jonathan franzen | Wait until next year

September 16, 2013

I remember when this was all fields

Jonathan Franzen is telling us what he thinks is wrong with the modern world. Rebecca Solnit sees the changes to our world post-internet as profound and troubling. These are two recent examples of the personal essay as a wail against life today, particularly life with technology, the internet, etc. Both these articles, at least to some extent, look back to supposedly halcyon days and see technology etc as the destroyers of an idyllic past.
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October 8, 2012

Striking out

Woman bowling, taken around 1950

The Art of Fielding is quite a lovely, comforting book. In many ways it was the perfect holiday read this summer. In many ways it should have been my perfect book – easy-to-read mid-brow fare, feted by the likes of Jonathan Franzen, giving some sort of insight into the human condition, and fundamentally all about baseball. And yet something was lacking, something wasn’t quite right. Read the rest of this entry »

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July 11, 2011

Plimpton!

Kickstarter is a pretty fantastic idea for a website. The site facilitates the funding of creative projects, with various people pitching their idea and encouraging people to back their project. If enough money is raised, the project goes ahead and the backers get some sort of reward, depending on how much they contributed. Read the rest of this entry »

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April 26, 2011

The post where I try to review Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom through the prism (if that’s the right word) of some quotes from the author, in an ultimately futile attempt to do something different around a book that has been written about enough already

So, over the lovely long weekend I finally finished Jonathan’s Franzen’s Freedom. Is there anything new to say about this book? I doubt it, as it has probably been the most talked-about book of the last 12 months. How’s that for a terrible intro, readers? Read the rest of this entry »

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March 24, 2011

Timeline of online insecurity

Hi folks. No time for a proper, real blog post today. Apologies etc. I’m a busy man. Or at least I like to give the impression that I am. However, I thought I’d keep you all entertained with a little placeholder. Please enjoy this lil’ cartoon from Sticky Comics, after the jump (for those of you on the front page, anyways…): Read the rest of this entry »

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