From Lacan.com, an interview with Alain Badiou on communism; and Slavoj Zizek on Beckett with Lacan (and part 2). A review of Ricoeur and Lacan by Karl Simms. From Prospect, on the 150th anniversary of On the Origin of Species, new research reveals that Darwin was driven to the idea of common descent by a great moral cause. Paul Waldman on what we talk about when we talk about Obama; and President Obama acknowledged nonreligious Americans in his Inaugural Address — will his administration re-separate church and state? Yard Sale Nation: James Howard Kunstler on why the change required to salvage U.S society runs much deeper than most imagine. Revolution Books in Chelsea continues to operate and prepare for the time when the system collapses. There is a distinct possibility that, within our lifetimes, robots will be everywhere—taking out the trash, day-tripping to Mars, winning the Nobel prize. Daniel Levy reviews Innocent Abroad: An Intimate Account of American Peace Diplomacy in the Middle East by Martin Indyk. Rabbit at Rest: John Irving remembers Updike; and the best of Updike, the worst of Updike, and why the two are connected. Christopher Lehmann-Haupt on John Updike, a lyrical writer of the middle-class man — and a literary high priest of sex and suburbia. No one captured Pennsylvania's light and landscape as Updike did.
