Archive for the ‘Cultural issues’ Category
A review of the novel “Moonstone” by Sjón
April 17th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
This novella – it runs to a mere 100 pages of actual text – is the product of Icelandic writer Sigurjón Birgir Sigurðsson (Sjón is his pen name). The setting (the Icelandic capital Reykjavík) and the period (October-December 1918) are unusual and the central character – 16 year old Máni Steinn or the titular Moonstone […]
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Word of the day: fungibility
April 12th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
In economics, fungibility is the property of a good or a commodity whose individual units are essentially interchangeable, and each of its parts is indistinguishable from another part. For example, gold is fungible since a specified amount of pure gold is equivalent to that same amount of pure gold, whether in the form of coins, ingots, or in other states. Other fungible commodities include sweet crude […]
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A review of the 2018 film “BacKkKlansman”
April 6th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
Nobody makes movies like African-American director Spike Lee who has chronicled much of the black experience in the USA. This film was actually nominated for Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture although the one of the six nominations that the work received went to Best Adapted Screenplay. The adaptation is from the memoir […]
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Word of the day: irenic
April 2nd, 2021 by Roger Darlington
It means “tending to create peace”. The word comes from Eirene, the Greek goddess of peace, who also gives us the name Irene.
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A review of the film “The Hitman’s Bodyguard”
April 1st, 2021 by Roger Darlington
This intriguing title put me in mind of the 1967 action comedy “The President’s Analyst” – what happens when the counsellor to POTUS has his own mental issues? In this 2017 movie, what happens when one of the world’s most accomplished hitmen (Samuel L Jackson) needs to be protected by one of the world’s top […]
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A review of the classic novel “All The King’s Men” by Robert Penn Warren
March 31st, 2021 by Roger Darlington
This 660-page work, published in 1946, is a classic example of the great American novel. Indeed it won the Pulitzer Prize and is often rated as one of the greatest novels of the 20th century. It has twice been made into a film: first in 1949 (winning the Academy Award for Best Picture) and much […]
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A review of “21 Lessons For The 21st Century” by Yuval Noah Harari (2018)
March 14th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
Harari is an Israeli academic specialising in world history who is best-known for his books “Sapiens: A Brief History Of Humankind” and “Homo Deus: A Brief History Of Tomorrow”. I have not read these earlier works but I understand that his latest book reworks many of the themes of his previous writing and indeed he […]
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The meaning of life – according to Yuval Noah Harari (and me)
March 12th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
I’ve just finished reading “21 Lessons For The 21st Century” by the Israeli writer Yuval Noah Harari. The penultimate chapter – by far the longest – addresses perhaps the most important of existential questions: what is the meaning of life? First, he addresses a popular story told for thousands of years which explains that “we […]
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How important is touch – both in times of pandemic and beyond?
March 3rd, 2021 by Roger Darlington
When was the last time you touched someone you don’t live with? One day last March, probably; you’re not sure of the date. Did you shake hands with a new colleague at work? Did your coat brush against another commuter’s on the train? Did someone bump your elbow and mutter an apology when rushing past […]
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A review of “The War Of The Worlds” by H G Wells
February 25th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
In my teenage years, I read quite a lot of Wells and studied “The History Of Mr Polly” at school. However, while over the years I saw film and television versions and even listened to a musical interpretation of “The War Of The Worlds”, I was 72 before I eventually read the novel which was […]
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