Category Archives: Culture

Zola’s ‘La Curée’ and the corruption of desire.

Posted on April 2, 2021 by Eddie Playfair

Rougon-Macquart #2 Emile Zola’s ‘La Curée’ (1872), translated as ‘The Kill’, is an extraordinary novel of unbridled appetites, material and sexual, and of the moral decay and rottenness of unfettered capitalism. It shares a setting and many common themes with … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Fiction, Reviews | Tagged Brian Nelson, capitalism, corruption, desire, Emile Zola, Karl Marx, La Curée, modernity, Paris, Rougon-Macquart, speculation, The Kill | 2 Comments

Seven ways to avoid a Frankenstein education.

Posted on February 27, 2021 by Eddie Playfair

Seven ways to avoid a Frankenstein education – Philippe Meirieu. The French educationalist, Philippe Meirieu, in his 1996 book ‘Frankenstein Pedagogue’ reviews popular accounts of attempts to fashion a person to a maker’s design. Such fictional person-making often proves futile … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Education, Philosophy, Teaching and learning | Tagged autonomy, co-construction, co-production, Donna Haraway, Frankenstein, Frankenstein Pedagogue, Gert Biesta, learning, Mary Shelley, Philippe Meirieu, poiesis, praxis, sympoiesis, teaching | 2 Comments

‘Listen to this’.

Posted on February 13, 2021 by Eddie Playfair

There’s something to be said for being told to ‘listen to this’, ‘look at this’ or ‘read this’. An important aspect of any educational programme is presenting learners with something new or re-presenting something familiar in a new context. And … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, music | Tagged 'Listen to this', Alex Ross, classical music, Clemency Burton-Hill, culture, music, music education, Year of wonder | Leave a comment

‘The Ministry of the Future’ by Kim Stanley Robinson

Posted on December 20, 2020 by Eddie Playfair

Fiction can change the world and the didactic approach or the ‘novel of ideas’ can be compatible with good storytelling. Like any work of art, a work of fiction can change us as individuals and, through us, help to make … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Fiction, Politics, Reviews | Tagged Archaeologies of the Future, climate change, climate emergency, COP26, Fredric Jameson, Kim Stanley Robinson, The Ministry for the Future, Thinking Global, utopianism | 2 Comments

Tsitsi Dangarembga’s ‘Nervous Conditions’.

Posted on May 3, 2020 by Eddie Playfair

The personal is political, and this wonderful book is both entirely personal and deeply political. Nervous Conditions (1988) is the story of Tambudzai, a young woman growing up in rural Zimbabwe (then known as Rhodesia) in the late 1960’s, told … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Fiction, Reviews | Tagged Africa, colonialism, Equality, inequality, liberation, Nervous Conditions, Race equality, racism, sexism, subjugation, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Zimbabwe | Leave a comment

In praise of lightness – Calvino’s Leggerezza.

Posted on March 29, 2020 by Eddie Playfair

The Italian writer, Italo Calvino, was invited to give the Charles Eliot Norton lectures at Harvard University in 1985 but died before he was able to deliver them. Luckily, we have the text of 5 of these 6 planned lectures … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Philosophy, Reviews | Tagged emergence, Italo Calvino, Leggerezza, Lezioni Amerciane, Lightness, Six memos for the next millennium, Thinking Global, weight | Leave a comment

The mighty pencil

Posted on November 2, 2019 by Eddie Playfair

The mighty pencil It’s just a pencil Making a mark in a specific place On a specific piece of paper On a specific day. It only takes a second or two, No time at all. Such a simple thing. But … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Poetry, Politics | Tagged Democracy, elections, Poetry, politics, voting | Leave a comment

‘Unsheltered’ by Barbara Kingsolver

Posted on August 11, 2019 by Eddie Playfair

Barbara Kingsolver’s novels are always fascinating and rewarding and her latest, Unsheltered (2019) is no exception. We follow two stories over a hundred years apart and set in the same location; Vineland, New Jersey, a town originally established as a … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Fiction, Reviews | Tagged Barbara Kingsolver, Charles Darwin, evolution, Mary Treat, natural selection, Unsheltered | Leave a comment

‘The Overstory’ by Richard Powers.

Posted on March 10, 2019 by Eddie Playfair

Richard Powers is an extraordinary writer. If you’ve not yet discovered his novels, I strongly recommend them. He tackles big ideas which concern all of us while at the same time telling compelling stories about complex and conflicted characters who … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Fiction, Reviews, Science | Tagged global citizenship, interdependence, old growth forest, Patricia Westerford, Planet Earth, Richard Powers, Sustainability, The Overstory, Thinking Global, trees | Leave a comment

Familiale (Jacques Prévert)

Posted on March 10, 2019 by Eddie Playfair

The mother is knitting The son is fighting She thinks it quite natural the mother And the father what is he doing the father? He’s doing business His wife is knitting His son is fighting He’s doing business He thinks … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Poetry | Tagged Anti-war, Jacques Prévert, Poetry, translation | 1 Comment

My islands – by Line Mariani Playfair

Posted on March 11, 2018 by Eddie Playfair

I have always had a strong affinity for atlases and islands. Whether a single volcanic rock or one likely to fragment or disappear underwater, each one seems to be calling me, speaking to my imagination. I was fascinated by Thor … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Guest blogs, History | Tagged Corsica, Dorothy Carrington, Line Mariani Playfair | 1 Comment

‘What if?’ – dystopias in fiction.

Posted on December 3, 2017 by Eddie Playfair

Fictional dystopias use the power of ‘what if?’ to change something or extrapolate particular social or technological trends and imagine the impact on people’s lives. The best ones are also good stories, well told, about people; their hopes, fears, feelings … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Fiction, Learning resources, Reviews, Students | Tagged Ahmed Khaled Towfik, Divergent, dystopia, dystopian fiction, Nnedi Okorafor, Octavia E Butler, reading, The Parable of the Sower, utopia, Veronica Roth, Who Fears Death | 1 Comment

The last Corsican.

Posted on July 18, 2017 by Eddie Playfair

“I’ve decided to keep this diary because I’m going to die in the next few days…I am condemned because, having refused to be evacuated with the others, I will be annihilated by the incendiary bombs which are systematically ravaging the … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Fiction | Tagged Corse Noire, Corsica, Jacques Mondoloni, Le Dernier Corse, The Last Corsican | 1 Comment

Matisse in Corsica.

Posted on July 16, 2017 by Eddie Playfair

The great artist Henri Matisse (1869-1954) was inspired to use colour in radical new ways during his first visit to Corsica. After their wedding in early 1898, Matisse and his wife Amélie Parayre spent their honeymoon first in London and … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, History | Tagged Ajaccio, Amelie Parayre, Art, Corsica, culture, Fauvism, France, Henri Matisse, Hilary Spurling, painting | 1 Comment

Brecht’s radical Galileo

Posted on May 29, 2017 by Eddie Playfair

Brecht’s ‘Life of Galileo’ is a great piece of theatre with universal appeal. It’s also a particularly good one for science students because it brings the scientific method to life. Galileo’s struggle to get acceptance for the ‘Copernican’ heliocentric model … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, History, Learning resources, Science | Tagged Bertolt Brecht, Catholic church, doubt, Galileo Galilei, geocentrism, heliocentrism, Hiroshima, Joe Wright, Science, scientific method, The Life of Galileo, Young Vic theatre | Leave a comment

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