editorial
In the Spirit of both Voltaire and the Quakers…
While Palestinians starve and are killed by extremist Zionists, and the western rump gathers to plot the prolongation of their proxy conflict in Ukraine, and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) slaughter to stay in power and global temperatures creep upwards, the promise of a technological utopia of surplus is replaced by the use of AI to manipulate and control on behalf of economic elites and the governments they control. And a giant, nickel-plated interstellar asteroid races along the plane of the solar system, intersecting three planets at 60 kilometres per second.
At Ars Notoria, we offer you poetry, ayurvedically inspired food advice, and raw, sometimes intricate, sometimes searing personal memoirs. We present a discussion of Literature and Cinema in the Face of the Stigma of the Criminal, point a trembling accusatory finger at the harm caused by alcoholic drink, and converse with an illustrious Disney illustrator. We try and redirect a posturing and deluded British left away from supporting Venezuela’s corrupt kleptocracy, warn against Palestine Action which is a spycops-led entrapment psyops, and take the piss out of the Stalin-bothering CPGB-ML and John Mearsheimer’s cyclopean view of international conflict. We discuss the skulls and bones of the Bush presidential dynasty, cry at the fact that the responsible adults in our societies are not in charge, regret past and futuristic colonialism, and look at the case for German revanchism.
As humane socialists, as humans, we reflect the complexity and richness of life in the articles, cartoons, photos and podcasts we publish. This we do despite the horror of war and the impoverishment of ordinary people by our predatory capitalist ruling class, whose share portfolios go up with every bomb dropped. Despite the tragedy of a mismanaged world where nature is slashed to the root, the sacredness of the landscape is profaned, and so many species are caused to go extinct.
In presenting the fruit of our gathered minds to you, we would like you to note—in the spirit of both Voltaire and the Quakers—that to be a humane socialist is to celebrate life, and for us the horse must come before the cart. We humans must decide on what we say and do. We should not allow the powerful megaphones of billionaire-owned media, nor the purposefully opaque scriptures used by power-hungry groups, to dictate to the human in all of us and cow us into despair and obedience.
POETRY
The Emigrant’s Farewell
Nobel laureate Derek Walcott tasked James Wood with writing “the epic of his people”. In response James Wood wrote The Emigrant’s Farewell.
Ayurveda in Boots: Beyond the Golden Milk Glow
Arun Kapil
When the seasons turn, true Ayurveda isn’t a latte – it’s a feast
Literature and Cinema in the Face of the Stigma of the Criminal
Ulises Paniagua
Paul Halas
BOOZE
PETE FIELD: SIMPLE PATRIOTS
PODCAST
Follow Me Down
Peter Cowlam
comment
The High Wire Paradox of Alcohol Consumption
Richard Steinhardt
‘…criticism of drinking alcoholic drinks is being made to seem not just puritanical, but unpatriotic and something against freedom itself.’
FEATURED
A CONVERSATION WITH PACO RODRIGUEZ
Paul Halas
the Egmont family of publishers has been the torchbearer for Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse and all their co-conspirators in the Scandinavian countries, Germany and The Netherlands, and one of their foremost illustrators is Paco Rodríguez. He will need no introduction for a large number of comics aficionados.
Mobilise, don’t alienate!
Richard Steinhardt
Protests that should focus on British complicity: arms sales, military collaboration, and political cover for Israel, are instead derailed by debates over “extremism” and “public order.”
Venezuela is Not the Country You Are Looking For
The phenomenon of Chávez in Venezuela had far more in common with populism, Peronism, and caudillismo than with the Cuban Revolution; any Latin American could attest to this.
Section label
8. The Thatcher Years
by Margaret Yip
I heard someone shouting my name. It was Harry Stagg, sat in a huge digger. He said he had won the contract to replace the tarmac roads and pavements with the patterned bricks. “I could do with you, Maggie,” he said, “do you want a job full time for the duration?” I looked at all the men digging out trenches in their hard hats and big wellies and laughed up at him. “No thanks, Harry, I don’t think these men would appreciate it when I turn up and work quicker than them.”
