"Not Even Mentioning the Damn Football" Edition
Hello,
Obligatory shilling. My article for The Critic about the work and critical reception of Michel Houellebecq is now online.
I wrote for my paying subscribers about identity and the curse of uninterestingness.
No progression. In the pages of The Critic, J.S. Barnes launches an assault on the legacy of Samuel Beckett:
There is no progression or change in the characters, no shift in their situation. Any clear-eyed audience member who has gone into the theatre meaning to judge the thing in as objective a fashion as possible will soon find themselves restless, then bored, then on the cusp of feigning some sort of medical emergency simply to get out of the stalls without causing too much of a fuss.
Barnes writes wittily and plausibly. A lot of Beckett's work is redundant - and I certainly hope his vision is too bleak. Myself, I prefer that of Camus. Still, I find it difficult to believe that anyone can fail to see lasting insight and humour in Beckett's work having been on social media - an incredibly, profoundly Beckettian stage for mankind's futile twittering.
Also, Krapp's Last Tape is one of the more beautiful works of literature. I recommend it even if you were bored or baffled by Waiting for Godot.
NGOcracy. Conor Fitzgerald explores the phenomenon of pseudo-democratic “consensus laundering”:
The practical function of this type of NGO is in a process I call Consensus Laundering. This means is using the mechanisms of government, the press and NGOs to reach a pre-determined outcome with a veneer of democracy, so as to present changes to culture and society as driven from the bottom-up rather than top-down.
NGOcracy also promotes a sort of soft imperialism abroad, as Richard Hanania recently analysed with reference to Freedom House. Occasionally, right-wingers put excessive weight on this in order to explain the attractiveness of liberalism in prospering countries, but the phenomenon exists. Amnesty International, established the defend political prisoners, is now campaigning for the right of trans people to legal recognition in Hungary.
It could easily happen. Tom Chivers writes a sober but eerie column about the likelihood of war between China and the US:
The Korean War started because great powers misjudged other powers’ willingness to defend allies and honour their treaty obligations: China and North Korea didn’t think the US would defend South Korea; the US didn’t think China would enter the war directly if the 8th Army crossed the 38th Parallel. It could easily happen again.
Liar education. The Wall Street Journal reports on the astonishing scam that is master's programs:
Recent film program graduates of Columbia University who took out federal student loans had a median debt of $181,000.
Yet two years after earning their master’s degrees, half of the borrowers were making less than $30,000 a year.
I get that students of philosophy, biology, mathematics et cetera might benefit from long, systematic study but what kind of joker thinks that Werner Herzog or David Lynch would have made better films if they had done master's degrees in filmmaking? That isn't how it works! Take out a loan of $60,000 and make your own damn film. It will be a lot more fun.
Pathetic Mac. Strange times in MMA as Conor McGregor broke his ankle in his rubber match with Dustin Poirier. Showing impressive toughness, and no self-awareness, he continued to insult his able-bodied opponent as he was lying on the ground.
It was probably a fortunate result for the Irishman, who was showing every sign of losing decisively and humiliatingly. If McGregor wants to salvage his reputation he should go all-in on a humble, redemptive comeback tale. Being an arrogant, obnoxious piece of shit, as McGregor ended up becoming, worked for Floyd Mayweather because he always won. It doesn't when you can't stop taking Ls.
The Pedestrian. Playful English writer and epigrammatist William Guppy has a Substack, on which he defends Matt Hancock and electric scooters.
Have a lovely week,
Ben