Fragments from the Burning Archive: Anna Akhmatova
In my study is a box of old index cards with fragmentary thoughts, notes on narratives…
Axel’s Castle, a mirror and an encyclopaedia
Today I am reposting this post from April 2, 2018 that reflected on some of the…
An interlude on Solzhenitsyn
Prophets are despised in their own country, and now and then I am tempted deeply by…
Captain Ahab and Lockdown in Melbourne
Historians (and I am one) will search for cultural archetypes that explain the strange delusions of…
The persistence of the Mahabharata
My trip to Bali – now over, since I am returned from the tropical paradise to…
Poem: The prophet in a box
This first poem of 2020, composed this morning, may herald a more fertile year. For in…
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…
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…
Reconnecting with Franz Kafka in Prague
A highlight of my recent trip to Europe was the three days I spent in Prague,…
Encountering Fernando Pessoa in Lisbon
Travel – I am finding – is for me an exploration of the cultural, the imaginary,…