a queer question? In her new novel, ‘My Year in Paris with Gertrude Stein: a fiction’, Deborah Levy examines, amongst other things why: ‘Stein had put so much in the way. In the way of understanding. She did not believe in it’. The narrator of the novel continually asks: ‘What is it?’ of numerous ‘its’ that are so often getting lost to good, ill or mixed ends. What’s wrong with being always understood?

April 26, 2026

Should we ever regret taking the risk of not giving a straight answer to a queer question? In My Year in Paris with Gertrude Stein: a fiction, Deborah Levy examines, amongst other things why: ‘Stein had put so much in the way. In the way of understanding. She did not believe in it’. [1] The … More Should we ever regret taking the risk of giving a straight answer to a queer question? In her new novel, ‘My Year in Paris with Gertrude Stein: a fiction’, Deborah Levy examines, amongst other things why: ‘Stein had put so much in the way. In the way of understanding. She did not believe in it’. The narrator of the novel continually asks: ‘What is it?’ of numerous ‘its’ that are so often getting lost to good, ill or mixed ends. What’s wrong with being always understood?

Cashing in on ‘Thy sweet love remembered’:Some preliminary thoughts on Shakespeare’s Sonnet 29 before some historical reflection on its use in queer literary culture in the twentieth century

April 19, 2026

Sonnet 29 is used to provide the title, and is quoted in full as its message, by a non-binary character in prison named by inmates as ‘Mona’ (after Mona Lisa), of John Herbert’s Fortune and Men’s Eyes, an important if not a very good queer play, and in 1971 a minor film, no longer easily … More Cashing in on ‘Thy sweet love remembered’:Some preliminary thoughts on Shakespeare’s Sonnet 29 before some historical reflection on its use in queer literary culture in the twentieth century

‘Man measured his words like food and decided what was worth opening his mouth for’. Words and food in Derek Owusu (2026) ‘Hunger Pains’ for The Reading Agency Quick Reads.

April 18, 2026

‘Man measured his words like food and decided what was worth opening his mouth for’.[1] No-one measures his words like Derek Owusu, and no writer has pursued the link between food and the ‘matter’ that is, as in Hamlet (Act 2, Scene 2, 204ff.), ‘Words, words, words’, (whether spoken or written) like him since Shakespeare. … More ‘Man measured his words like food and decided what was worth opening his mouth for’. Words and food in Derek Owusu (2026) ‘Hunger Pains’ for The Reading Agency Quick Reads.

I use ‘social media’ to imagine a void in which a mirror placed therein might be a window or vice-versa and wonder why I talk to what I cannot see in it.

April 17, 2026

I have addressed the cogent reasons for me to use social media in a blog on ‘Why I Blog!’, at this link. But following on from all that is difficult, like driving on through dark empty space and pretending that it can be named as ‘social media’ or some other name that hardly fits the … More I use ‘social media’ to imagine a void in which a mirror placed therein might be a window or vice-versa and wonder why I talk to what I cannot see in it.

‘Where do you see yourself in ten years?’: This stock question in job interviews is at the root of a society that has no other standards than narcissism and magical thinking.

April 13, 2026

‘Where do you see yourself in ten years?’: This stock question in job interviews is at the root of a society that has no other standards than narcissism and magical thinking. Karl Stevens’ response above to imagining the stock job interview questionin our prompt – though the version he uses features a shorter duration of … More ‘Where do you see yourself in ten years?’: This stock question in job interviews is at the root of a society that has no other standards than narcissism and magical thinking.

The idea of the exception that stands out from a plethora of forgettable random encounters should be now recognised as the trope of what we used to call the sexual revolution in the short term or the ‘Crisis of Faith’ in the longer term.

April 12, 2026

The idea of the exception that stands out from a plethora of forgettable random encounters should be now recognised as the trope of what we used to call the sexual revolution in the short term or the ‘Crisis of Faith’ in the longer term. This blog should, perhaps, be treated as an interim reader’s ‘report’ … More The idea of the exception that stands out from a plethora of forgettable random encounters should be now recognised as the trope of what we used to call the sexual revolution in the short term or the ‘Crisis of Faith’ in the longer term.