John Mearsheimer’s Offensive Realism
Phil Hall
The core fault in Mearsheimer’s theory is that it treats power as an abstract, amoral goal, divorced from the specific, often brutal, economic and ideological systems that generate and exercise it.
Open Letter to Alexander Mckay of the CPGB-ML
Richard Steinhardt
Humane socialism is not a radicalism you can reconstitute from the dry pages of some well-fingered communist Torah.
politics
Beating Around the Bushes
NORMAN B. SCHWARTZ
They are one of America’s few dynastic clans, the first since the Adams family who can legitimately claim to have sent two presidents – George Herbert Walker Bush and his son George Walker Jr – to the White House. With their roots in the oil and gas business, many people think of them as quintessential Texans, but that is not the case. Both men were born in Connecticut and educated at Yale University in New Haven.
Lalaji and other Stories
They say if you look deep and long enough at the flowing waters of a river, they have stories to tell! These come from the mighty Indus or the ‘Sindhu’ in whose arms, from Ravi to Chenab, these events unfold.
memoir
David Yip: Pressure!
When trying to find my way around the kitchen, Patrick asks that I grab him a wooden spoon. I ask, “Where are they?” He replies, “In the wooden spoon-ery!” So I ask, “Where is that?” He says, “Next to the metal spoon-ery!” I am left to discover them for myself before returning, and Patrick saying, “People are not here to look after you, they are busy themselves. Get accustomed to where everything is.”
POETRY
Sudeep Sen: FOUR GHAZALS
Yuleisy Cruz Lezcano: Cartografía en fuga / Cartography in Flight
Voltaire Among the Quakers
In Voltaire’s meeting with the Quakers, we experience a soft heavy thud as anti-religious Enlightenment values bump up against the spirituality of the English, recast in the philosophy of the Friends—seekers after truth.
POETRY
Nissim Ezekiel: Between Desire and Reason
Anjana Neira Dev
English is the first and only language used by Ezekiel in his poems and his concern is therefore not with the language he should use, but with questions of prosody and perspective. He does however make the occasional reference to the fact of his alienation from his surroundings being partly caused by his inability to share in the linguistic milieu around him.
PETE FIELD ON KEIR STARMER
We are Orphans: the Grown-Ups are not in Charge
When we see the heads of Europe and European Union act like apologists for Israeli genocide egging us on to World War Three and Mark Rutte sucking up to Donald Trump sarcastically calling him ‘Daddy’ and Bezos going on joy rides on a penis shaped rocket while his employees break their backs for a minimum wage while, under surveillance, they are not allowed enough toilet breaks, and when we hear about the ultra-elite elite buying superyachts while billions live beneath the poverty line, using every trick in the book to avoid paying taxes, making money off war and partying with Epstein and P. Diddy, then we know the grown ups are not in charge.
comment
Decolonise the Language of Space
Phil Hall
The people who talk happily and contentedly about ‘the colonisation of space’ are, quite clearly the descendants of colonialists; the descendents of colonialists who, through the piratical actions of people like Clive of India, Cecil Rhodes, George Washington and Lachlan Macquarie, gained vast territories for themselves and their fellows. Now their descendents intend to gain whole planets.
Marginal Cases, and the Problem of 3I/ATLAS
Science should not function by enforcing norms. Avi Loeb is correct. If 3I/ATLAS outgasses at perihelion, it is a comet and ranks “0” on the Loeb scale. If it remains inert but manoeuvres unexpectedly, it’s likely to be artificial and rank “10”.
GEOPOLITICS
The Schiller Institute & German Revanchism
Phil Hall
German revanchism is quite justifiable. Europe must unite under German-French leadership to achieve true independence and strength. The Schiller Institute’s core proposition—though marred by bitterness and a personality cult—correctly identifies Germany as the key to a sovereign Europe. Hostility from the United States and Russia towards Germany arises precisely because they recognise Germany’s pivotal role in shaping an autonomous European power.
