‘I think therefore I am’, the philosopher said, but he only became Rene Descartes by writing those words, or ones translatable into that English statement, and allowing them to be thoughtfully written about ever since. Thinking is an entirely invisible thing on its own and hard to evidence, except in language. Sometimes spoken language hardens … More Stuff Descartes! I write, therefore I will be ….
List 30 things that make you happy. In Michael Nott’s 2024 biography of the poet Thom Gunn, the man closest to him throughout his life, Mike Kitay, is quoted as saying of Thom first that, ‘He was probably depressed but he would never say that to anyone. He would never act depressed. He would always … More In Michael Nott’s 2024 biography of the poet Thom Gunn, the man closest to him throughout his life is quoted as saying of Thom, “He needed people to think he was happy. … But sometimes, when no one else was around, ….”.
Look! Is it a camel or a whale? Believe it or not the ‘most commonly used words in English have been tested against an authoritative body of samples (see Wikipedia on this here), called by linguists a ‘corpus’ and the most used word is ‘the’. The list goes down a long way before we confront … More Avoid asking people to LOOK! when you can’t see for looking!
The Nile Delta city of Naukratis: By ChrisO (talk) – self-made, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16176388 Amasis II became Pharaoh in Egypt (reigning 570–526 BC) by the aid of Greek soldiers. This was a blessing and a curse, because reliant on a powerful foreign, and virtually stateless) army meant he might also be potentially under their control. … More Like Amasis II, I would open an emporium or shop where I accessed the best of culture but never lifted a finger to run it.
It is de rigueur these days to reduce sexual politics to matters concerning toilets. I suppose in the long term, we have to be grateful to the writing of J.K. Rowling intended for adults, however stunted, for something, even if it is only to draw attention to the vast importance of the sexing of toilet … More The Right Honorable Rachel Reeves is uncomfortable as Chancellor Of the Exchequer – because the toilets are not fashioned precisely for her sole use.
Perhaps there was no choice. the surname ‘Bamlett’ seemed to invite a sobriquet that was popular at the time when I was in short pants in primary school, when Mums took their boys, holding their soft hands, to the ‘fleapit’, as it was called in Holmfirth, where ‘the pictures’ could be seen. Bambi fitted in … More Being Bambi
What’s your favorite game (card, board, video, etc.)? Why? Let’s start with some social psychology. The theories of George Herbert Mead were collected together from notes made by his students and their attractiveness as a theory of child development to me might be explained by the way in which these theories seem to represent themselves … More On not liking games. A fanciful reflection on George Herbert Mead.
Some prompt questions are difficult to answer without making assumptions that reveal injustice with which I am in effect in collusion. To travel is an exploratory state of experience of either body and mind, but it cannot be experienced, without an assumption of a secure base from which to travel, and to which you can … More To plan to travel is ‘an entitlement’ we cannot imagine not having. Yet we accept and ignore that for some that entitlement is stolen. Reading a little of Mahmoud Darwish.
If you could host a dinner and anyone you invite was sure to come, who would you invite? Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party (above) is an iconic image from the history of feminist art and is replete with symbolism that suggested that women could create the imagery of their own world without evoking patriarchal traditions, … More The ultimate in controlling behaviour is the wish to be in command of a group to whom you are the perfect host.
There is a tremendous blog by Anatoly Liberman in the Oxford University Press blogsite on the etymology of the word ‘bother’ that should give us pause before answering this. This blog shows that the oriigin of the word ‘bother’ itself bothers lots of people. He writes: Bother is a late eighteenth-century addition to the vocabulary of English. … More To be bothered is to reject the passivity that is actually COLLUSION with injustice!
The prompt question today recalls the phrase used in English, ‘May you live in interesting times’? It is known, without much supporting evidence as the “Chinese curse“. In the LibQuote above, it is attributed in longer form to Robert Kennedy, and he elaborates it in seeing turbulence in history as the more interesting option. In … More So don’t ask if I want ‘security or adventure’! It is a loaded question, as I hope to show here.
What are you most excited about for the future? Last night I saw the play Mnemonic at the National Theatre. I was intending to blog on it, but today is too full to allow it – with exhibitions on Michelangelo and the Expressionists to see with a dear friend, Catherine. This blog will be somewhat … More Neuroscientists insist that we cannot, as individuals know the future, or the past, without assembling, and reassembling it, in the hippocampus. Is that why we need each other to make it real.
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