Tag: dailyprompt

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?

‘The world was all before them, where to choose?’ or ‘The earth is all before me … I cannot miss my way’. Looking for direction: how to use a quotation about using a quotation for guidance, and the perils of the freedom to choose!

April 22, 2026

In the seventeenth century educated persons kept commonplace books where things they heard or read could be stored for use or as a momento of the use they had already served, and might, if remembered in this way, serve again. Sometimes they consisted of practical guides to a task, like a recipe, although it was … More ‘The world was all before them, where to choose?’ or ‘The earth is all before me … I cannot miss my way’. Looking for direction: how to use a quotation about using a quotation for guidance, and the perils of the freedom to choose!

Making you the man of nerve or nerves you are: from hard resilience to soft and fearful retreat. A case study based on Nicholas Boggs (2026) ‘Baldwin: A  Love Story’ and the import he detects in Baldwin’s role as director of ‘Düşenin Dostu’ (‘Friend of the Fallen’ in English), the Turkish version of John Herbert’s ‘Fortune and Men’s Eyes’ in Istanbul.

April 21, 2026

Making you the man of nerve you are: from hard resilience to soft retreat. A case study based on Nicholas Boggs (2026) Baldwin: A  Love Story and the import he detects in Baldwin’s role as director of Düşenin Dostu (Friend of the Fallen in English), the Turkish version with its tellingly moralistic new Turkish title, of … More Making you the man of nerve or nerves you are: from hard resilience to soft and fearful retreat. A case study based on Nicholas Boggs (2026) ‘Baldwin: A  Love Story’ and the import he detects in Baldwin’s role as director of ‘Düşenin Dostu’ (‘Friend of the Fallen’ in English), the Turkish version of John Herbert’s ‘Fortune and Men’s Eyes’ in Istanbul.

‘Sleep’s a trouble, dreams pitch too persistent / the stresses of the day before that dawn / when truly come, promises that it’s sent /to build our worn self up, just less forlorn’. Verse written on assessing the aftermath of a day that’s made too many demands upon you!

April 19, 2026

The lines that hold the sails in tension now fret, or so the sounds they fake suggests, a keen low scream that might be just the gale that’s set to lengthen distance to safe harbour, seen Through gaps between each white wave peak as if security were not what vessels seek. A night at sea … More ‘Sleep’s a trouble, dreams pitch too persistent / the stresses of the day before that dawn / when truly come, promises that it’s sent /to build our worn self up, just less forlorn’. Verse written on assessing the aftermath of a day that’s made too many demands upon you!

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.

Not to take action matters if you add to the ‘moral void’ around decisions about acknowledging atrocity or suffering. ‘Looking out for one’s personal advancement’ and the persistence of ‘the moral void’: this blog aims to look beyond, with the help of Stanley Cohen’s (2001) ‘States of Denial: Knowing About Atrocities and Suffering’, the conclusions of mid-twentieth century social science including those of Stanley Milgram and the studies of ‘passive bystanders’ prompted by the brutal murder of Kitty Genovese.

April 16, 2026

Not to take action matters if you add to the ‘moral void’ around decisions about acknowledging atrocity or suffering. ‘Looking out for one’s personal advancement’ and the persistence of ‘the moral void’: this blog aims to look beyond, with the help of Stanley Cohen’s (2001) States of Denial: Knowing About Atrocities and Suffering, the conclusions of … More Not to take action matters if you add to the ‘moral void’ around decisions about acknowledging atrocity or suffering. ‘Looking out for one’s personal advancement’ and the persistence of ‘the moral void’: this blog aims to look beyond, with the help of Stanley Cohen’s (2001) ‘States of Denial: Knowing About Atrocities and Suffering’, the conclusions of mid-twentieth century social science including those of Stanley Milgram and the studies of ‘passive bystanders’ prompted by the brutal murder of Kitty Genovese.

We should favour only what truly does what it says in its name – a restaurant should be able to ‘restore’ (‘”to give back,” also, “to build up again, repair; renew, re-establish; free from the effects of sin; bring back to a former and better state,” from Old French ‘restorer’, from Latin ‘restaurare’ {“repair, rebuild, renew”}) me

April 14, 2026

Etymology is a game surely for the past uses of a word mainly have no life in its heirs in contemporary language necessarily, but yet again even in contemporary language one word can signify different things to different people (even when they speak ‘only’ one language) for language use is also a thing of multiple … More We should favour only what truly does what it says in its name – a restaurant should be able to ‘restore’ (‘”to give back,” also, “to build up again, repair; renew, re-establish; free from the effects of sin; bring back to a former and better state,” from Old French ‘restorer’, from Latin ‘restaurare’ {“repair, rebuild, renew”}) me

‘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.

‘You’re in Denial!’… ‘I’m not!’ … ‘Now you’re denying you’re in Denial!’ With apologies to ‘The Golden Girls’ from which this exchange comes, let’s think about the struggle involved in learning always to ‘know’ things one ought to know.

April 11, 2026

You’re in Denial!’… ‘I’m not!’ … ‘Now you’re denying you’re in Denial!’ With apologies to ‘The Golden Girls‘ from which this exchange comes, let’s think about the struggle involved in learning always to ‘know’; things one ought to know. And make the decision I did: ‘Do not always trust denials, but do not always disbelieve … More ‘You’re in Denial!’… ‘I’m not!’ … ‘Now you’re denying you’re in Denial!’ With apologies to ‘The Golden Girls’ from which this exchange comes, let’s think about the struggle involved in learning always to ‘know’ things one ought to know.

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’.