fieldus

Youth by JM Coetzee | Books | The Guardian
He lives in a one-room flat near Mowbray railway station for which he pays eleven guineas a month. He is at pains not to be late with the rent because he has obtained the flat under false pretences. He has given his occupation as library assistant rather [...]

Very funny piece in McSweenys by Pasha Malla.

sp!ked review of books | Blimey, he’s dead Dickensian and a lot like us!
What gives the Dickensian-era grammar an absurd feel is the desperately arcane vocabulary, where words from ‘bagatelle’ to ‘trachea’ gleam amidst the cock-er-nee syntax like big, shiny badges of the intellect. This applies even more to the references to, amongst others, Jackson [...]

New Year prediction | clivejames.com
We’ve reached a turning point. A madness has gone out of fashion: the madness of behaving as if only too much can be enough. There will always be another madness, but not that one. From now on a man will have to be as dumb as a petrodollar potentate to think [...]

David Mitchell: Let’s look back on the year to come | Comment is free | The Observer
Gary Glitter loses last shred of academic recognition
In July, the Daily Mail captured the public’s imagination with a campaign calling for Gary Glitter’s O-Levels to be revoked. In an editorial, the paper argued that it was: “… entirely inappropriate [...]

Power of Nightmares and Century of the Self were spoiled by exactly this kind of sweeping generalising and simple minded visual storytelling.

Some fun stuff @ NPR and on Christian Lander’s blog.

Amusing fellow.
lander, satire, stereotype, subversion

Sunday drama? Stop messing about | Review | The Observer
Kenneth Williams: Michael Sheen carries on his camping - People, News - The Independent

Catherine Townsend: Sleeping Around - Catherine Townsend, Columnists - The Independent
…my passion for British men was reignited this week after I agreed to a blind date with an American. “This guy is a writer too, and he’s really emotionally aware,” my friend Victoria said.
I should have known that this would be the death knell for [...]

Armando Iannucci: Want to be mildly rich? Read on | Comment is free | The Observer
‘The Willpower Pathway to How to Get Absolutely Something of What You Want’
Adopts a new psychological approach to material goal-setting, using a methodology known as ‘transformative goal adjustments’ whereby the individual is taught by means of a number of sophisticated [...]