Saga

There have only been

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There have only been about a half dozen genuinely important events in the four-billion-year saga of life on Earth: single-celled life, multicelled life, differentiation into plants and animals, movement of animals from water to land, and the advent of mammals and consciousness. Elon Musk

Giving governors more leeway

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Giving governors more leeway in administering health care could represent a small, positive development in the ongoing saga of Obamacare. Unfortunately, instead of choosing flexibility, President Obama and his left-leaning advisers always default to rigid ‘Washington knows best’ answers. Fred Upton

My child, you have

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My child, you have a flawed grasp of the nature of myth-making. I am a poet and storyteller, a creator of ballads and sagas. Pray do not confuse the exercise of the imagination with mere mendacity. I am a master of the mysteries of words, their meanings and music and mellifluous magic. Frances Hardinge

This and the small

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This and the small sample size inevitably leads to stereotypes – sweeping family sagas from India, ‘lush’ colonial romances from South-East Asia. Mother and daughter reconciling generational differences through preparing a ‘traditional’ meal together. Geishas. And even if something more exciting does manage to sneak through, it gets the same insultingly clichéd cover slapped on … Read more

The Saga of Dharmapuri

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The Saga of Dharmapuri is one of the great works of modern Indian literature. (…) Set against Vijayan’s heroic and scatological Candide — originally written in Malayalam and finely translated into English by the author — the timidity of our own English talent for political satire is embarrassingly laid bare. For this is dangerous stuff, … Read more

Mother used to say

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Mother used to say escape is never further than the nearest book. Well, Mumsy, no, not really. Your beloved large-print sagas of rags, riches, and heartbreak were no camouflage against the miseries trained on you by the tennis ball launcher of life, were they? But, yes, Mum, there again, you have a point. Books don’t … Read more