Author Archives: Nicolas Niarchos

Pragmatism and Marxism are two states that, we learn at college, are not necessarily commensurate. A pragmatic approach involves a response to stimuli; a Marxist one, on the other hand should only respond to problems (and, indeed, formulate problems) after a thorough investigation. As Mao (following Confucius) writes in his 1930 dictum “Oppose Book Worship”: »

On a sticky September day two years ago, I first visited the Yale Babylonian collection. I was on assignment for the News, and Babylon was far from my mind; all I could think about was the set of Greco-Roman-Egyptian magical amulets that I was reporting on. But the office of Ulla Kasten, assistant curator of »

The fashion icon, award-winning actress and inspiration behind Emma Watson’s drastic haircut, Mia Farrow paid Yale a visit for a Morse College Master’s tea last Monday. Perhaps best known for her famous role in “Rosemary’s Baby,” Farrow has recently moved her focus from acting to humanitarian efforts. A Goodwill Ambassador to the United Nations, an »

The difficulty with most popular cinema these days is that it doesn’t know exactly where to start critiquing the world. Take the clever blockbuster that everyone’s talking about: “The Social Network.” Sure, charting the rise and rise of Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg from his time as a Harvard undergrad is fascinating, but for a story »

We are born into a system that we never resist, we do our job and then we die. This may be a platitude, but in “Never Let Me Go”, the story of Tommy (Andrew Garfield), Kathy (Carey Mulligan) and Ruth (Keira Knightley), adapted from Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2005 novel, this logic takes on an altogether different »

Tucker Max loves being an “asshole,” and he wants everybody to know it. The University of Chicago and Duke Law graduate started off with a blog in 2002, went on to write a book in 2006 that made the New York Times bestseller list, and now he gives us “I Hope They Serve Beer in »

Here’s a test for you: go to the bookstore (the big one, not Labyrinth) and see how many “How to … Write!” books you can find. Then go and check out — hey, what’s that? More writing books! Do we really need so many books on how to write? While writers and wannabes love to »

1. The Voynich Manuscript What has been called “the most mysterious manuscript in the world” is held within the vaults of Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Its name – the Voynich Manuscript. The best code-breakers, mathematicians and linguists have not been able to crack the cipher contained within its 240 vellum pages. Wonderful illustrations »

“Was it alright? Would you change anything?” he asks. Yes, more than. No, not a thing. I think. But I cannot express myself. I am dumbstruck. I could not create this // I want to create this. “He” is Steven Feigenbaum ’11, composer and director, and “it” is “Sic Futuristic,” a collaborative arts endeavour that »

The only times I’ve experienced the “Spring Break Experience”, the full “this is the vein of the USA and whatcha gonna do about it?” deal, I’ve prowled the margins, unable to interact, to get drunk, even. Experience too horrible. At least it’s comforting to know that Keith Strasbaugh (or, more accurately, his narrator), an alcoholic »

This year’s Yale College Council election saw unprecedented media efforts from candidates to attract voters: Jon Wu’s ’11 “Wu’s the One That I Want,” Ryan Beauchamp’s ’10 campaign video (and his, er, 90-second mash-up) and, of course Colin Adamo’s ’10 “Behind the Treasure.” But this YouTube frenzy really managed to obfuscate the main issues behind »

It was pretty obvious that Lady Sovereign would sell her soul to the gods of KA$CHING! as soon as she got to the States. With the corruption of the queen of “chav” culture has come a moulding over of her original sound. Her latest album “Jigsaw” smacks of Britneee and LA pinkDAZZLE more than any »