Category: Politics

Ayn Rand – a good writer after all?

Post author By jon
Post date November 14, 2022

Long after the politics have passed, literary quality – or lack of it – remains.

The following is a comment I put together on an episode of the Origin Story podcast produced by Ian Dunt and Dorian Lynskey. The episode covered Ayn Rand and her legacy – while the guys are very unsympathetic to her political position, I was pretty astonished to find that they thought she was a pretty effective fiction writer! This is my response, which became a bit ridiculously long for an inline comment – somewhat edited for clarity and to incorporate my correction. You can see the original here.

(The podcast series is really excellent, highly recommended to check it out)

There is a slight danger of slipping into conspiracism here in thinking that all critics must have had a political axe to grind. There is a simpler explanation: that there really are serious literary defects which become obvious when you are familiar with the history of the form.

Arcana Ethics/Metaethics Knausgaard Nabokov Philosophy Politics War in Ukraine

Homo homini lupus

Post author By jon
Post date April 7, 2022

Recent events have stirred in me some thoughts about evil.

For an atheist I spend a, probably unhealthy, amount of time thinking about theodicy. The below may also make it clear why I am comfortable using terms like evil and virtue from a non-religious perspective.

I think all of these have some truth to them (and all are problematic) – and I suspect we could point to examples of all of them, even just in the context of Ukraine. But some, I think, are easier for modernist, rationalist (decent?) people to get their heads around. Some are much less comfortable. This is endlessly fascinating to me.

We may think ourselves secure – but there it is, the dark shape at the door, it seeps through the floor like radon. There is no limit to the limits of our rational power. Evil is a Thing that can ignite, all by itself.

Books Nonfiction Politics Reviews

Review: How To Be A Liberal

Post author By jon
Post date October 30, 2020

By Ian Dunt (2020)

A real achievement. It’s ambitious – I started off thinking he’d bitten off a bit more than he could chew. It’s both very contemporary – up to the minute even – and a sweeping history of the liberal tradition.

Does a remarkable job considering this scope – even for well-known parts of the story or figures like John Stuart Mill, brings out wonderful details that (I at least) just wasn’t aware of – like he effectively co-wrote much of his work with his partner, then wife, Harriet Taylor, and was dedicated to the rights of women. Not to mention bringing in really interesting guys like Benjamin Constant, who I’d plain never heard of.

Books Nonfiction Politics Reviews

Reviews: Anne Applebaum on Eastern Europe

Post author By jon
Post date August 7, 2020

Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe (2012) and Between East and West: Across the Borderlands of Europe (1994) by Anne Applebaum

Anne Applebaum’s recent book is so good, I’ve been working my way through her back catalogue.

Two books about the “borderlands” of Europe – Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine, Hungary, Belarus and Moldova – their crushing and Sovietization following 1944, and subsequent re-emergence in the 90s are excellent if you have an interest the region, its history, and the recent destablilisation.

Pure joy, and the best non-fiction book I’ve read this year

Books Politics Reviews

Review: Twilight of Democracy

Post author By jon
Post date August 7, 2020

The Failure of Politics and the Parting of Friends by Anne Applebaum (2020)

So I’ve been on a massive Anne Applebaum kick for the last couple of weeks. A very long time ago I’d read her history of the Gulag, an extremely jolly read, and subsequently forgot about her.

The best political, and one of the best nonfiction books, of the year. This is a million miles away from the often tiresome hot takes of the internet punditry.

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