Articles selected for their contemporary relevance or depth of analysis.
Jane Austen: not ‘great literature’
The novels of Jane Austen are not great literature for their naïve and narrow conception of the world, which approaches propaganda.
Features
‘As if’ is not ‘what is’
If we confuse simplified models and metaphors for reality in political and economic policy, we can create disaster for real people.
Typography reveals more than just words
The serif is a constant companion, a known quantity, a faithful servant of the words.
What does Nietzsche say to us today?
Nietzsche’s ideas have become powerfully pervasive in our culture, mostly without explicit acknowledgement.
Switzer’s critique of ABC exposes Australian right as neo-fascists
Tom Switzer’s arguments expose Australian ‘conservatism’ as a timid kind of neo-fascist, populist demagoguery.
The Vietnam War (2017): I
Brilliant, arresting, insightful, the Burns-Novick documentary is a masterpiece of propaganda not entirely negatively defined.
Underworld USA: America unimagined
In Underworld USA, Ellroy eclipses even weirdness. Moving beyond into a genre and status that is just Ellroy on his own.
The Key Largo hypothesis: Brooks and Huston set the noir context
My hypothesis that Huston’s Key Largo defined and limited the territory of film noir as exclusively American and subtly ‘New Deal’ political.
Existentialism as philosophy of action
Existentialism offers a valuable tool for critical analysis well-suited to engage with liberal ideals of egalitarianism and individual liberty.