Having reviewed comical imaginary libraries from Swift to The Sims, Jonathan Law turns to stranger, more dreamlike worlds, for 'large are the treasures of oblivion'... So far, this has been mostly for laughs. The libraries invented by Rabelais, Donne, Joyce, and Swift were all uproarious things, even where the humour seemed to be laced with something ... Read More...
philosophy
This week, Frank gets down with the gnomes... As I wander about the world, or my small part of it, one thing I find peculiarly distressing is the number of persons of frantic mien who rush up to me and clutch at my lapels, beseeching me. “Mr Key, Mr Key!” they plead, ... Read More...
What if all that we see or seem takes place in a sea beneath a sea, beneath a sea...? Fans and devotees of Spongebob Squarepants (yes, I’m raising my hand) will recall that while the town of Bikini Bottom itself is located underwater it nevertheless borders a sort of sea-under-the-sea. At ... Read More...
Douglas Dalrymple on Before Philosophy, Black Elk and Catholicism... My paternal grandfather’s sympathies were evenly split, I think, between cowboys and Indians. When he died, my grandmother begged me to take a few items from his closet. I kept a button-up cowboy shirt with a nighttime western scene stitched on the ... Read More...
Nige reflects on the power and meaning of still life painting, in the light of a book by American poet Mark Doty... Still Life with Oysters and Lemon is the title of a painting by Jan Davidsz de Heem (above) that hangs in the Metropolitan Museum in New York - or ... Read More...
The more I read this unusual wikipedia article, the less I understand. It seems to be some sort of situationist dadaesque wheeze for frenchmen who like to think that they're a bit 'kraaaazy'... 'Pataphysics is a philosophy or media theory dedicated to studying what lies beyond the realm of metaphysics. The ... Read More...
'If he hadn't existed, a satirical novelist would surely have invented him' - Nige on the popular philosopher C.E.M Joad... As well as being a 'botanophile' (as he terms it, to distinguish himself from a proper botanist), Jocelyn Brooke was also a keen maker of fireworks, an interest he developed while ... Read More...
Spiritual enlightenment and the wisdom of the Zen masters - yours for only a penny!... Keen Dabbler readers may recall my fondness for the joke about the man who has an orange instead of a head. In fact it is not a joke at all but a profound Zen parable. And ... Read More...
The Dabbler's drinks correspondent Henry Jeffreys talks to the philosopher and columnist Roger Scruton about all matters wine-related... For many years Roger Scruton wrote a column for the New Statesman. It was ostensibly about wine but in reality it smuggled subversive views about the family, religion and hunting into a left ... Read More...
We've been marking the launch of occasional Dabbler Bryan Appleyard's new book The Brain is Wider than the Sky with a mini-Appleyardfest (read Brit's review here and an exclusive Q&A with the author here). To conclude it, here's Elberry on the human imagination... Signed copy competition winners - congratulations to Dabbler ... Read More...