Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Critique.
Piergiorgio Corallo in blue
Photography often reveals more by removing elements than by adding them. In the photographic series Nel blu dipinto di blu this idea becomes the central visual strategy. The images are built around a simple but striking rule: almost everything appears in black and white, while a single blue element remains visible inside the scene.
By The Global Vergeabout 10 hours ago in Critique
Civilization Is A Disease
Civilization Is A Disease ‘Civilization is a disease produced by the practice of building societies with rotten material.’ George Bernard Shaw placed that line in ‘Maxims for Revolutionists’, appended to Man and Superman, and the sentence still shocks because it does not merely criticise modernity; it pathologises it. Shaw, a leading Fabian and public intellectual, belonged to a reformist socialist milieu that believed society could be engineered gradually and rationally from above. Yet that same rationalist confidence often shaded into something darker: population management, elite planning, and the fantasy that humanity itself could be improved by sorting, disciplining, breeding, excluding, and sometimes eliminating the ‘unfit’. Shaw’s line can therefore be read not only as a critique of civilization, but as an unwitting confession about one of civilization’s recurring diseases: the educated elite’s urge to redesign humanity. ([online-literature.com][1])
By Peter Ayolovabout 13 hours ago in Critique
“Distorted Communication”
“Distorted Communication” In his 1991 book The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society, Jürgen Habermas presents the Enlightenment as a time for change—a pivotal moment when humanity began transitioning from self-imposed immaturity to a state of maturity. In this mature state, individuals must use their reason in public discourse. Habermas envisioned a society where every person becomes a public intellectual, communicating ideas openly to the world. Today, this vision is partially realized through online media, where anyone can publish their thoughts globally. However, the rise of this communication medium has also fostered a climate of dissent, with the collision of countless perspectives creating tension rather than unity. The transformation of global communication into an international open-access platform is a defining event of the 21st century, symbolizing humanity's step toward intellectual maturity. Yet, this journey is hindered by the planned obsolescence of communication, a kind of intellectual adolescence that prevents full independence and fosters the "manufacture of dissent."
By Peter Ayolovabout 16 hours ago in Critique
Kindness
I’ve noticed a common trait among the passive aggressive (aside from the glaringly obvious ones): when called out, they without exception refer to the failed sideways attack as evidence of their “kindness.” I can’t count on an abacus how many times I’ve experienced this, and, frankly, I’m fed up.
By Harper Lewis3 days ago in Critique
Movie Review: "I Heard the Bells"
"I Heard the Bells," produced by Sight & Sound Films (which shares the same parent company that operates the popular Broadway-style theaters in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and Branson, Missouri), is a treat to watch every Christmas. It depicts the true story behind the Christmas carol "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day," written by poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
By Heather Clark3 days ago in Critique
The Broken Bugs in the Palms of My Hands. Content Warning.
Part 1: Are you all serious? I played no part in my being born, besides taking those first breaths when I came into this world. I was told not to cross my legs as a young boy, a rule I played no part in conceiving. I was told to complete my assignments on topics I told were important to me. I spoke and dressed in a way that made others find me likable or, at the very least, tolerable.
By Stanley Davis6 days ago in Critique
