I'm not proud of this, but whenever I'm on line at my local supermarket I read the tabloids. While waiting on line Friday I picked up a copy of the Star and guess what I found underneath?

A copy of the New York Review of Books. I'm like "Whoa, my supermarket sells the NYRB, right next to the Enquirer and the Weekly World News. That makes sense, since some of the leftist academic sh*t in the NYRB is just as fake as the Weekly World News."

Anyway, it occurred to me that the NYRB was just left there as a holiday gift for someone. The register couldn't ring the newspaper up, so that confirmed by hunch. Thus, I got a $4.50 magazine for free. I read it and then gave it to my local library. To be honest, the NYRB isn't a newspaper I would read even if it were given away for free. The New York Review of Books is for academics and urban intellectuals. I'm neither, so I feel like a fake reading it. I spent more time looking at the university press book advertisements (for instance, there's a book out about how a Nazi officer helped the Lubavitcher rebbe escape the Holocaust) than I did reading any of the reviews/editorials/articles.



- posted by jsbennett70 @ 5:25 PM (0) comments

 
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is due to be released July 16th. On that day the multi-year Harry Potter saga will be one book away from conclusion.

I'm looking forward to HP&tHBP as much as anyone, but I have the feeling that the Harry Potter epic will have a flat ending. Four of the five existing books basically end by dei ex machina. Sorceror's Stone ends with Harry being saved by maternal love, the Chamber of Secrets ends with Harry being saved by Fawkes the Phoenix. The Goblet of Fire ends __________. (won't reveal spoilers for the non-cinematized films).

Only Prisoner of Azkaban, arguably, ends with Harry winning by something other than a lucky shot.

My prediction for the end of the HP series is that Harry will be saved by the magical power of "friendship." Hermione, Ron, or Harry will sacrifice himself/herself for the others. The power of the sacrifice will reflect back onto Voldemort whatever evil spell he was trying to cast.

- posted by jsbennett70 @ 2:07 PM (0) comments

 
The Barnes Foundatoin, the mythical museum of Impressionist art that nobody gets to see because the rich suburban town it's in won't let people visit, is moving to Philly.

This is loss for elitists, but it's a gain for people who can't make museum reservations six weeks in advance. The presence of another first class museum can only be a boost for downtown Philly too.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/arts/AP-Barnes-Foundation.html?pagewanted=print&position=

- posted by jsbennett70 @ 8:52 PM (0) comments

 
Sorry I haven't made any posts in two weeks, but I've been working on a novel. My book is about Gilded Age New York and the assassination of James Garfield. . . .

Anyway, one interest of mine in political science is parliamentarism versus presidentialism. One theory I have about presidentialism is that since a president is an elected king, his whole family, wife, children, siblings, become important in a way that princes and queen consorts are in monarchies. This tendency to make a big deal about a president's relatives is one symptom of presidential democracies being less issues-oriented than parliamentary ones.

This story from France supports my theory about presidentialism being about symbols and ceremony. It is about on how presidential hopefuls in France are beginning to use their families as political props, as American presidential hopefuls do.

http://www.economist.com/World/europe/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3485211

Another problem with presidentialism is its well-documented tendency to slip into authoritarianism. I am happy to hear that Ukraine's parliament has recently changed its constitution to make the president weaker.

- posted by jsbennett70 @ 4:03 PM (0) comments