Thursday, 20 October 2005

Hung up on Madonna

The first single from Madonna's forthcoming album—which I have written about earlier—has been released. It is entitled "Hung Up" and can be listened to here. As promised, it is a dance beat with samplings from the Swedish pop group ABBA. I felt like a true queen when I began jumping to the rhythm at my first listening.

"Every little thing that you say or do
I'm hung up
I'm hung up on you
Waiting for your call
Baby night and day
I'm fed up
I'm tired of waiting on you..."

Tuesday, 18 October 2005

Den svenska terrorvänsterns sanna ansikte

Jag såg just Korseld på SVT 24. I programmet frågades den vänsterpartistiska historikern Åsa Linderborg ut av Fredrik Malm, ordförande i Liberala ungdomsförbundet, och Eric Sundström, redaktör på socialdemokratiska partiorganet Aktuellt i Politiken. Det som diskuterades var Linderborgs försvar för terroristernas bombdåd i Irak.

Nu efteråt känner jag mig helt matt. Visserligen visste jag redan innan att Linderborgs åsikter i frågan var extrema, men att hon var så okunnig och känslokall visste jag inte. På frågor rörande terroristernas mord på barn och gamla svarade hon med att ge intervjuarna epitet som "bombhöger". Och trots att hon var den enda av de tre som inte varit i Irak, försökte hon genom ovidkommande raljerande och barnsliga miner reducera värdet i deras ögonvittnesskildringar.

I en perfekt värld skulle ingen bry sig om vad en person som Linderborg tycker. Men nu är världen inte perfekt, och många tycks bry sig om hennes åsikter. Det gör i varje fall redaktörerna på Aftonbladet, vilka flera gånger betalat henne för att skriva långa artiklar om just terrorismen i Irak.

I detta program fick vi se en utmärkt uppvisning av den nya vänsterns sanna ansikte – okunnigt, narcissistiskt, känslokallt och arrogant. Vill ni se programmet hittar ni det här.

Wednesday, 5 October 2005

Awaiting Alan Hollinghurst

It happens rarely, but occasionally I read a novel that I cannot stop think of for a long time afterwards. Sometimes it happens because of a novel's awfulness, but in most cases, it is due to the brilliancy of the plot or text quality. It is for this last reason I cannot let go of Alan Hollinghurst's The Line of Beauty even though it has been a year since I read it.

The critically acclaimed The Line of Beauty won the prestigious Man Booker Prize last year. The win came as a shock to many conservative book-readers who could not comprehend the frequent and explicit gay sex-scenes. They could not see the love story behind the physicalness—when it comes to same-sex love most heterosexuals seem unable to comprehend it—and dismissed the novel as being pornographic. What they missed was the quality of the writing. Few novelists have written a prose so exquisite. And this is what I cannot forget. The plot I can hardly recollect, but the perfectly shaped sentences I can.

After I read The Line of Beauty, which was the first of Hollinghurst's books I read, I have read an earlier novel entitled The Swimming Pool Library. It was the novelist's debut and it is obvious when compared to his award winning latest novel. Now, however, I have bought the two other novels by Hollinghurst from an on-line bookshop. They are entitled The Spell and The Folding Star. I expect them to arrive within a week or so. When I have read them, I will tell about them here. Until then, I recommend everyone hunting for a good read to give The Line of Beauty a go.

Sunday, 2 October 2005

Om kampen mot de onda nyliberalerna

Dan Josefsson, känd för sina propagandafilmer och sin breda definition av begreppet nyliberalism, har gjort det igen. Denna gång går han till strid mot djävulen i en artikel publicerad i Ordfront Magasin. Ytligt sett handlar artikeln om välfärdsstaten, men hela syftet med den är att svartmåla alla i Sverige som inte tillhör den lilla gruppen kommunister. Alla utom dessa är nämligen nyliberaler, och nyliberal är det värsta man kan vara. År man nyliberal är man egentligen inte människa alls, utan en demon helt utan förmåga att hysa känslor som kärlek. För enligt Josefsson är det så att "begrepp som moral, ideologisk övertygelse, medmänsklighet och till och med kärlek saknas i den nyliberala idévärlden".

Allt detta är naturligtvis trams. Josefsson har bara gjort ännu en Michael Moore, alltså valt ut och förvridit delar av historien så att det kan användas för att demonisera motståndarna. De som läser Ordfront är ju dessutom redan frälsta socialister och är helt okritiska till allt de läser i tidningen så länge nyckelord som "USA-imperialism", "Timbrohöger" och "nyliberalism" omnämns negativt. Det finns inget tryggare än att skriva historierevisionistiska och agitatoriska texter för en hängivet troende publik. Ordfront har gjort det förr.

Saturday, 1 October 2005

The case for Oxford Commas

A few days ago, I had a chat with an aspiring grammarian. We discussed various styles of punctuation in English, specifically the odd practice of perpetually include full stops and commas when writing quotations in American English. At one point, he said that he had noted that I always use a comma before the final "and" in listings. He was of the belief that only Americans do so. I then told him that this comma is known as the Oxford Comma, and that it has been in use since Oxford University Press began publishing in 1478. That is how this particular comma got its name.

I can understand why my friend thought as he did, because it is true that many British publishers no longer use the Oxford Comma. Some scrap it altogether, but more common is the practice the Guardian and The Economist favour in their style guides:

Guardian: "Oxford comma [is] a comma before the final 'and' in lists: straightforward ones (he ate ham, eggs and chips) do not need one, but sometimes it can help the reader (he ate cereal, kippers, bacon, eggs, toast and marmalade, and tea)."

The Economist: "Do not put a comma before and at the end of a sequence of items unless one of the items includes another and. Thus The doctor suggested an aspirin, half a grapefruit and a cup of broth. But he ordered scrambled eggs, whisky and soda, and a selection from the trolley."

But as mentioned, I always use a comma before the final "and" in listings. I think it is easier to read texts with it, and therefore I use it. This opinion is shared not only by most Americans, but also by R. W. Burchfield, the author of Fowler's Modern English Usage.

Burchfield: "The 'Oxford comma' is frequently, but in my view unwisely, omitted by many other publishers. Their preference is to omit it as a general rule (tea, scones and cake) but to insert it if there is a danger of misunderstanding (tea, bread and butter, and cake)."

I think every person who wishes to write good English should use the Oxford Comma. Simple and consistent rules are both easier to remember when writing and easier to comprehend when reading. As stated in an earlier entry, I fallow the rules set out in The Oxford Guide to Style. I make only one exception from the Oxford style, and that is my use of double quotation marks (") instead of single inverted commas (').