The plague year
I have been following the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic since January, especially through the remarkable…
The persistence of the Mahabharata
My trip to Bali – now over, since I am returned from the tropical paradise to…
Notes on a Balinese cockfight
I am in Bali, staying for a short stay luxury escape at Padma Resort, Ubud, which…
Emmanuel Todd’s Lineages of Modernity
“Never have human groups of such a size been so rich, so old, so educated, so…
Reflections on 2019: notes on my reading
The year’s reading has been among my least studious. The troubles of the year have robbed…
Where is virtue in dark times?
“It is always dangerous to draw too precise parallels between one historical period and another; and…
The Sacrifice
In 1986 Andrei Tarkovky released his final film, The Sacrifice. It has long been one of…
Bloom’s last lilac: the death of Harold Bloom (1930-2019)
The American literary critic, or rather lover of literature, is dead at 89. There are the…
Forgiveness and the madness of crowds
Douglas Murray places this remark from G.K. Chesterton in epigram of his The madness of crowds:…
My descriptions of the Northern Peoples – travel in Stockholm and Uppsala
I am returning today to my notes on my travels, and piecing together the literary and…