Uncensored John Simon

Some stories are, or ought to be, mythic. I may have already adduced them before and will try not to repeat myself, though these days my me...

A very smart ex-girlfriend of mine always began reading the Times with the obituaries. The obits, to give them their nickname, are...

Sooner or later the question of God raises its troubling head for most of us. Does he exist or doesn’t he? Or has he died, as Nietzsche pos...

A popular miscalculation in my view is the notion of a first and last in literature. Presumably to enhance their subject’s importance, scho...

I write as an occasional verse writer and constant poetry lover. Also one-time teacher of poetry in a writing course. Further, poetr...

In Brecht’s “Galileo” we read, “Unhappy the land that has no heroes . . . No.   Unhappy the land that is in need of hero...

One of the glories of language is the witty rejoinder, riposte or retort. It is the answer in a quick, witty or caustic response (The Heri...