Several years ago, I picked up In Praise of Shadows, an essay by Japanese author Jun’ichirō Tanizaki. At the time, I couldn’t grasp its significance, but the opening passages lingered with me. The essay begins with Tanizaki’s musings on the…
The UK’s new Labour government has pledged to build 1.5 million homes during its first term in office. To achieve this, it promises planning reform and the reintroduction of local housing targets. Yet little attention has been given to the…
We are entering an era of upheaval that some are calling the fourth industrial revolution.[1] The rise of artificial intelligence, and in particular generative art, threatens to upend our social and cultural landscape, leading to a renewed conflict between mechanical…
It was lush inside, but simultaneously a mess, with papers lying everywhere, and old magazines, and posters on the wall of Elvis and Humphrey Bogart. The poet, by contrast, was pristine. Her hair was white-grey and cut short on her…
He doesn’t like Ben Lerner. He doesn’t like most successful writers. He sits in his bathtub reading Ben Lerner’s Hatred of Poetry, because he hates Ben Lerner, and he hates poetry. He doesn’t just sit in his bathtub. He lies.…
(Below is a pre-print shared for educational purposes. The full article is available here, with credit to my co-author Jan Blockx: ) My latest academic work looks at recommender systems, the recommendations that shape our digital lives on YouTube, Amazon,…
*This article was originally released in the Law Society Journal (2022).* A High Court case has empowered the government to make statutes that silence individuals and groups, leading to a range of proposed laws that pose an existential threat to…
There’s an interesting flaw at the heart of Olivia Wilde’s new movie, Don’t Worry, Darling, which reveals everything wrong with the ongoing culture wars. The premise of the film is simple. A 1950s housewife is living with her husband in…
My new dystopian novel Black Friday 2050, is now out! In 2050, pleasure is the drug of choice. When an accident renders Jack Preston severely dopamine deficient, he becomes immune to his sensory overload addiction. Immune to the organisations who…
Tomorrow is the release date of my novel, Black Friday 2050! Find it on pre-sale here. Check out chapter 1 below! Chapter 1 It was an afternoon like any other, and my notifications totaled two million. Hurrying inside the two…