August 2015 – Jack Sanger

The Duke of Burgundy

Our fingerprints, our retinal configuration and all else about us are unique, including our perceptions, dreams and fantasies. Even so we talk about being ‘normal’ as though it is a virtue. Society pressgangs us into conformity. To stray outside the fencing that society erects to herd us along the path of life is… Know More
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You don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone…

How much do we sleepwalk through life, imagining that all is fine and it’s a blessing to be in the ‘free’ world? Meanwhile, what we assume to be a ‘democracy’ subtly and inexorably sucks the juice out of our liberties. Whether it be GCHQ mass surveillance a la Snowden, reduction in free legal support for… Know More
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Marketing – By Royal Appointment

The gullibility of a population knows no bounds but even then some kind of psychic sea-change may bring down a Tzar, a wall in Berlin or produce a velvet revolution elsewhere in Europe. One day Putin will lose his credibility. He bought it in the first place, his marketing men orchestrating his he-man image, hoisting… Know More
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The Times They Are A Changing

The death of any soldier causes distress. Distress for loved ones, for comrades and for those that are protected by military action. Yet the individual significance of such an end to a life quickly melts into stone, another name inscribed on a monument by a village green, or becomes another ceramic poppy in a gigantic… Know More
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The Professional Pyramid: posturing on paedophilia

Having spent my working days at every level of education from primary school to PhD supervision, as well as doing five years in intensive residential social work, and finally having spent the latter end of my toils doing research on nationally funded projects, I suppose I feel I have some kind of obligation to tell… Know More
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Trolls

When I was young, trolls used to live under bridges and reach up and grab your ankles and drag you down into their gnashing-toothed depths. A regular song on the wireless ran, “I’m a troll foldy roll…”The symbol of the bridge is significant; a division between two realities, the every day and the otherworldly. Plato… Know More
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Trolling

After last week’s eulogy to the freedom of the Internet and its capacity for anarchy and the puncturing of pomposity (and notwithstanding its propensity for the exposure of lies and tyrannical behaviour of all sorts, its soap box for the disenfranchised, the successful tilting at windmills – for example yesterday’s culmination to the campaign by… Know More
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Mashing it up

In a political world where for centuries the individual had been a statistic, a mere single vote, a consumer of political rhetoric and high street junk, a loyal, unquestioning soldier, a cupcake on a table laden with gastronomic desserts scoffed by the multinationals, the banks, the church, the royal family, the landed classes, the judicial… Know More
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History Homework

Having tried a story in seven tweets once, I quite liked the challenge. So here’s another for your delectation and delight. 1 The Captain was finishing a coloured picture of a new species of fly. His ship rocked gently under a hot sun. 2 As he added the last brush stroke there was a little… Know More
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A Tale in 7 Tweets

I was struck by the notion of David Mitchell’s (not the comedian) attempt to create a seven tweet story. Each tweet the usual 140 characters or less, including spaces. Below is my own foray into the form, the Twitter version of a haiku-like constraint. 1. ‘Rainin’ in my heart’: The song bounced off the bone… Know More
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