I read this book and it changes you. This blog considers the short stories in Colm Tóibín (2026) ‘The News From Dublin’.

April 10, 2026

I read this book and it changes you. ‘In his preface to The Spoils of Poynton, Henry James talks about this idea of a “germ”, what he called “a mere floating particle in the stream of talk”, something that “has the virus of suggestion”. Life, as James would have it, is “all inclusion and confusion”, just as art is … More I read this book and it changes you. This blog considers the short stories in Colm Tóibín (2026) ‘The News From Dublin’.

Domestication or anthropomorphism: do people ‘make the worst pets’? Some thoughts derived from Thomas Gray’s ‘Ode on the Death of a Favorite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Gold Fishes’.

April 6, 2026

Domestication or anthropomorphism: do people ‘make the worst pets’? Some thoughts derived from Thomas Gray’s ‘Ode on the Death of a Favorite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Gold Fishes’. Do you know the poem I refer to in my title? It is by Thomas Gray (he of the infamous Elegy in a Country Churchyard), … More Domestication or anthropomorphism: do people ‘make the worst pets’? Some thoughts derived from Thomas Gray’s ‘Ode on the Death of a Favorite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Gold Fishes’.

If a work of art in words is worth reading, you will have never finally or completely read it – you will always be reading it. Deciding to continue reading ‘All My Sons’ by Arthur Miller in preparation for seeing Ivo Van Hove’s version of it live-streamed on 16th April 2026.

April 5, 2026

If a work of art in words is worth reading, you will have never finally or completely read it – you will always be reading it. Deciding to continue reading ‘All My Sons’ by Arthur Miller in preparation for seeing Ivo Van Hove’s version of it live-streamed on 16th April 2026. The reason I am … More If a work of art in words is worth reading, you will have never finally or completely read it – you will always be reading it. Deciding to continue reading ‘All My Sons’ by Arthur Miller in preparation for seeing Ivo Van Hove’s version of it live-streamed on 16th April 2026.

‘… but that was in another country; / And besides the wench is dead.’ Let’s make our diversity our common unity and not ‘other’ those of ‘another country’, if that was ever possible. An answer based on a case study reading of the novel by James Baldwin, ‘Another Country’.

April 3, 2026

… but that was in another country; / And besides the wench is dead.’ Let’s make our diversity our common unity and not ‘other’ those of ‘another country’, if that was ever possible. An answer based on a case study reading of the novel by James Baldwin, Another Country. This will turn into an answer … More ‘… but that was in another country; / And besides the wench is dead.’ Let’s make our diversity our common unity and not ‘other’ those of ‘another country’, if that was ever possible. An answer based on a case study reading of the novel by James Baldwin, ‘Another Country’.

Being a ‘character from a book’ may be not be enough, unless you can also re-write your own story. A case study of the brilliant TV series,’The Other Bennet Sister’.

April 2, 2026

Being a ‘character from a book’ may be not be enough, unless you can also re-write your own story. A case study of the brilliant TV series,’The Other Bennet Sister’. There are clear reasons for wanting to be, if anyone in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Mary Bennet, but perhaps very ‘other’ than Austen wrote her, … More Being a ‘character from a book’ may be not be enough, unless you can also re-write your own story. A case study of the brilliant TV series,’The Other Bennet Sister’.

I can’t choose one. Words fail me to describe them.

March 30, 2026

With thanks to this webpage (see its Summary in Appendix below) from Phrase Dictionary You took me on a roller-coaster ride,Unlocked a treasure-chest, you bravely triedTo tell me ’twas a journey deep insideMy heart: it opens, you said, the doors wideTo go behind the mirror where you hide.You puzzle me to think again. I criedIn … More I can’t choose one. Words fail me to describe them.