I acquired expensive habits and affected manners. I got a third-class degree and a first-class illusion: that I was a poet. But nothing could have been less poetic than my seeing-through-all boredom with life in general and with making a living in general. I was too green to know that all cynicism masks a failureContinue reading “RKS British Literature: A Third-Class Degree and a First-Class Illusion (John Fowles)”
Tag Archives: Robert K. Stephen
RKS Canadian Film: “Armageddon Road”: About Time Las Vegas a la Sodom and Gomorrah is Visited by the Four Horsemen
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are described in the Book of Revelation in the New Testament. Different cultures in different points of time have given varying interpretations of their meaning. The commonality is that their appearance is bad news for the world signalling its ensuing destruction. The White Horse symbolizes conquest. Some believe itContinue reading “RKS Canadian Film: “Armageddon Road”: About Time Las Vegas a la Sodom and Gomorrah is Visited by the Four Horsemen”
RKS British Literature: Men Who Are Not Quite Up to Their Job (John Fowles)
Like all men not really up to their job, he was a stickler for externals and petty quotidian things; and in lieu of an intellect he had accumulated an armoury of capitalized key-words like Discipline and Tradition and Responsibility. If I ever dared – I seldom did – to argue with him he would produceContinue reading “RKS British Literature: Men Who Are Not Quite Up to Their Job (John Fowles)”
RKS British Literature: The Brigadier and His Dutiful Wife (John Fowles)
I had long before made the discovery that I lacked the parents and ancestors I needed. My father was, through being the right age at the right time rather than through any great professional talent, a brigadier; and my mother was the very model of a would-be major-general’s wife. That is, she never argued withContinue reading “RKS British Literature: The Brigadier and His Dutiful Wife (John Fowles)”
RKS CHINESE FILM: “Dear You”: Many Stories Behind the Story
“Dear You” is an epic familial tale focusing on love, friendship, compassion and loss but there are many stories hovering around the apparent simplistic plot. And the film is a solid hit in China being the second highest grossing film there in 2026 and attracting audiences throughout Southeast Asia. It also has sparked controversy inContinue reading “RKS CHINESE FILM: “Dear You”: Many Stories Behind the Story”
RKS TURKISH LITERATURE: Insult Islam: You Die (Orhan Pamuk)
There was, for example, the poet Nurettin, who admired all things European but took little interest in politics until the day a radical Islamist news paper unearthed something he’d written years earlier-an essay on art and religion-and distorted it to charge that he’d insulted our faith”; afraid of looking frightened, Nurettin dusted off his oldContinue reading “RKS TURKISH LITERATURE: Insult Islam: You Die (Orhan Pamuk)”
RKS American Literature: Wait for the End of Segregation? (Martin Luther King Jr.)
We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jet-like speed toward gaining political independence, but we still creep at horse and buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. Perhaps it is easy for those whoContinue reading “RKS American Literature: Wait for the End of Segregation? (Martin Luther King Jr.)”
BEYOND PUPPYDOM: INCIDENTS, ACCIDENTS, EXPLORATIONS AND MAYHEM: RORY DYLAN STEPHEN TELLS IT LIKE IT IS: ONCE STUNG ALWAYS SHY
I can scarcely believe I am in Switzerland undergoing “medical treatment” but then again after my Southeast Asian abduction adventures my life seems destined to be one of a rapid maturity. My philosophy is roll with the punches. Playing along with my abductors in New Jersey, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia and Malaysia saw me through safelyContinue reading “BEYOND PUPPYDOM: INCIDENTS, ACCIDENTS, EXPLORATIONS AND MAYHEM: RORY DYLAN STEPHEN TELLS IT LIKE IT IS: ONCE STUNG ALWAYS SHY”
RKS TURKISH LITERATURE: Turkish “Religious School” Students Wouldn’t Hesitate to Chop You to Pieces for “Offending” Islam (Orhan Pamuk)
“Those religious high school boys you saw in the cells today have your face permanently etched in their memories. They’ll throw bombs at anyone and anything; they don’t care as long as they are heard. No one who’s even slightly westernized can breathe free in this country unless they have a secular army protecting them,Continue reading “RKS TURKISH LITERATURE: Turkish “Religious School” Students Wouldn’t Hesitate to Chop You to Pieces for “Offending” Islam (Orhan Pamuk)”
RKS TURKISH LITERATURE: Turkish “Religious School” Students Berate Europe (Orhan Pamuk)
But now, no one could hear anything above the booing and catcalls and angry whistles from the religious school boys. Despite the guilty, fearful silence at the front of the auditorium, few could hear what Funda Eser was saying that when the angry girl tore the scarf off her head, she was not just makingContinue reading “RKS TURKISH LITERATURE: Turkish “Religious School” Students Berate Europe (Orhan Pamuk)”
