Reading for Battle

Battle Readings is a regularly updated compilation of articles, essays, and opinion pieces relevant to the themes of the Battle of Ideas.

Choose a theme from the listing on the left to narrow your search, or view all readings.

Arts & Culture

The Myth of Sisyphus

'The struggle itself...is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.'

Albert Camus, Penguin, 25 August 2005

Why classical music is out of tune with the iPod
Classical music doesn't belong to the private, mobile space of the iPod, but to the public space of churches, libraries, debating societies and concerts
Ivan Hewett, Telegraph, 3 August 2005

What good are the arts?
To judge one work of art superior to another is not elitist, it is the mark of cultural engagement
Dolan Cummings, Culture Wars, 27 June 2005

Why are pop singers so samey and sexless?
Barb Jungr, spiked, 26 June 2005

Abolish the DCMS
James Heartfield, spiked, 16 May 2005

The ethics of aesthetics
How art can be socially and politically transformative without sacrificing that which makes it art
Sarah James, Art Monthly, 30 April 2005

Music: healing the rift

The word 'music' in the early 21st century means many things. It means Mozart in the elevator, 50s pop songs on TV adverts, Finnish folk songs on Nokia 'phones. It means inflammatory Serbian nationalist song, ancient Coptic Church chant, Berlin electronica, Wynton Marsalis.

Ivan Hewett, Continuum, 17 March 2005

What has happened to art criticism?
The critic is becoming a dandified copywriter, producing 'beautiful writing about beautiful objects and their beautiful makers’.
JJ Charlesworth, spiked, 1 February 2005

Putting the photos in perspective
Susan Sontag’s 28-year-old book On Photography gives a better take on the Iraq torture snaps than most of today’s commentaries.
Josie Appleton, Putting the photos in perspective, 20 January 2005

Interview: Jasper Gerard meets Susan Fletcher
A cry of “how sickening” must be going up in garrets. Infuriatingly for the old buffer huffers, it makes it difficult to harrumph about the good-for-nothing ladette culture in which young women are only good for snorting lines, not writing them.
Jasper Gerrard, The Sunday Times, 9 January 2005


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