Critic Cal

His poetic mastery may have finally won me round to blank verse but Milton's  notion of ' Paradise ' was lost on me considerably before that first fateful forbidden bite. Then again, perhaps that's not surprising, as he seems convinced it was designed for Man (and no, I don't mean in the 'masculine generic' sense). As were women, naturally. A utopia of male entitlement and supremacy is no very entrancing abode for a woman who believes that she was made first and foremost for relationship with God, not for servitude to her husband. I reined in my desire to throw things – a lucky escape for my Kindle – and instead settled down to providing some constructive feedback. Maybe, with a bit of help (I'm sure he'd definitely thank me for it, *ahem*), he could salvage some of that lovely poetry after all... Researching the above I stumbled on an illustrative, wryly amusing example of why Milton's poetic take on God's paradisal gender norms s...

The big TV channels have been tweaking the format in relay for some years; finally, after numerous iterations, the BBC have hit upon the ultimate reality TV contest…expertly crafted to provoke maximum despair; a sitting quarry for all that pent-up frustration (which I would doubtless be tempted to unleash all the more loudly and frequently if only I had Charlie Brooker's vitriolic eloquence). I'm talking about The Voice . That's what it's ALL about, apparently. In a remarkably groundbreaking and radical move, they've decided to make their latest search for talent about…well…talent. Blind auditions! Wow! We are in post- SuBo Britain now people -- a new era has dawned, and there's no going back. Gone are the days when we didn't realise that even people who looked slightly odd might be able to do something impressive…something powerful enough, even, to bring a conservative tear to the heavily-mascaraed eyes of female TV judges, to 'go viral' across ...