I was just thinking about that statement by E M Forster about betraying his country rather than betray a friend.

While I can see that he was presumably framing that in terms which would arouse certain conventional ideas of taboo and horror about treachery to one's nation, Forster was not exactly the epitome of jelly-bellied flag-flapping patriot ( Read more... )

Further to the links to Kipling's poem 'The Children (1914-1918)' and Richard Holmes' article on poems from the Tommies here.

Interesting, if somewhat arguable, article on Agatha Christie.

Nicholas Lezard's paperback choice: Steve Jones's entertaining scientific essays, collected in The Single Helix.

Article on a couple still married after 78 years ( Read more... )

Have no desire to talk like a pirate on command just because it is designated lj day to do so. When I wish to channel my inner Anne Bonney, Mary Read or Grainne O'Malley, will do so whatever the day is, and probably in response to some particular cloolessness on part of reader or spotted in the Tube. Otherwise it's a bit like the Red Hat phenomenon ( Read more... )

Have now got a Vox account under the name of wanderinghedgehog. Not sure what I'm going to do with it, but who I am to resist the rising tide of rhinoscerification?

From article in Times Higher Education Supplement, quoting Sam Pitroda, head of the Indian Government's new Knowledge Commission, dealing with concern about poor quality of Indian graduates (yet Indian Institute of Technology is internationally renowned, no?):
Indian society is full of rules and rituals for every occasion and situation. From an ( Read more... )

My Monday post of the Guardian article about group psychology, with particular reference to the recent BBC reality show reprising, sort-of, the famous Zimbardo Guards and Prisoners experiment at Stanford, generated a productive discussion. Some of the issues have been picked up by shadowkat67 in a typically deeply thought out and well-argued post.

I've been ( Read more... )

I've been brooding over some of the comments that followed the post about Arthur Ransome, bolshevism, and the presumed twee cosiness of Swallows and Amazons, and thinking further in particular about conformity, rebellion, and gender identification. Particularly exercised by the notion someone cited that liking Just William = rebellion and liking S& ( Read more... )