As part of my “literary leftists” series, I’ve been doing research for a possible future post on Richard Wright, the black novelist and poet (and member of the Communist Party from the late 1920s through part of the 1940s), whose … Continue reading →
[Part I: Reading Lolita in Tehran] [Part II: Hemingway and Dos Passos and the Spanish Civil War] We all know H.G. Wells. That is, we all think we know him. He’s the author of science fiction novels that seem to … Continue reading →
[The first part of this series on literary leftists can be found here.] The Spanish Civil War was famous for many things, including attracting the participation of some of the most well-known literary lights of the day. The October 31 … Continue reading →
It isn’t often that a dream comes true, especially at the ripe old age of 77. But that’s what’s happening right now for Ramsey Clark: he’s going to be on Saddam’s defense team. Here’s Clark himself, stating why he wants … Continue reading →
Azar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran has scored a surprising amount of popular success, currently ranked around #300 at Amazon, and amassing close to 300 comments there as well. For a fairly literary and even somewhat didactic work subtitled “A … Continue reading →
I think he should have been a blogger. Oh, I don’t mean he shouldn’t have written his novels. I’m referring only to the last year or two of his life, when he became very politically active as a result of … Continue reading →
Michael Totten has drawn our attention in this post to an article by James Wolcott. Totten writes that Wolcott is beating up on liberal hawks (he singles out Roger L. Simon in particular) for making common cause with conservatives by … Continue reading →
A lot of people think George Orwell is special. I’m one of them. I first read Orwell’s books Animal Farm and 1984 when I was about twelve years old. The latter was good for many nightmares–I don’t recommend giving the … Continue reading →
I know I’ve written quite a bit about the book Radical Son, in which David Horowitz details the process by which he changed from activist leftist to neocon (see here and here for examples of my posts). But the book … Continue reading →
In the comments section of my recent post about the direction of political change, neuroconservative asked: I wonder what you (and the other neos here) think your younger self would have made of your older self? More broadly, how do … Continue reading →
In today’s NY Times (registration only, of course) there is a book review featuring a Vietnamese novelist who is new to me, Duong Thu Huong . Huong, 58, is an excellent example of a changed mind, not to mention a … Continue reading →
Christopher Hitchens made some interesting statements in this interview (via Seekerblog). Here’s Hitchens describing an experience he had while in Iraq in the aftermath of the Gulf War, at a time when he positively hated George Bush Sr.: I was … Continue reading →