Monday (the 23rd) was a memorable day to say the least. Before I went to Wing Chung class — where I got my nose bloodied by a nutter who was either oblivious to or purposefully ignored the fact I was new to sparring — I was in the Trent Building trying to get some work [...]

Dorian Gray

Just finished reading Oscar Wilde’s `The Portrait of Dorian Gray’ and like any other great piece of literature it’s going to take me a while to digest the bulk of the ideas contained within– but I’ll give a few initial impressions anyway. For a start, I think Wilde succeeds superlatively well in giving sophisticated voice [...]

In search of PD Ouspensky

A few years back like so many others since its posthumous publication over 60 years ago, I fell under the spell of Peter Demian Ouspensky’s ‘In Search of the Miraculous’, the author’s meticulous, yet captivating account of his years of training under the mystical tutelage of the enigmatic, slightly sinister Mr G — Ouspensky’s way [...]

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Seems like I’ve been reading and hearing a lot about American idealism and about the mythology of the American dream recently; what with the fever pitch of Obama’s inauguration having passed only a week ago it’s been hard to avoid. I just finished reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn last Sunday. For many people Twain’s [...]

Hunger by Knut Hamsun

Last month on the train back home to Glasgow I finished ‘Hunger’ by Knut Hamsun, a book I’d been reading for the last month or so. It’s fair to say I had been a bit intimidated. ‘Hunger’ has a daunting reputation as one of the cornerstones of modern literature and I’d been hearing about it [...]

Primitive Mythology

Around three or four years ago, a few of us got together on an Internet forum and decided to start a book group. Actually, one person suggested it, and the rest agreed that it was a good idea. The person who proposed the idea also ended up suggesting the first book, Joseph Campbell’s Primitive Mythology. [...]

Primitive Mythology and Fight Club

(From an old post on the Media Underground forum — which you can no longer read as all the old posts have been deleted) I’m part way through reading the second chapter of Primitive Mythology, The Imprints of Experience. And I came across a passage that immediately put me in mind of the discussion we [...]

The Trial

This is a rewrite of a review I wrote about 3 years ago. Just finished reading the Trial by Kafka. It’s one of those books that’s always referenced – and principally among Kafka’s oeuvre – whenever someone’s trying to evoke the feelings of dread helplessness and vulnerability of those unfortunates who find themselves at the [...]

Doomed to repeat the past…

This article demonstrates why it’s important we keep making the connections with what came before — and why divide and conquer is still the favourite tool of the coloniser. From The Sunday Herald: Brown needs to ‘stop glorifying the Empire’ By Senay Boztas LEADING HISTORIANS have criticised Gordon Brown for “glorification” of the British Empire, and [...]

RIP Kurt Vonnegut

Writer Kurt Vonnegut dies at 84 Another great man passes on…I came to Vonnegut late on, but when I did discover Slaughterhouse 5 what a fucking revelation!