A message for 2023: Stop imitating past greats, I want something new

I am getting tired. I hear the same music again and again and again. The charts are driving me crazy. Because I like this kind of music. In the shadow of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and The Fame Monster, the 2010s saw the reinvention of music through R&B (Anti) and alternative pop music (WHEN … Continue reading A message for 2023: Stop imitating past greats, I want something new →

Magical materialism: A new theory of reality

First published on 7 July 2022. I've recently been involved in two discussions that seem different but have something in common. On the one hand, I've been thinking about magic, the idea that the laws of physics can be bent to the will of social actors in response to traumatic experience. This is the philosophy … Continue reading Magical materialism: A new theory of reality →

Kanye West, Michael Jackson, and the beginnings of balance

I again turn to the two foundations of modern music: technique, and artistry. Technique is more easily recognisable, and art has a moral dimension that is more subjectively contestable. Technique bears the semblance of objectivity, and therefore is often prised above the more obscure form of art. But art is the end towards which the … Continue reading Kanye West, Michael Jackson, and the beginnings of balance →

Northrop Frye and the divine majesty of ‘The Lord of the Rings’

Twelve years after reading J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings literary trilogy of high fantasy, I find myself revisiting the elegant film trilogy which was completed before I set eyes on the books. But I also find myself taking interest in Northrop Frye’s framework for literary criticism, which distinguishes the mythic transcendence … Continue reading Northrop Frye and the divine majesty of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ →

Harry Potter and the return of the repressed

There is a moment in The Deathly Hallows, the final book and film duo of the Harry Potter series, when leading characters Harry and Hermione encounter a church. On this detail, the book and film versions differ. Author J. K. Rowling writes: “Harry, I think it's Christmas Eve!" said Hermione."Is it?"He had lost track of … Continue reading Harry Potter and the return of the repressed →