Axel’s Castle, a mirror and an encyclopaedia
When I was about fifteen, I found Edmund Wilson’s Axel’s Castle in a library. It was…
Fragments on tradition
Today’s cultures are both disintegrating and proliferating. Any writer has to hand the near infinite profusion…
Regaining time
The other evening, I pulled from the shelf the sixth and last volume of Marcel Proust’s…
culture / history / literature
Cultural collapse: Delhi 1857
“This whole city has become a desert.” Ghalib 1861 William Dalrymple’s The Last Mughal: the Fall…
The reenchantment of the world
This morning I feel stuck for words. A heat wave has exhausted me, and the end…
Sailing to Byzantium
Since I am on holidays from work, and not consumed with duties and obligations, I have…
Reflections on 2017: cultural decay and political institutions
In reviewing my notes for the year – diligently if effortlessly recorded in Evernote – I…
More reflections on 2017: persistence, terror and Das Schloss
Persistence Twelve months ago I was approaching Christmas and the end of a liberating period of…
Reflections on 2017
The year is drawing to a close, and while it is yet weeks from New Year,…
Forgetting Foucault
Over recent weeks I have chanced upon a few biographical articles on Michel Foucault. One was…