Blood on the Snow, Soot on the Carpet: Belief as Pedagogy in Terry Pratchett’s \u3ci\u3eHogfather\u3c/i\u3e

In Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels, children largely refuse to conform to the ideas that adults form about them as a class. While the adults of the Discworld seem to regard childhood as a time of innocence and wonder, the children who inhabit Pratchett’s universe show themselves to be violent, cynical, manipulative, and naturally skeptical of any phenomena which they cannot directly sense. As such, when the beloved seasonal figure of the Hogfather, a former Winter Solstice deity transformed over time into a gift-giving fat man with a taste for sherry and pork-pies, is assaulted by entities who want to make human beings less fanciful, the Discworld’s anthropomorphic representation of Death takes it upon himself to keep up the pretense that the Hogfather is alive, well, and making his usual rounds. This is necessary because, as the novel argues, belief in fantasies is necessary for children to grow into functional adults – the child must start by believing in something relatively concrete, like a jolly fat man who delivers toys to children who behave themselves all year, in order to believe in abstract concepts like ‘justice’ and ‘mercy.’ Belief in figures like the Hogfather tempers the natural cruelty of children, teaching them how to live in harmony with one another as adults, but this belief must be encouraged through empirical evidence, since the children’s natural skepticism leads them to see through the pleasant illusions conjured for them by adults

“Like the tombs of nameless kings”: Louis MacNeice’s Western Anti-Pastoral

Throughout his career as a poet, Louis MacNeice, born in Belfast but schooled and resident in England, looks at the western counties of Ireland, and indeed the island itself, as a repository of historical memory, including the western Irish roots of his own family. While the east – that is, continental Europe – is embroiled in the Spanish Civil War and the coming Second World War and is thus seen as a site of significant contemporary action in MacNeice’s work, what action takes place in western Ireland tends to be in the past; both celebratory poems like the “Sligo and Mayo” and “Galway” parts of “The Closing Album”, parts 06 and more ambivalent pieces like “Valediction” and “Neutrality” stress an attachment to the past bred by insularity. Ireland’s concerns, to the expatriate MacNeice, are exclusively local and rooted in ancient history. The Irish Sea separates the island from the broader currents of European history, and it becomes an attraction for tourists from across the water, as noted in “Valediction”. Ireland – particularly the cultural nationalist ideal promoted by the Revival – is a kind of archive, but it is one which has become obscure, as indicated by “the tombs of nameless kings” (CP 181) in “Sligo and Mayo”. The holiday visitors who come to look into the past can no longer comprehend it, as the rest of the world has moved on. The pastoral modes that Yeats and his immediate successors applied to the west of Ireland obscure the violence of the present in favor of an idealized past that MacNeice cannot endorse.Le poète Louis MacNeice est né à Belfast, mais il fut éduqué et vécut en Angleterre. Tout au long de sa carrière, il insiste sur le fait que les comtés de l’ouest de l’Irlande – et l’île toute entière – sont imprégnés d’une histoire qui embrasse ses propres racines familiales dans l’Ouest. Alors que l’Est, c’est-à-dire l’Europe continentale, doit composer avec la Guerre civile en Espagne et les tourments de la Deuxième Guerre mondiale, MacNeice ancre cette Europe dans une réalité contemporaine où se déroulent d’intenses débats. À l’inverse, le travail de MacNeice évoque l’Ouest de l’Irlande par le recours au passé. Les poèmes “Sligo and Mayo”, “Galway”, qui font partie de “The Closing Album”, ainsi que “Valediction” et “Neutrality”, racontent tous l’histoire d’une Irlande insulaire et révolue. Les préoccupations de cette Irlande, selon MacNeice l’expatrié, sont de nature locale et font référence à des temps anciens. La mer d’Irlande qui isole l’île de l’histoire européenne est prisée par les touristes, comme l’auteur le note dans “Valediction”. L’Irlande – particulièrement l’idéal du nationalisme culturel au temps du Revival - est une archive obscure qui est devenue aussi illisible que “the tombs of nameless kings” (CP 181) de son poème “Sligo and Mayo”. Les touristes qui veulent découvrir son passé n’arriveront pas à la comprendre puisque le reste du monde est déjà passé à autre chose. Il en résulte que les représentations bucoliques de l’Ouest de l’Irlande que cultivèrent Yeats et ses successeurs immédiats obscurcissent les violences contemporaines au profit d’une version idéalisée du passé que MacNeice ne peut partager

An overview of late-stage functionalization in today's drug discovery

Introduction: Late-stage functionalization (LSF) can introduce important chemical groups in the very last steps of the synthesis. LSF has the potential to speed up the preparation of novel chemical entities and diverse chemical libraries and have a major impact on drug discovery. Functional group tolerance and mild conditions allows access to new molecules not easily accessible by conventional approaches without the need for laborious de novo chemical synthesis. Areas Covered: A historical overview of late-stage functionalization and its applicability to drug discovery is provided. Pioneering methodologies that laid the foundations for the field are briefly covered and archetypal examples of their application to drug discovery are discussed. Novel methodologies reported in the past few years mainly stemming from the recent renaissances of photoredox catalysis and radical chemistry are reviewed and their application to drug discovery considered. Expert opinion: It is envisioned that late-stage functionalization will improve the efficiency and efficacy of drug discovery. There is evidence of the widespread uptake of LSF by the medicinal chemistry community and it is expected that the recent and continuing endeavors of many academic laboratories and pharmaceutical companies will soon have an impact on drug development.The authors are supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australi