Critic Cal

Nah then, Freddy: look wh' y' gowin, deah. […] Theres menners f' yer! Te-oo banches o voylets trod into the mad. […] Ow, eez ye-ooa san, is e? Wal, fewd dan y' de-ooty bawmz a mather should, eed now bettern to spawl a pore gel's flahrzn than ran awy athaht pyin. Will ye-oo py me f'them?  (Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion , Act I, George Bernard Shaw, 1912) Forget boxsets -- after-dinner read-throughs are the height of domestic entertainment. The latest production chez Whitnall was George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion (named after the sculptor from Greek mythology whose most beautiful statue awakens to life).   In the play, a Professor of phonetics, Henry Higgins, accepts a bet to inculcate 'common', comically Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle with such refined speech and deportment that she is able to pass for a duchess in upper-class society. [1] As forewarned by his mother and his housekeeper, the success of this undertaking lands Eliza in somethi...

Been absorbing myself in the poetry and theodicy of  Job  lately (with the friendly companionship of John Goldingay's Job for Everyone  study guide). I'm struck by how much, and yet how little, human experience has changed since Job's day [1]. Inspired by chapter 28 (and, in part, Isaiah 40-45 ), as well as everybody's favourite application of blockchain technology... (N.B This is highly unlikely to be without technical error. So, if you don't know about Bitcoin or chip production, please assume I am wrong somewhere; if you do, please forgive me, and tell me where...) The Bible (particularly in Isaiah and the other books of the prophets) has a lot to say about the foolishness of trusting things which we invent or construct ourselves. Such 'idols' will not satisfy, nor rescue and protect. Wisdom as a treasure to be searched for diligently is a recurring motif, especially (unsurprisingly) in the  'wisdom' literature  books of the Old Test...