Leszek Balcerowicz, Polish economic guru, is nothing if not dependable. No matter what the question, the answer is always to liberalise, deregulate etc. etc. I was reminded of him by today’s piece in the Irish Times by Frances Ruane of the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI). The subhead says it all. No really: all. […]
Three years ago I wrote briefly about high-flying academics working in Ireland who were being given extemely generous salaries in order to prevent them from emigrating from badly depressed, going-nowhere Ireland (funny no one thought of doing that in the 80s for ordinary workers). Today those bonuses are being savagely cut back, at least in […]
A delve into the archives has turned up the following job advertisement in a US periodical from 50 years ago. It says more about “human capital” and the real reasons behind encouraging people to invest in themselves than many a learned disquisition. “How a ‘crazy rumour’ got me promoted! What I overheard one morning shook […]
publishers don’t like short stories unless they are VERY high concept, or by someone very strange, famous or Indian http://bit.ly/vMgZ2 # using poetry to sell cars – the Ford Faberge’ that never was http://bit.ly/vMgZ2 # “surely everyone (probably even Dan Brown) can agree that beyond high and low art there is also pure shit” http://bit.ly/qOOwU […]
Now that concerns Nina Persson’s A Camp project would only be a once-off novelty have been somewhat satisfied by this year’s Colonia, 2001’s self-titled debut is worth spinning again with a little more leisure. With its grim tones at hyperspeed, or droning descending bars dragging the always against the flow vocals of Persson into gloomy vignettes […]
Amazingly, Jordan and Peter Andre are still news in Britain and Ireland! The celebrity pond in Poland is pathetically small but it comes as a surprise to find the UK’s is no bigger.
Should the laws of physics apply? Oyeyemi’s White is for Witchinghttp://bit.ly/14Uaxc # Flightpaths – a networked novel http://www.flightpaths.net/ # Ruth Dudley Edwards takes Banville to task. Is he slumming it when writing as Benjamin Black? http://bit.ly/IdN2H # The Guardian ‘not the booker’ prize longlist is here – you can vote until the 23rd August http://bit.ly/7P6p0 […]
Should the laws of physics apply to a novel? There are readers who, not without reason, demand that yes, the laws of gravity, and thermodynamics must apply at all times if the work is to be taken seriously. For example, if a character is to cross a room, they should do so – with or […]
RT @tweetmeme Cal – Bernard McLaverty | Is there a book in this blog? http://bit.ly/Ky1qk # “it’s so serious, it’s so morally weighted that it could kill a novel”. Ian McEwan’s next subject: climate change http://bit.ly/9IDpv # RT @tweetmeme The Engineer of Human Souls | Is there a book in this blog? http://bit.ly/nJG1g # #bookgiveaway […]