When the rejuvenated scholar Faust has slept with Helen of Troy, via the black magic arts of Mephistopheles, the vision fades and he finds himself on a high rugged peak. He marvels at the spectacle of sun-irradiated clouds, and imagines a luscious female form on softest bedding: “I see it! It is like Juno, Leda, […]
How Gretchen Saves the Soul of Faust Read More »
Bob Dylan is one of the finest ever writers of protest songs, about the oppression of poor people, young people, black people in the militarist, capitalist hustle of the USA. But what about his portrayal of suffocating or fickle women? When he sings in The Gates of Eden: “Of war and peace the truth just
Bob Dylan’s World of Fickle Women Read More »
Ursula K. Le Guin was a celebrated and prolific American author, spanning many literary genres for six decades, first winning acclaim in fantasy fiction, most notably her Earthsea ‘high fantasy’ series, and also in science fiction. Both had been a male enclave until her arrival, garnering much praise and many prizes. She was generous to
How Words Make Us Human Read More »
Mary Gaitskill’s novel, Veronica, is a meditation on truth and beauty told by its self-proclaimed peripheral protagonist, Alison. The novel loosely tracks her life as she is sucked into into the sleazy world of modelling, through drug-filled highs and lows, pooling around her relationships with her friend Veronica, and her own family, to which she
Women Trapped in the Web of Beauty Read More »
This a terrific film about a man who is not there. It won this year’s Palme d’Or for its tragi-comic depiction of a group of dissidents in Iran. It was shot secretly by the director Jafar Panahi, who was only released from his latest spell in prison after a hunger strike. A man is driving
Secret Police and their Blindfolded Victims Read More »
Some things are defined by the absence or silence around them. In The Histories by US artist Kerry James Marshall at the Royal Academy, we enter a giant visual world occupied solely by black figures. They are not angry or sad. They are just ordinary people, working out who they are and what they are
The Artist of Black Beauty and Reality Read More »
This film about the Arab Revolt in Palestine in 1936 is unlikely to gain a mass audience, but it very much deserves to be seen. It’s a major work that dramatises events before the Second World War when Britain was still in charge of the territory. Following the Balfour Declaration of 1917, Jews were starting
How We Sowed the Seeds of the Middle East Conflict Read More »
I have recently finished reading the second volume of Solvej Balle’s septology, On the Calculation of Volume(2025). Five volumes have been written with only the first two volumes translated into English; we await the translation of the third volume which is scheduled for 18th November 2025. The date is propitious. The novels relate the story
Escape from the Endless Time Loop Read More »
So what does it all mean – Grayson Perry’s Delusions of Grandeur at the Wallace Collection in London? On one hand, it proclaims that we have a licence to produce beautiful, bright things again. Art can be childish, it can be colourful and flamboyant, joyful and fantastic. On the other hand, we confront the original,
Sinister Beauty in Rococo Art Read More »
Erling Kagge is a Norwegian explorer, publisher and author, famous as the first explorer to conquer the three poles on foot: the North and South Poles and Mt. Everest. What makes his conquests all the more remarkable, is that all were unsupported. An appeal of this book is his examination of his own and his
Exploring the Ends of the Earth Read More »
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