el-ahrairah
forward communism, forward gerbils!
it will come and go. sometimes my head will be fashionable, sometimes it won't.
Alex Callinicos/SWP vs Laurie Penny/New Statesman Facebook handbags
- Thread starter Prince Rhyus
- Start date
- Status
it will come and go. sometimes my head will be fashionable, sometimes it won't.
el-ahrairah
forward communism, forward gerbils!
did you have massively baggy trousers?
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
But that's just it: Galway is the same as every other small Irish town, but with added hippies and Celto-poetry. The unique things about Galway don't replace the usual shit, they add a particular piquancy to it.
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
sihhi
Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered
No this guy has
The shock of red hair, the unabashedly strident feminism, the radical politics, the sheer bloody-minded refusal to act and talk like middle class white women are supposed to. She’s an anomaly in modern British political commentary – a radical strident feminist whose sheer bloody-minded refusal to behave like a nice middle-class girl raises the hackles of her fellow writers. Their sneers clash incongruously with her editing of The New Review, The New Statesman and regular contributions to the Independent (amongst others)
To be blunt she was a shock to the system. I didn’t know writers could do this. I didn’t know then, that this was what journalism could become; I didn’t know that journalism and activism weren’t mutually exclusive and that to report and change the world around you all you needed was the desire to say something and the courage to do something.
There she filed her copy from the frontline of what people believed could be this generation’s revolution. New York must have been a surreal place to be that summer, full of writers and activists, rebels and dreamers and artists. It was there that Laurie Penny met Molly Crabapple, (yes, really) and once the summer of idealism faded the two of them jumped on a plane and came to Greece. The two of them are a radical odd couple
Penny is the wordsmith and Crabapple the illustrator. Both unashamedly radical in their own ways, talented and deeply political; charmingly the two have a deep affection for one another that at times border on the fangirlish (Laurie at one point sweetly claiming she wanted to follow her friend and make her coffee).
It’s here that this book? Essay? Memoir? kicks off, as these two unlikely friends pitch up in Athens to find out what makes the dogs of Athens howl in the night – as it is slightly pretentiously phrased. What follows is a beguiling cast of ordinary people doing quite extraordinary things in a nation that seems to have forgotten what normal really is.
these people are shown drunk, and angry, talking about their lives and dancing to blow off some steam. Rather than follow the rote of how these things should go, the people met seem human and more real than any ‘normal’ journalistic interview. This is life.
The young, the angry and the desperate of Greece deserved a chance to have someone listen to their struggle, and Discordia documents it in all of its imperfection and anger. It’s strange to think that we were in the same country at roughly the same time and I’m just glad to get to join in with what they saw. Great stuff.
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
Don't ruin my weekend drink sihhi 
weepiper
I fix the machines that fight climate change
No this guy has
The shock of red hair, the unabashedly strident feminism, the radical politics, the sheer bloody-minded refusal to act and talk like middle class white women are supposed to. She’s an anomaly in modern British political commentary – a radical strident feminist whose sheer bloody-minded refusal to behave like a nice middle-class girl raises the hackles of her fellow writers. Their sneers clash incongruously with her editing of The New Review, The New Statesman and regular contributions to the Independent (amongst others)
To be blunt she was a shock to the system. I didn’t know writers could do this. I didn’t know then, that this was what journalism could become; I didn’t know that journalism and activism weren’t mutually exclusive and that to report and change the world around you all you needed was the desire to say something and the courage to do something.
There she filed her copy from the frontline of what people believed could be this generation’s revolution. New York must have been a surreal place to be that summer, full of writers and activists, rebels and dreamers and artists. It was there that Laurie Penny met Molly Crabapple, (yes, really) and once the summer of idealism faded the two of them jumped on a plane and came to Greece. The two of them are a radical odd couple
Penny is the wordsmith and Crabapple the illustrator. Both unashamedly radical in their own ways, talented and deeply political; charmingly the two have a deep affection for one another that at times border on the fangirlish (Laurie at one point sweetly claiming she wanted to follow her friend and make her coffee).
It’s here that this book? Essay? Memoir? kicks off, as these two unlikely friends pitch up in Athens to find out what makes the dogs of Athens howl in the night – as it is slightly pretentiously phrased. What follows is a beguiling cast of ordinary people doing quite extraordinary things in a nation that seems to have forgotten what normal really is.
these people are shown drunk, and angry, talking about their lives and dancing to blow off some steam. Rather than follow the rote of how these things should go, the people met seem human and more real than any ‘normal’ journalistic interview. This is life.
The young, the angry and the desperate of Greece deserved a chance to have someone listen to their struggle, and Discordia documents it in all of its imperfection and anger. It’s strange to think that we were in the same country at roughly the same time and I’m just glad to get to join in with what they saw. Great stuff.
