One of the paradoxes of quantum physics is that the reality of a particle is determined by it being observed by a consciousness. Sean Sheehan Prior to its observation, reality is a fluid multiplicity -quantum fluctuations brought about by the collapse of the wave function (no, I do […]
Book reviews
Fiction in Spanish
“Some time ago I got arrested and charged with three counts of first-degree murder”. The opening sentence of “Capsule” by Mateo García Elizondo cannot fail to grab the reader’s attention in a story that becomes a meditative take on existence, occasioned by a prisoner who is launched into space to […]
A pattern is a message
Movements in space, series of moments tracked and traced, reveal constellations formed by the moments’ connections with one another. Sean Sheehan What comes into play are coordinates, iterations, adjacencies, parameters, ratios and the like; and, when the variables are calculated and mapped, underlying patterns in the movement of […]
On crossing a bridge
Kerri ní Dochartaigh, born in 1983 in Derry when the Troubles were continuing to inflict pain and suffering on the citizens of Northern Ireland, has good reason to reflect on loss and division. Sean Sheehan Her formative years were spent amidst a traumatic period of murderous violence and […]
Jonathan Meades: a one-man awkward squad
There is no writer more spiky than Jonathan Meades but no single word can sum up the sui generis blend of rage, sarcasm, common sense and virtue that characterises his pronouncements on life, the universe and everything. Sean Sheehan Being a prose stylist, he can be unforgiving when encountering […]