The Culture Club

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  • Reality

    The next theme for Culture Club is… ‘Reality’. This was my choice, following on from our theme of ‘madness’ from last time. Here are the works we’ll be discussing: Jorge Luis Borges: Labyrinths  Vladimir Nabokov: Pale Fire Henry Green: Loving Richard Strauss: Symphonia Domestica Plus the following poems by Dylan Thomas: Ears in the turrets…

  • Catching up

    Well, due to work commitments mainly, I haven’t been able to keep up with the Culture Club blog for, what, eight months (oh dear), so it’s more than due an update. Our last assignment was on the theme of ‘madness’ and included the following works: Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes (novel) King Lear by William…

  • Analysis: Here, There and Everywhere by The Beatles

    Here, There and Everywhere is one of the best songs on The Beatles’ Revolver and its brightest affirmation. Paul McCartney is the song’s sole writer (despite the Lennon/McCartney credit), and it is suffused with his inveterate sentimentality. But it is sentimental in the best possible way, balancing finely ordered poetic thought with an intoxication that suggests the writer…

  • Analysis: Eleanor Rigby by The Beatles

    Eleanor Rigby is perhaps the Beatles’ most shocking song. Not simply because of the sound of it, which was an abrupt departure for its time, but because of its theme. It is hard to think of a more desolate statement in any work of art, let alone popular music. This song marked a sudden break…

  • Culture Club: Theme for November – December 2009

    November – December 2009 This month we don’t have a theme as such. Instead we each chose a work as a virtual ‘Christmas present’ to the rest of the group. So there’s nothing underlying the choices except that each one of us would like to share our chosen work with the others (my gift was…

  • Life Vs Death: Moral Ambiguity in John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi

    Both of John Webster’s great plays, The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi, are shrouded in ambiguity, from the motives of the characters to the morality at the heart of the plays. One of Webster’s great achievements is that this ambiguity is expressed powerfully through the poetry. This speech by the Duchess of Malfi’s…