Tag Archives: capitalism

Gentlemanly pursuits and David Graeber’s ‘Bullshit Jobs’

Posted on 11/08/2024 by alasdairflett

Woodside Library has a “take a book, recommend a book shelf”. I’ve borrowed from it multiple times. The last time I did so, I picked up David Graeber’s Bullshit Jobs and recommended North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell. I had … Continue reading →

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North and South: 19th-century doorstopper still bears the heft it once did

Posted on 03/02/2024 by alasdairflett

As far as Victorian novels go, I think North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell retains a degree of accessibility that many have shed in the intervening 150 years or so. The North/South divide lives on in the popular consciousness where … Continue reading →

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Grey Granite: Grassic Gibbon revisited

Posted on 29/04/2023 by alasdairflett

I wrote this piece in early 2020 pre-lockdown and never published it at the time. Please enjoy this B-side from the Flett-cetera discography. Lewis Grassic Gibbon was the short-lived novelist most famous for his Scots Quair trilogy. Sunset Song, the … Continue reading →

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Mindforming Misattributions

Posted on 18/11/2019 by alasdairflett

I realise there’s no shame in being poor…but it’s no great honour either. The above quotation is from the musical Fiddler on the Roof and is spoken by the bumbling patriarch, Tevye before he launches into his song ‘If I … Continue reading →

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