David Low, Caricature of Joseph Conrad, 1928, from Lions and Lambs, via
Recent links of note:
Joseph Conrad: anticipating terrorism
Clive James, Prospect
Why read Conrad anymore? Aren’t the topics he wrote about: colonial adventures, seafaring, and the like, hopelessly outdated? Of course not, to say nothing of his remarkable prose. Moreover, as Clive James tells it in this feeling piece, Conrad anticipated the great questions of our times. As the world devolves into just the sort of chaos Conrad described so chillingly, it’s worth rereading the man who “knew that unarmed goodwill is useless against armed malice.”
Why Palmyra Should Matter to the West
Daniel Johnson, Standpoint
Stridency is the great risk of repeatedly calling attention to some perceived ill. And so I may be guilty as regards the continued destruction of antique sites in the Middle East. But when the ill is not perceived, but real and worsening, stridency is a risk worth taking. And so I share Daniel Johnson’s essay on Palmyra from the most recent issue of Standpoint. In this sweeping piece, Johnson traces the history of the great city and argues forcefully why it should matter to us in the West. In a year that “will be remembered chiefly for one event: the razing of the ruins of Palmyra, on the orders—we may assume—of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,” Johnson’s piece is horrifically vital.
French national treasure recovered after 32 years
Ermanno Rivetti, The Art Newspaper
Heartening news out of London: a stolen French tapestry, lost since 1982, has been returned to its original location, in a château in Normandy. Though the work is not financially valuable, say on the scale of the aforementioned Caravaggios, it was declared a French national treasure in 1974. Recovered with the help of “The Art Loss Register,” a privately operated catalogue of missing art, the work was pulled from its auction consignment in February of last year and repatriated then. Cases like this show the power of public-private collaboration. To that, we say “bravo.”
From our pages:
The book of war
Henrik Bering
Henrik Bering reviews Donald Stoker’s new book on Clausewitz’s complicated legacy.