Books

By any idealistic measure, childhood is supposed to be an untouched idyll, a place of innocence and untrammelled happiness where the sun shines, the birds sing and anything wonderful is possible. 11-year-old Tippy Chan, however, inhabits a wholly different world in The Nancys, one where the bounteous escapism of youth Continue Reading

We are an idealistic species. It may not look that way at times, most times if we’re honest with ourselves, with war, poverty, disease, brutality and avaricious criminality the seemingly obvious defining marks of what it means to be human; dig down a little further, however, and it becomes clear Continue Reading

Is humanity its own worst enemy? History is littered with example after bloody example that would suggest we are, and then some, the holders of daggers to our throats that are briefly raised only to be plunged in again and again, as we cut off our existential nose to spite Continue Reading

In his 1953 novel The Go-Between, L. P. Hartley rather sagely observes, and no doubt from a position of much lived, wisdom-gathering experience, that “The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.” As opening lines go they don’t get much better, not simply because of the poetic Continue Reading

If you’re convinced that Terminator‘s Skynet and the dire warnings of Elon Musk are all there is to be the coming AI revolution, then reading M. G. Wheaton’s Emily Eternal may play a pivotal role in changing your mind. Or, at least, easing your fears a little (after stoking them Continue Reading

One of the most arresting scenes in the 1939 classic film The Wizard of Oz, based on the magically-imaginative books of prolific author L. Frank Baum, is when Toto, Dorothy’s plucky terrier, pulls back the curtain shielding the titular wizard from view and exposing his intimidating spectacle as nothing more Continue Reading

The interior is a place that most of us know only too well. Whether it’s mental health issues, loss and grief, regrets, hope and dreams, or simply dismay at the way a colleague or family member has treated us, our natural inclination seems to be to tuck them far away Continue Reading

It’s tempting to think of the apocalypse, any apocalypse, as the end of all things. In many ways it is, of course, with all the things that define us as a people rendered obsolete, thrust into oblivion so completely that retrieving them, even if we wanted to, is well nigh Continue Reading

Idealism is a powerful thing. Though grim, inevitable reality might suggest that ideals will often die a quick and fiery death of the funeral pyre of exigency or the pragmatic demands of realpolitik, we cling to them anyway, convinced that this time, this time, things will be different. This is Continue Reading