Manchester residents observing a moment of silence on Thursday.
Manchester residents observing a moment of silence on Thursday.
1,180 words
What does it mean to be a Mancunian? Perhaps it’s as simple as being a resident or former resident of Manchester. Or perhaps it’s characterized by a particular type of identity, one that is often embodied in the numerous musicians who have come from there in recent decades. (more…)
2,472 words
When Jean Baudrillard published his classic text, The Gulf War Did Not Take Place, in 1995, it still seemed like a relatively novel idea. Common-sense notions of war such as friend and enemy were still current and reportage was confined to large media corporations. (more…)
2,237 words
It’s obvious to anyone with eyes to see that the contemporary Left is spectacularly alienating its own natural constituency with its increasingly unfocused and incoherent forms of protest. Certainly, they are vocal in denouncing Trump as a fascist, and Brexit as some sort of ur-nationalism, (more…)
1,956 words
Brett Stevens
Nihilism: A Philosophy Based in Nothingness and Eternity
Colac, Australia: Manticore Press, 2016
The title of Brett Stevens’ new book, Nihilism: A Philosophy Based in Nothingness and Eternity, inclined me to think that this work would be in the same vein as other works of pessimist philosophy such as Thomas Ligotti’s The Conspiracy Against the Human Race, or Eugene Thacker’s Horror of Philosophy trilogy. (more…)
1,381 words
Guillaume Faye
Archeofuturism 2.0
London: Arktos, 2016
Guillaume Faye’s new novel begins in the last few days before the outbreak of the First World War. A fashionable and rather aristocratic group of young people (nowadays we would call them “privileged”) consult a clairvoyant who gives an astonishingly accurate series of descriptions of increasingly distant futures. (more…)
2,434 words
The 2000 novel Under the Skin by Michel Faber tells the story of a female alien called Isserley. We meet her living on a remote Scottish farm from where she takes regular road trips looking for single men. The purpose of these trips transpires to be predatory; she is hunting humans to farm for her fellow alien beings.
Michel Faber has an interesting background. According to Wikipedia: (more…)
3,156 words
Joy Division left us with the most relentlessly depressing body of songs since Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder. In some ways, though, this singularity of approach, this lack of light touches to add color to the palate, is responsible for making them enduringly fascinating. (more…)
2,923 words
Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises) begins with the evocation of fear which becomes the motivational impulse for Bruce Wayne’s story. As a child he accidentally falls down a disused well, and, whilst he lies trapped and injured, he is terrified by a flock of bats that appear like a chthonic force of nature from the bowels of the earth. (more…)
1,075 words
Samuel Crowell
William Fortyhands: Disintegration and Reinvention of the Shakespeare Canon
Charleston, W.V.: Nine-Banded Books, 2016
The idea that the plays of William Shakespeare were written by someone other than William Shakespeare is a well-established motif in literary conspiracy theories. Starting in the mid-19th century, numerous and varied writers have gone into great detail to prove that the Shakespeare corpus was actually written by Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe, or Edward de Vere, amongst others. (more…)
604 words
English original here
Ohledně vraždy poslankyně Jo Coxové zjevně panuje politický konsenzus. Zasedání obou komor parlamentu byla odvolána, aby všichni zástupci lidu mohli náležitě projevit svou soustrast. Mimoto už všechny ostatní velké politické strany oznámily, že se v doplňovacích volbách nebudou ucházet o její uprázdněné křeslo. (more…)
794 words
Czech translation here
There seems to be a political consensus surrounding the murder of Jo Cox MP. The House of Commons and the House of Lords are to be recalled so that everyone will be able to pay tribute to her. Additionally, the other main political parties have announced that they will not be contesting the resulting by election that will take place as a result of her death. (more…)
Francis Bacon, 1909–1992
2,046 words
Francis Bacon, 1909–1992
Francis Bacon was an extraordinary and extreme artist and one of the greatest painters of the twentieth century. He was also a Right-wing elitist and individualist who approached the problem of creating art in the twentieth century with an honesty and intensity that have not really been matched. Generally speaking, it is probably true to say that most of the Right dismiss Bacon along with other contemporary artists mainly because of his unique treatment of the human form. But in my view his art enunciates a violent assault on the complacency of conventional thinking and perception that should be seen as deeply consonant with the project of the Alt Right. (more…)