Review: Mania by Lionel Shriver
(Contains spoilers for Lionel Shriver’s novel Mania) Cognitive discrimination has been outlawed in the America of Lionel Shriver’s novel Mania (2024). Nobody is stupid, everyone’s brain is equal; the country is falling apart. Mania opens with Pearson Converse, the story’s protagonist, being summoned to remove her son from school after he used the “D-word” about the slogan on another child’s t-shirt. The Principal is unyielding: “Playground obscenities would be one thing. Slurs are quite another. This is a suspension level offense. Any similar violation in the future could merit expulsion.” Pearson initially complies, and teaches her children to hide what they really think. But she is unable to follow her…
Considering Barbie (and Marriage and Singleness)
Being human can be very uncomfortable … People make up things like the patriarchy and Barbie to endure how uncomfortable it is. Jen and I saw Barbie over the weekend. We both liked it; were both surprised by it. I thought it was funny and smart and multi-layered to a degree that I still haven’t fathomed. The film’s reframing of sexual politics as an existential problem allows it to address deeper human questions that apply to both men and women. I also found it surprisingly compassionate. It managed to proclaim the let’s-take-down-the-patriarchy part of its message without anger and without, as Jen put it, being preachy. Barbie’s final rejection of…
The Consolations of Fantasy
Hobbits, notes J.R.R. Tolkien at the start of their eponymous story, are easily forgotten, largely overlooked, and have little or no magic about them. Or not. In the 75 years since he penned those words, The Hobbit has sold more than 100 million copies. In its opening weekend, Peter Jackson’s first instalment of the movie version broke records around the world. Clearly there is something a little magical about hobbits after all. The interesting question, however, is what that magic is. Why should an English boffin’s fairytale of elves, wizards and dragons continue to command such devotion? What craving does it satisfy? The interesting question is what that magic is. What craving…
Review: Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Let me make things simple. If you love C.S. Lewis—specifically, if you love the Narnia books—I think you will very much like Susanna Clarke’s novel Piranesi. If you need a break from our dreary-yet-furious present and want to think about things that are true, honourable, just, pure, lovely, commendable and excellent (c.f. Phil 4:8) then this is the book for you. If you need a break from our dreary-yet-furious present … then this is the book for you. Piranesi is a difficult book to describe, however. The name originally comes from Giovanni Battista Piranesi, the Renaissance printmaker famed for his fantastical depictions of vast vaulted dungeons (see above, for example). When I…
The Power: Book Review
Please note that this is a (very) secular novel which contains some explicit and potentially upsetting material. It is discussed here, not so much for the purpose of recommendation, but as a useful representative of one important contemporary viewpoint. In Naomi Alderman’s speculative fiction novel (and now, TV series) The Power, women have achieved dominance. It’s a feminist’s dream—and nightmare. With the sudden emergence of a latent ability in women that allows them to generate and deliver shocks like electric eels, women suddenly find that they are able to outclass men in physical contests. As the power spreads, women begin to grow in self-confidence and men start to lose their swagger. Young…
Pixar’s Soul: Jazz Under the Sun
Warning: Spoilers for Pixar’s latest movie, Soul follow. Pixar takes many years to develop their movie projects, so it is impossible that they could have made their latest production with the COVID crisis in mind. But their latest movie, Soul could scarcely have come out at a better time. Soul tells the story of Joe Gardner, a high-school music teacher whose shot at becoming a professional jazz musician comes to a tragic end when he falls down a man-hole on the way back from his tryout. Soul could scarcely have come out at a better time. As he hovers between life, and what the movie calls the “Great Beyond”, Joe gains…
