And how one poet can help us understand — Poetry is in rude health. It seems laughable that a little over ten years ago there were articles announcing the “Death of Poetry” when poetry collections now are on bestseller lists and Rupi Kaur was declared ‘Writer of the Decade’ by The New Republic in 2019. While some may argue…

The New Red Terror — “Cancel Culture is ruining everything”, we’re told. At a time when a lot of the general population cannot afford to eat, we should take careful note of where our ire is directed. So what is it, exactly, that Cancel Culture is doing to ruin our lives? Well, if the celebrities…

Does Rian Johnson have an opinion on the issues he depicts? — In Knives Out I was surprised to hear characters explicitly discuss contemporary politics. The son of a character is described as an incel who frequents rightwing messages boards, while another’s daughter is called a Social Justice Warrior studying at a left-wing, marxist-manufacturing university. A father parrots Trumpian talking points about…

We are far from Modernism now. Post or otherwise. — The practice of labelling the trends of society and culture is a relatively new one. Though we refer to periods like the Classical era, the Early Modern, the Enlightenment or the Renaissance these are often posthumous labels that allow historians and critics to compartmentalise the all encompassing whirlwind of change…

Facebook and the commodity of memory — We should all be concerned about Facebook’s — sorry, “Meta”s — attempt to dominate the world of Virtual Reality. Not because it will succeed (Zuckerberg’s company’s track record with rolling out hardware that actually catches on is laughably poor) but because of what it represents for ourselves. While its origins…

Why you’re hearing this phrase a lot right now — “I’m not a royalist, but…” I’ve seen that phrase a lot from fellow countrymen in the last couple of days. Much like the infamous declaration “I’m not a racist but…” preceding a deeply racist statement, there seems to be an overriding sentiment amongst those asked for — or just offering…

How the Crime Capital of the US turned its fortunes around. — Gotham was once a blight upon the American landscape. With the highest crime rate in the country (dubbed the ‘Gun Death Capital’ by some), near overwhelming poverty resulting in the largest homeless population of any major US city, and frequent scandals involving deep rooted corruption amongst public figures as well…

Writing the unexplainable — A puzzle has a solution and wants to be solved. A mystery has a solution but doesn’t want to be solved. An enigma doesn’t have a solution and doesn’t want to be solved. As children we love a puzzle. Be that a wooden one with slide-together pieces or one of…

What the Edgelords and finger-wagging Boomers get wrong — “Millennial Nihilism” is a phrase used a lot online, often used in bad faith but equally I do see why the philosophy of Nihilism might be attractive at the moment given how hopeless the future looks judging by any of the myriad horrors befalling the globe today. As such a…