On Fiction

A Stone in the Hat: Joseph Conrad and Neil Munro

It surprises us because we see Conrad, usually seen as a rather sombre figure, indulging in drunken juvenile japery.

The Importance of Being Sad

Are children’s books supposed to make kids sad?

John le Carré’s Life Beyond The Pigeon Tunnel

David Cromwell, a little like Smiley.

The Lure of Antiquities

To think about antiquity is to think about time. It is an inevitable process. Ask yourself: what other way is there to describe how objects wear their histories? How else…

How Dystopian Narratives Can Incite Real-World Radicalism

Dystopian narratives affected subjects in a profound way, recalibrating their moral compasses.

Metamorphosis of a Dream

Sharif Ahmedov is the only translator of the great Jorge Luis Borges into Uzbek.

Kafka’s Bestiary; or, Regarding a Remark of Adorno’s Never Said

“Auschwitz begins when one looks at a slaughterhouse and says, ‘they’re only animals’.” This quote is attributed to Theodor W. Adorno. Except he never said it. Despite this, at least…

Chekhov’s Silence

I picked up Checkhov’s story “The Kiss” as an undergraduate who had never read a Russian author. The story has a fairly simple plot: along with his artillery brigade, Staff-Captain…

Anthems for Bored Youth: On Lars Iyer’s Nietzsche and the Burbs

In an 1886 addendum to The Birth of Tragedy, his first book, German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche wrote, “today I find it an impossible book—badly written, clumsy, and embarrassing.” The book,…

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