That is appallingly badly written. He needs a good editor.
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
did he really just use the phrase sheer bloody mindedness in the same fucking paragraph
sihhi
Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered
Typical fashion privilege - pretending to have just worn the first thing that came to hand and not being interested in all that.
Oppressing those of us with zero style sense.
el-ahrairah
forward communism, forward gerbils!
acceptable. i was never any good at trousers. combats were fairly standard but i did have a worrying period in the early 00s where the effect of the drugs manifested itself in my trousers, which went very stupid indeed.
el-ahrairah
forward communism, forward gerbils!
you mean you shat yourself on a trip?
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
this is the same period where she wouldn't go to occupy for fear of a nicking right?
Dillinger4
Es gibt Zeit
vomit
weepiper
I fix the machines that fight climate change
he needs a kicking from an angry mob.
crypo-liberals
Well yeah for preference, obviously
el-ahrairah
forward communism, forward gerbils!
no, but if i had it could have exited out my trouser leg without touching leg or cloth!
Idris2002
canadian girlfriend
Piquant shit is the best kind, IMV.
SpineyNorman
Inappropriate content removed
And some new specs - those ones appear to be held together with sellotape a la Jack Duckworth.
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
I'm not sure that this is an appropriate thread for your weird fetishes, Idris.
Idris2002
canadian girlfriend
Mark O'Ten?
sihhi
Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered
he needs a kicking from an angry mob.
crypo-liberals
He's not a liberal, but a leftist, the description is leftie:
"Civilised leftie who winkles out the politics of social issues and pop culture"
Idris2002
canadian girlfriend
sihhi
Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered
The repeated phrase is 'sheer bloody-minded refusal' - an interesting point suggesting
LP is successful simply by refusing to present herself how 99% of Brighton College types also present themselves.
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
its easy to be a rebel when the fallout is a set of newspaper gigs and a reputation as a radical.
sihhi
Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered
This is Scottish leftie Jon's own effort:
Greece is angry, young and unemployed 21 Sep, 2012
Recently I was lucky enough to spend a couple of weeks in Greece soaking up a little sun before returning to what will, no doubt, be another dreich Scottish autumn. Having never been to this part of Europe I was keen to try and tan, see some of the sights and soak up the culture. That in addition to the great food and the boundless hospitality and friendliness of the people make it one of the best holidays I’ve been lucky enough to go on – but looking back, something strikes me as odd.
Wherever we travelled across the country one thing stuck out, graffiti adorning walls, roadways and buildings. Not graffiti in the normal course of any city – these words looked angry. Side by side with the usual swirls of artists tags and the inevitable swearing were other signs and symbols. Communist hammer and sickle, anarchist symbols and slogans almost everywhere you looked
...
The same technocrats who predicted that Britain’s economy would pick up thanks to austerity measures and the promise of market confidence, when Britain slipped into a double dip recession. The same technocrats who warned of disaster for Iceland and Argentina before that? Who watched as both these countries defaulted on unpayable debts and rebuilt their economies. The same people who claimed austerity would bring back stability in Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy? I could go on, but with the lessons of the past, when these technocrats have been proven to be so wrong, so many times I hope some cynicism of them and their economics is the reaction of more than just me.
Greece is angry, young and unemployed 21 Sep, 2012
Recently I was lucky enough to spend a couple of weeks in Greece soaking up a little sun before returning to what will, no doubt, be another dreich Scottish autumn. Having never been to this part of Europe I was keen to try and tan, see some of the sights and soak up the culture. That in addition to the great food and the boundless hospitality and friendliness of the people make it one of the best holidays I’ve been lucky enough to go on – but looking back, something strikes me as odd.
Wherever we travelled across the country one thing stuck out, graffiti adorning walls, roadways and buildings. Not graffiti in the normal course of any city – these words looked angry. Side by side with the usual swirls of artists tags and the inevitable swearing were other signs and symbols. Communist hammer and sickle, anarchist symbols and slogans almost everywhere you looked
...
The same technocrats who predicted that Britain’s economy would pick up thanks to austerity measures and the promise of market confidence, when Britain slipped into a double dip recession. The same technocrats who warned of disaster for Iceland and Argentina before that? Who watched as both these countries defaulted on unpayable debts and rebuilt their economies. The same people who claimed austerity would bring back stability in Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy? I could go on, but with the lessons of the past, when these technocrats have been proven to be so wrong, so many times I hope some cynicism of them and their economics is the reaction of more than just me.
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
Aren't "middle class white women are supposed to" hold the views of laurie? Generally nice and not nasty, non threatening, incoherent...
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
God knows what views he think w/c women must have.
- Status
Similar threads
