Jim Aitken – Page 3 – Culture Matters

Britishness

3 June 2022 / 338

Britishness, or A Riposte To The Platinum Jubilee by Jim Aitken B – Backwardness, best exemplified by BrexitR – Royalty, the pinnacle of a class-ridden societyI –... Continue reading

Jim Aitken

Poetry

Now Ukraine

19 April 2022 / 266

Now Ukraine by Jim Aitken, with image by Martin Gollan 1.Yes, it is absolutely ghastly and gruesome.Yes, Putin is responsible for war crimesbecause war itself is a... Continue reading

Jim Aitken

Fiction

The purest light attracts the most impenetrable darkness: Hex, by Jenni Fagan

3 April 2022 / 335

Jim Aitken reviews Hex, by Jenni Fagan, published by Birlinn There can be little doubt that part of the success of Jenni Fagan’s previous novel, Luckenbooth (2021),... Continue reading

Jim Aitken

Fiction

A Timeline of Women: Letting Go, by Gerda Stevenson

26 February 2022 / 309

A short story collection can, in certain respects, be seen as similar to a poetry collection. If the individual stories, like the individual poems, are well conceived... Continue reading

Jim Aitken

Cultural Commentary

Philosophy, cultural relativism, anti-intellectualism and the far right

26 December 2021 / 423

Jim Aitken analyses the links between philosophical and cultural relativism, anti-intellectualism and far right politics, in a wide-ranging, discursive essay. The image above is of the Night of the... Continue reading

Jim Aitken

Books

Ghosts of the Early Morning Shift

22 September 2021 / 319

Scotland’s radical credentials, past and present, are evident throughout the pages of this new anthology, the companion volume to the anthology of radical poetry, A Kist of... Continue reading

Jim Aitken

Cultural Commentary

Popular culture, Brexit and One Nation Toryism

14 December 2020 / 291

Jim Aitken describes how so much of popular culture reflects and legitimises the values of the Tories and the ruling class. Image above: Downton Abbey There was... Continue reading

Jim Aitken

Fiction

The Radical Extension of Reality: Jorge Luis Borges

22 October 2020 / 389

Jim Aitken unearths the radical and progressive meanings in Borges’ writings It was his fellow Argentinian writer and, like his mentor, a former Director of the National... Continue reading

Jim Aitken

Poetry

A Fearless Gaze of Hope: Quines, by Gerda Stevenson

26 March 2020 / 305

Jim Aitken reviews a book of radical women’s voices: Quines, by Gerda Stevenson. Accompanying illustrations of textiles are by artists from EDGE: Textile Artists Scotland. The second... Continue reading

Jim Aitken

Poetry

Christ is a communist and God is a miner: ‘The Sair Road’ by William Hershaw

31 May 2019 / 413

Jim Aitken reviews The Sair Road, by Willie Hershaw. The header image and all others in this review are by Les McConnell, the illustrator Far from creating... Continue reading

Jim Aitken

Page 3

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