Author Archives: Houyhnhnm

Resomation

Posted on August 30, 2011 by Houyhnhnm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14114555

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“Ascog – Notes on its past and some of the people who have played a part in its story”, by George Bell Barker

Posted on August 29, 2011 by Houyhnhnm

[Robert Bontine Cunningham Graham, from “Up Stage”, an essay on Reginald Montague’s Ascog grave:] ‘”Failure”, he wrote, “alone can interest the speculative mind”, adding “For those who fail, for those who have sunk beneath the muddy waves of life, we … Continue reading →

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“Imperium”, by Robert Harris

Posted on August 28, 2011 by Houyhnhnm

Not a novel. No characterisation, just a story reasonably well told. But the crux is that Harris doesn’t appear to be trying to make me think, or to tell me anything. He is simply putting into narrative form a story … Continue reading →

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“A Most Wanted Man” by John Le Carré

Posted on August 28, 2011 by Houyhnhnm

A 2009 response to the “war on terror”, set in Hamburg amidst the machinations of German, British and American intelligence services. A very good novel – exciting plot, and truly credible and sympathetic characters: makes you grab it at every … Continue reading →

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“On Chesil Beach”, by Ian McEwan

Posted on August 18, 2011 by Houyhnhnm

A meditation on Hardy, Forster and Larkin, with all McEwan’s levers in full working order: newly-weds, one called Florence [Forster], their honeymoon in Dorset ending (sort-of) tragically [Hardy], and the main tension being that pre-60s sexual repression destructively and messily … Continue reading →

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“Why We Disagree About Climate Change”, by Mike Hulme

Posted on August 16, 2011 by Houyhnhnm

An intensely promising read, unusual in assessing both “climate change” (Hulme’s typography for the physical reality (or otherwise)), and “Climate Change” (the idea of climate change, what it means to us individually and culturally). So it’s extremely cross-curricular (Hulme began … Continue reading →

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“The Go-Between” and “Where Angels Fear to Tread”

Posted on August 6, 2011 by Houyhnhnm

Leo Colston is, like Steerpike, Mole and Charles Ryder, a middle-class observer of the English aristocrat in 20th-century decline. Of the three, Mole remains a naïve observer, whereas the other two follow the contemporary developments in quantum physics by causing, … Continue reading →

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Claudius

Posted on August 1, 2011 by Houyhnhnm

Under the bed Made Emperor Speechless Thrust upon me Invade somewhere

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The Sanctity of Life

Posted on July 31, 2011 by Houyhnhnm

Christians talk about life being sacred, yet apply this with an inconsistency that is at once strange and immoral. For they concentrate their attention on areas where the lives they are protecting are of the least value, where the loss … Continue reading →

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Piscine Couverte

Posted on June 8, 2011 by Houyhnhnm

“Piscine couverte” – a sign in Normandy last Saturday. But what does it mean? How do we translate it? Word for word, “piscine” means “swimming pool”, and “couvert” means “covered”‘ with the final -e showing that the adjective agrees with … Continue reading →

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