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Blog Update

Dear Reader,

You might have noticed I haven't posted much this year, while my Twitter account, RobbieJones1987 (I think?) is a boring blurb-book I choose, and would advise, not to indulge in. Dividing my time between academic and paid work has left no spare moment. Unfortunately, inevitably, the result is that my viewing count has fallen as sharply as if I'd begun to condone horrible acts of torture on here. (Although perhaps that would have had the opposite effect?) As the MA trudges to a conclusion, I will not be blogging regularly again until September, though no doubt I'll post a sample of frank, Mr-Shankly-terrible verse, or of transfer-window horseshit inspired by Tony Gale.

In the meantime, here is what I can remember from the Spring (encompassing Phil Collins and Whitney Houston, Catalan-passmaster history, psychobabble and Hitchslapping), some of which has informed my essay and dissertation writing, and plenty of which I would recommend:


Recently Read

Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward **
Roberto Bolano, 2666 *****
Jimmy Burns, Barca: A People's Passion ***
Don DeLillo, The Body Artist ****
..., Falling Man *****
Michael Foucault, What is an Author? ****
Christopher Hitchens, Why Orwell Matters ****
Krishan Kumar, Utopianism ***
Jacques Lacan, Ecrits ****
Vicky Lebeau, Psychoanalysis and Cinema: The Play of Shadows ***
Naomi Mandell (ed.), Bret Easton Ellis: Essays on American Psycho, Glamorama, Lunar Park ****
Ian McEwan, Solar ***
William Morris, News From Nowhere **
George Orwell, Essays *****
..., Homage to Catalonia ****
HG Wells, The Time Machine ***
Yevgeny Zamyatin, We *****
Slavoj Zizek, The Art of the Ridiculous Sublime: On David Lynch's "Lost Highway"  ****


Recently Viewed

Michael Apted, Enigma ***
Frank Darabont, The Walking Dead (TV) ****
Michael Haneke, Funny Games (US, II) ****
..., The Piano Teacher ****
..., The Seventh Continent ****
Alfred Hitchcock, The Birds *****
..., Rear Window *****
..., Rope ***
..., Saboteur ***
..., Shadow of a Doubt ****
..., The 39 Steps ****
..., The Trouble with Harry ***
..., Vertigo *****
Armando Ianucci, The Thick of It (TV) ****
David Lynch, Blue Velvet ****
..., The Elephant Man *****
..., Lost Highway ****
... et al, Twin Peaks (TV) *****
..., Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me ****

D. B. Weiss et al, Game of Thrones (TV) ****

Recent Blogs

Michael Cox et al, Zonal Marking

Laura Gadsden, Gin in Literary Tea Cups

Daily Hitchens

Dear Mr Levy

Rachel Silverlight, Gulls of Brighton

Jonathan Wilson, Guardian Football