capitalism | ZETEO

I am the government of your country

November 30, 2014 by William Eaton

George Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara, which premiered in London in 1905, is shining once again in an excellent production at New York’s Pearl Theatre. The dominant personality, of a play that offers half a dozen or more strong characters, is Andrew Undershaft, an enormously successful weapons manufacturer—for anyone and everyone, without prejudice, throughout the world. As Undershaft himself puts it: To give arms to all men who offer an honest price for them, without respect of persons or principles: […]

Categories: William Eaton, ZiR • Tags: capitalism, George Bernard Shaw, government, Major Barbara, theater, war

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Rose: Mining and Murder in mid-Victorian England

October 31, 2014 by William Eaton

Have you ever wanted to go down a mine shaft? Like miners do, on an open lift? Plunging a mile down into the bowels of the earth? With highly combustible methane gas and its deadly chemical cousin carbon monoxide a threat at every instant? Me neither. But when I picked up Martin Cruz Smith’s novel Rose, set in the Lancashire coal mining town of Wigan, I couldn’t stop reading. The story chronicles the return to England of the mining engineer […]

Categories: Catherine Vigier, ZiR • Tags: capitalism, literature, women

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Pynchon’s cartoons

September 26, 2014 by William Eaton

One of the things I enjoy about Thomas Pynchon is the space he gives to cartoons and comic strips in his books. His last novel, Bleeding Edge, (2013) is a zany celebration of television culture – sit-coms, made-for-tv-movies and series, cartoons, the lot. For those of us who grew up in the 70s, one of the characters is addicted to the Brady Bunch. For the cable tv and satellite generations, there are references to the Game Boy spinoff Pokémon and […]

Categories: Catherine Vigier, ZiR • Tags: capitalism, literature

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Figuring it out

August 10, 2014 by William Eaton

From one of the songs of The Pajama Game, which won the Tony Award for the best musical of 1955: I figured it out I figured it out With a pencil and a pad I figured it out! Seven and a half cents doesn’t buy a hell of a lot, Seven and a half cents doesn’t mean a thing! But give it to me every hour, Forty hours every week, And that’s enough for me to be living like […]

Categories: William Eaton, ZiR • Tags: Broadway theater, capitalism, consumerism, Hollywood, unions

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Not making money in movies

February 28, 2014 by Jennifer Dean

I read an article today on the wonderful world of internships in the New York Times – Millennnials Feel Trapped in a Cycle of Internships with Little Pay and No Job Offers. I have read many an article and heard many an argument regarding the twenty-first century internship dilemma. Who can intern after college without having some sort of support from their family? Once again limiting opportunities to those with money and family connections, not only in terms of family […]

Categories: Jennifer Dean, ZiR • Tags: capitalism, film, New York Times

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The “P” word: mediated pornography

January 27, 2014 by Alexia Raynal

My friend was a little upset that Margret Grebowicz did not include graphic evidence of her research in her book Why Internet Porn Matters. I, on the other hand, was a little relieved. Reading a book about pornography without the images seemed less daunting than reading an illustrated version of it. Granted, there is descriptive narrative in the book, but Grebowicz seems to focus more on language and power than the visuals. This is what I found most interesting in the first two […]

Categories: ZiR • Tags: capitalism, Marx, philosophy, pornography, reading, sexuality

Soccer as a Reason

January 6, 2014 by Alexia Raynal

A close friend of mine (a fantastic soccer dribbler and mathematician) insisted on sharing Franklin Foer’s How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization (New York: Harper Perennial, 2010). I am not much of a sports reader. But real soccer being in hiatus during the winter, reading about it seemed like an appealing substitute. Luckily for me, the book turned out to offer an analysis of the culture of soccer as it intersects with migration, globalization, identity, corruption, and power. I’ll […]

Categories: ZiR • Tags: Brazil, capitalism, globalization, reading, soccer

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Reading: 24 February-2 March 2013 (ZiR)

February 28, 2013 by fritztucker

Reading 24 February-2 March 2013 (ZiR) Fritz Tucker, Zeteo Assistant Editor [One in an ongoing series of posts. For the full series see Zeteo is Reading.] 27 February 2013 Sugata Mitra has just won the prize for the best TED talk of 2012. I must say that his talk on student-driven education is probably the most inspiring and affirming (of my views on education) video I’ve ever seen. Some quotes from his interview in the New York Times today are as follows: But […]

Categories: Fritz Tucker, ZiR • Tags: capitalism, education, feminists, Marxism, New York City, TED Talks

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Reading 4-10 November 2012 (ZiR)

November 10, 2012 by William Eaton

Reading 4-10 November 2012 (ZiR) Texts William Eaton has been pleased to spend time with this week [One in an ongoing series of posts. For the full series see Zeteo is Reading.] 4 November 2012: An hour with Thoreau Reading in Thoreau in His Own Time: A Biographical Chronicle of His Life, Drawn from Recollections, Interviews, and Memoirs by Family, Friends, and Associates, edited by Sandra Harbert Petrulionis. The editor dwells on, among other things, Thoreau the patient observer […]

Categories: William Eaton, ZiR • Tags: California, capitalism, GMOs, Mark Twain, Thoreau

ZETEO

Zeteo (ζητέω): to challenge, question, dispute, explore the forgotten and ignored

Tag: capitalism

I am the government of your country

Rose: Mining and Murder in mid-Victorian England

Pynchon’s cartoons

Figuring it out

Not making money in movies

The “P” word: mediated pornography

Soccer as a Reason

Reading: 24 February-2 March 2013 (ZiR)

Reading 4-10 November 2012 (ZiR)