Category archives: wordsperminute
Words per Minute #20: Benjamin on Losing the Way
Not to find one’s way around a city does not mean much. But to lose one’s way in a city, as one loses one’s way in a forest, requires some schooling. Street names must speak to the urban wanderer like… continue reading »
Words per Minute #19: Eno on Vinyl
I think records were just a little bubble through time and those who made a living from them for a while were lucky. There is no reason why anyone should have made so much money from selling records except that… continue reading »
Words per Minute #18: Auden on Necessity
All I have is a voice To undo the folded lie, The romantic lie in the brain Of the sensual man-in-the-street And the lie of Authority Whose buildings grope the sky: There is no such thing as the State And… continue reading »
Words per minute #17: Rushdie on Exile
It may be that writers in my position, exiles or emigrants or expatriates, are haunted by some sense of loss, some urge to reclaim, to look back, even at the risk of being mutated into pillars of salt. But if… continue reading »
Words per minute #16: Harrison on Grief
Though my mother was already two years dead Dad kept her slippers warming by the gas, put hot water bottles her side of the bed and still went to renew her transport pass. You couldn’t just drop in. You had… continue reading »
Words per minute #14: Richardson on Rigour
Mathematical expressions have, however, their special tendencies to pervert thought: the definiteness maybe spurious, existing in the equations but not in the phenomena to be described; and the brevity maybe due to the omission of the more important things, simply… continue reading »
Words per minute #13: Miller on Creativity
Every day we slaughter our finest impulses. That is why we get a heart-ache when we read those lines written by the hand of a master and recognize them as our own, as the tender shoots which we stifled because… continue reading »