If it weren’t such a glorious summer day here on the mountain, I’d be reading and writing about a variety of things, such as. . .
The success of “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” in ConDem England.
The Hegelian fundamentalism of Slavoj Žižek.
How “states built on exploitation inevitably fail”—including the kinds of exploitation Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson don’t want to talk about.
How the Wall Street mafia holds America hostage.
How difficult it is to dramatize the Second Great Depression in novels.*
But it’s summertime and, at least for today, the livin’ is easy. . .
*Although I’ve decided to teach Don DeLillo’s Cosmopolis next spring.
