ALEX HALL is disgusted by the misuse of ‘emotional narratives’ to justify uninformed geo-political prejudice
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Best of 2018: Culture
by MIKE QUILLE
Real life: Tish Murtha photograph in the exhibition Women by Women
SUE TURNER welcomes a thoughtful, engaging book that lays bare the economic realities of global waste management
JOHN GREEN welcomes an insider account of the achievements and failures of the transition to democracy in Portugal
SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic
PETER MASON is enthralled by an assembly of objects, ancient and modern, that have lain in the mud of London’s river
MICK McSHANE rubs shoulders with Mod legend Steve Craddock and joins in with the joyous Glasgow choir
DENNIS BROE sifts out the ideological bias of the newest TV series offerings, and picks out what to see, and what to avoid
“EVERY document of civilisation is also a document of barbarism,” said Walter Benjamin, for behind castles and cathedrals lie histories of violence and oppression. Yet paintings, plays, poems, and films can all express and protest against — as well as deny and legitimate – the exploitation and barbarism of ruling elites that fuel class struggles throughout history.
Benjamin’s insight seems particularly relevant to many exhibitions, plays and films that have come out this year, an example being The Political History of Smack and Crack by Ed Edwards. A brilliant drama about personal relationships, it also exposed the shameful story of the British state’s collusion in our drugs problems.
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