Kester Brewin

A rare interview in today’s Guardian with the author of Gilead, Housekeeping and now Home, includes this lovely quote regarding Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens:

“[Dawkins] acts as if the physical world that is manifest to us describes reality exhaustively. I’m not impressed with the quality of [his] writing, or of Christopher Hitchens’ writing. If you [...]

Interesting piece on the Black Eyed Peas, who are releasing their forthcoming album with a deliberate view to listeners mashing it up, uploading the results – which could then be released as an ‘upgrade’ in the future.
Another example of how piracy has actually energised bands and the music industry to innovate.

“We turn from the light to see.”

Don Paterson, The Book of Shadows.

I’ve been reading some Yeats recently. In his short play, Calvary, Jesus is confronted by Judas as he walks with his cross:

Judas: I betrayed you because you seemed all powerful.

Jesus: My Father,
Even if now I were to whisper it,
Would break the world in his miraculous fury
To set me free.

Judas: And there is not one man [...]

Beautiful piece flagged here. The lines of a poem appear and disappear on the floor of a pavillion as the sun moves, shining through precisely arranged perforations. The artist, Jiyeon Song, is concerned that we are rushing too quickly through our finite life, and missing so much by doing so.

Another excellent programme from BBC’s In Our Time, which this week looks at Soren Kierkegaard. It’s a really good introduction to his thinking, and has some wonderful sections around the idea of subverting those who consider themselves to ‘be’ Christians, and how Kierkegaard considered this to be impossible…
There’s also an honest confession from a secular [...]