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Atomic Tangerine Razzle Dazzle Rose, Screamin’ Green, Bittersweet Shimmer
Fuchsia coloured Clematis. Photograph Phil Hall The nature and meaning of colour, and its use by capitalism and imperialism as an instrument of power and control by Phil Hall When you walk into Chapel Matisse in Vence, or Chapelle du Rosaire, the experience is a powerful one. The blue and yellow colours radiate in…
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IMAGES AND WORDS – TALKING WITH KERRY DRUMM
On the set of Memoir of a Snail. Still by kind permission of ArenaMedia INTERVIEWED BY PAUL HALAS & PHIL HALL Kerry Drumm has variously been an animator, designer, illustrator, film archivist, production coordinator, screenwriter, playwright and children’s book author… in fact when I first familiarised myself with her body of work I thought,…
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Have You Been the Victim of Epistemic Terrorism?
The Ukrainian nationalist crowd milling about Union House in Odessa/Odesa after the fire on 2 May 2014. ‘Remember Katyn!’ is written on the notice board next to the building which was set on fire, penning up and murdering 42 anti-Maidan protestors. Photograph HOBOPOCC Or How the Capitalist Ruling Class Tries to Destroy Our Ability…
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Oh Babylon! Oh Mammon! Oh 9/11!
by Phil Hall We lived in the Zona Rosa. The posh university I worked at was also in the west of the city. Some of the students were spoiled. They remind me of rotten characters in the book by DBC Pierre: Vernon God Little. In the evening, once a week, I trained teachers at…
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Ars Notoria at the International Colloquium of Poetry & Philosophy / Coloquio Internacional de Poesía y Filosofía
Designed by Carolina Servín CONGRATULATIONS TO ARS NOTORIA’S PARTICIPANTS IN THE 6TH INTERNATIONAL COLLOQUIUM OF POETRY AND PHILOSOPHY On behalf of Ars Notoria: The Art of the Noteworthy, I extend my warmest congratulations to all the participants, organisers and editors behind this year’s International Colloquium of Poetry and Philosophy. It is a privilege to celebrate…
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PATRICK MCMANUS, SURVIVOR POET PERFORMER
Patrick McManus. Photograph courtesy of the author Patrick McManus, survivor poet performer was once an architect in Denmark. He lives in Raynes Park. His career as a poet has spanned more than six decades, beginning with an early publication in the Brixton School of Building magazine in 1959. However, it was in the mid-1990s…
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SUDEEP SEN: RED
Lithograph designed by Sudeep Sen In the golden age of Dutch painting, a master like Vermeer or Gerard Dou would often withhold a single work. This was the pronkstuk, the showpiece. It was not commissioned by a patron, nor intended for the wall of a rich Dutch merchant. It remained in the artist’s studio, a…
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The Onion Knows What It’s Doing
Dad held the onion in his left hand. In his right, a small paring knife. And he cut. Photograph by Iqbal Farooz Instinct, inheritance and becoming a Masaalchi by Arun Kapil My father never learned how to chop an onion. At least, not in the way I would later be taught. There was no…
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SYLVIA VETTA: SILVER SHADOWS
Study for Leda and the Swan (now lost), c. 1506–1508, Chatsworth House, England Wikimedia Commons Public Domain Sylvia Vetta is a British author, journalist, and community activist whose work explores the intersections of gender, class, and race. Raised working-class in Luton, she married her Indian-born husband Atam Vetta at a time of widespread hostility toward mixed marriages, an…
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8. THEN CAME COVID (Part II)
Mr Yip. Photograph David Yip by David Yip My new job as is, again, in the Lake District, in Coniston. I was interviewed by the owner for the Assistant Manager position and explained that I needed two set days off to be home for my dad. He agreed and explained that the current restaurant…
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