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
Angels: a very short introduction
What are angels? Where were they first encountered? Can we distinguish angels from gods, fairies, ghosts, and aliens? And why do they remain so popular? And what about demons?
David Albert Jones, Oxford University Press, 27 October 2011
The Art Market Shouldn't be the Judge of Good Art
Art is a lifelong learning curve and the market is no substitute for putting eyeballs directly on it—smelling it, tasting it and touching it. You need to lift it, hang it, insure it, frame it, pack it, ship it, live with it, damage it, hate it and idolize it.
Kenny Schachter, Rise Art, 24 October 2011
Art is a lifelong learning curve and the market is no substitute for putting eyeballs directly on it—smelling it, tasting it and touching it. You need to lift it, hang it, insure it, frame it, pack it, ship it, live with it, damage it, hate it and idolize it.
Kenny Schachter, Rise Art, 24 October 2011
The Simpsons versus Shakespeare
Children don’t need to go to school in order to enjoy cartoons, but that it takes years of study to understand great literature and become an educated person.
Michele Ledda, Independent, 23 October 2011
Children don’t need to go to school in order to enjoy cartoons, but that it takes years of study to understand great literature and become an educated person.
Michele Ledda, Independent, 23 October 2011
What’s wrong with a readable book?
Good writers write good books; excellent writers write good books people buy, read and enjoy in great and lasting numbers. Prizes that call people’s attention to books like that are good; those that actively discourage them are just ridiculous.
Bert Archer , Star, 22 October 2011
Good writers write good books; excellent writers write good books people buy, read and enjoy in great and lasting numbers. Prizes that call people’s attention to books like that are good; those that actively discourage them are just ridiculous.
Bert Archer , Star, 22 October 2011
Hard as nails: Literature and translation today
Against all odds, people with different languages and cultures manage to understand one another. Not only in writing, but in speaking as well.
Miguel Ceia, Independent, 19 October 2011
Against all odds, people with different languages and cultures manage to understand one another. Not only in writing, but in speaking as well.
Miguel Ceia, Independent, 19 October 2011
Giving the people’s Bible back to the people
The King James Bible (KJB) contains 66 books; now 66 writers have been commissioned to compose plays and other performances “in response” to each of those books.
Charles Moore, Daily Telegraph, 17 October 2011
The King James Bible (KJB) contains 66 books; now 66 writers have been commissioned to compose plays and other performances “in response” to each of those books.
Charles Moore, Daily Telegraph, 17 October 2011
How the National Book Awards made themselves irrelevant
The NBA has come to indicate a book that somebody else thinks you ought to read, whether you like it or not.
Laura Miller, Salon, 12 October 2011
The NBA has come to indicate a book that somebody else thinks you ought to read, whether you like it or not.
Laura Miller, Salon, 12 October 2011
Young people's fiction: Feisty girls, feckless boys
In young people’s fiction, why are girls so self-righteous and boys so oafish, asks author and Costa judge Eleanor Updale
Eleanor Updale, Daily Telegraph, 6 October 2011
In young people’s fiction, why are girls so self-righteous and boys so oafish, asks author and Costa judge Eleanor Updale
Eleanor Updale, Daily Telegraph, 6 October 2011
Dutch Novelists Beyond Postmodern Relativism
Now that we have reached the point at which postmodernism, rightly or wrongly, has been declared moribund, it is time to assess its literary legacy critically. What has been the effect of postmodernism? Have we gone beyond it in literature? And why this desire to go beyond?
Thomas Vaessens, Journal of Dutch Literature, October 2011
Now that we have reached the point at which postmodernism, rightly or wrongly, has been declared moribund, it is time to assess its literary legacy critically. What has been the effect of postmodernism? Have we gone beyond it in literature? And why this desire to go beyond?
Thomas Vaessens, Journal of Dutch Literature, October 2011
The Purpose of Science Fiction
How it teaches governments—and citizens—how to understand the future of technology.
Robert Sawyer, Slate, 27 September 2011
How it teaches governments—and citizens—how to understand the future of technology.
Robert Sawyer, Slate, 27 September 2011
From banning burqas to B&B bigots: can Europe tolerate religious tolerance?
"If you'd rather not have your prejudices challenged, stay away from the Battle of Ideas."
Nigel Warburton, senior lecturer, philosophy, Open University; author, Free Speech: A Very Short Introduction
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