Duality is deeply embedded in the elemental technology that separates our feet from the ground on which we tread. As a container for spiritual meaning, footwear is laden with wishes, both benevolent and malign. Shoes can redeem, or they can punish. They can whisk their wearer seven leagues in a single step, transform a drudge […]
...moreWikipedia has a gender problem. The site has an overwhelmingly male authorship, meaning that the contents of the encyclopedia meant to document all of human knowledge is skewed toward men. The New Statesman takes a look at what this means: The gender disparity has skewed the encyclopaedia’s content – not only which pages are created but also […]
...moreIn the New Statesman, Oliver Farry investigates the times we notice anachronisms in film, television, and literature—and why we care.
...moreAnd we are, aren’t we, us fiftysomethings? We’re the pierced and tattooed, shorts-wearing, skunk-smoking, OxyContin-popping, neurotic dickheads who’ve presided over the commoditisation of the counterculture; we’re the ones who took the avant-garde and turned it into a successful rearguard action by the flying columns of capitalism’s blitzkrieg; we’re the twats who sat there saying that […]
...moreWriting “in defense of reading” essays is an outmoded literary form. Leo Robson points out in an examination of a slew of new books that reading, unlike other pastimes such as smoking, is generally considered a healthy pursuit. Since nobody debates the merits of reading, defenders of the faith like Howard Bloom have focused instead […]
...moreA mistake is being made by our society, according to Ed Smith at the New Statesman, that those in the workforce are expected to be constantly busy. Workers spend a majority of their days seeming busy and trying to meet a quota of busyness: “Watch carefully the next time someone rushes purposefully past you in the […]
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