Pratchett’s “Raising Steam” highlights the vibrancy of invention and also the importance of a multicultural society in making new inventions work.
Tag Archives: multiculturalism
Pratchett on the Excitement of Invention
Zadie Smith and Multicultural Tennis
A tennis episode in Zadie Smith’s “Swing Time” comes to mind after a minor blow-up at the Australian Open involving Ben Shelton, son of Bryan Shelton.
On Using Lit as a Cudgel
Monday A conservative reader the other day accused me of relentlessly using this blog as “an anti-Trump cudgel,” which got me thinking about whether I was indeed guilty of losing perspective. Was I in the grip of what Balzac calls an “idée fixe”—which is to say, an obsession that defines a life? According to Encyclopedia […]
Shafak: Storyland Is the Taste of Freedom
Turkish novelist Elif Shafak says that we must cultivate emotional intelligence to live in an increasingly diverse world while battling authoritarians’ reductive desires. Lit is vital in this endeavor.
Men in Black 3 Embraces the Sixties
The latest “Men in Black” films takes for granted a diverse and multicultural world, set in motion by the 1960’s.

