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.
Articles selected for their contemporary relevance or depth of analysis.
The novels of Jane Austen are not great literature for their naïve and narrow conception of the world, which approaches propaganda.
If we confuse simplified models and metaphors for reality in political and economic policy, we can create disaster for real people.
The serif is a constant companion, a known quantity, a faithful servant of the words.
Nietzsche’s ideas have become powerfully pervasive in our culture, mostly without explicit acknowledgement.
Tom Switzer’s arguments expose Australian ‘conservatism’ as a timid kind of neo-fascist, populist demagoguery.
Brilliant, arresting, insightful, the Burns-Novick documentary is a masterpiece of propaganda not entirely negatively defined.
In Underworld USA, Ellroy eclipses even weirdness. Moving beyond into a genre and status that is just Ellroy on his own.
My hypothesis that Huston’s Key Largo defined and limited the territory of film noir as exclusively American and subtly ‘New Deal’ political.
Existentialism offers a valuable tool for critical analysis well-suited to engage with liberal ideals of egalitarianism and individual liberty.
(c) 1997-2021, peter strempel ... email me ...