Mortality Ox

The Penumbra Of Mortality

Venkatesh Rao | Ribbonfarm | 20th April 2023

What a thoughtful, useful note; it reads like a letter from a friend who has things to say, but says them non-insistently, in observations rather than arguments. Having read this I shall read Greg Egan, and re-read J.G. Ballard, and see if I agree about their relative merits. I will understand better how Dickens achieved his dramatic effects, especially the combining of love with death for added pathos (1,860 words)

Ox

James Harbeck | Sesquiotica | 20th April 2023

If there is no ox in my oxtail soup, and no ox in Oxfam, and no ox in oxymoron ... well, you get the idea. Where have all the oxes gone, and should that be oxen, and, if so, when did anybody last say: Look! Oxen! But ox is a lovely word dating back to the Sanskrit uksa, so let's keep using it. Besides, there may yet be some ox in your oxtail soup if you cut the tail from an adult steer that pulled a plough (840 words)