Here’s a story that justifies reading outside a person’s normal area of interest. Tschiffley’s Ride is one of the great travel adventures, the sort of journey only Werner Herzog would contemplate filming. Please. Aime Tsciffley, a Swiss former teacher, footballer and boxer moved to Buenos Aires in 1920. In 1925 he set of in the … Continue reading
This is a wonderful post on many levels. Open Culture brings us a world of fine information across a huge range of topics, and this is a timely reminder for all of us who love and value free speech and the arts. This is Benedict Cumberbatch at the Hay Literary Festival reading a letter from … Continue reading
Atlas Obscura is a great source of obscure information, though often flawed by lack of research, but here’s an article that got me thinking. http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/yall-youuns-yinz-youse-how-regional-dialects-are-fixing-standard-english?utm_source=Atlas+Obscura+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=76063a5aad-Newsletter_10_17_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f36db9c480-76063a5aad-63056749&ct=t(Newsletter_10_17_2016)&mc_cid=76063a5aad&mc_eid=377570eee9 For all its history and variety, English has no plural form of the second person pronoun. Unlike other European languages, it also has no polite/informal forms. AO find the latter … Continue reading
This is a great piece from one of the great modern writers – not just a scientist but also a linguist whose pioneering work was based on a good education. His claim that the elite are often the ones who condemn elitism. Nothing new then. Isaac Asimov Laments the “Cult of Ignorance” in the United … Continue reading
This is another piece from the book Tribe On Homecoming and Belonging by award winning journalist Sebastian Junger: The ultimate act of disaffiliation isn’t littering or fraud, of course, but violence against your own people. When the Navajo Nation … were rounded up and confined to a reservation in the 1860s, a terrifying phenomenon became … Continue reading
This is from the i paper a few days ago: A wall of dust raced toward Lubbock, Texas, on Sunday, and the National Weather Service crew out caution on its Facebook page. ‘A haboob is rapidly approaching the Lubbock airport and may affect the city as well.” the meteorologist wrote . The use of the … Continue reading
With declining church attendance, fewer of us are aware of the differences between the various Christian churches, especially the various branches of the Catholic church. When I was researching the history of South America, I became fascinated by the Jesuits, who founded missions there t protect the native peoples from slavery. Their group was founded … Continue reading
We mostly measure history in terms of years, or perhaps in generations, but memories can be closer than this system suggests. My grandfather was born about a century ago, and he could tell us tales of the gold rushes in Victoria in the 1860s. The last of the soldiers of the Great War have only … Continue reading
Here’s a test given to Nabokov’s students, with his answer at the end. I don’t agree with s few of his points. I think being able to identify with a character is crucial. See what you think. http://www.openculture.com/2016/03/take-vladimir-nabokovs-quiz-to-see-if-youre-a-good-reader.html
Great literature often involves inventing new forms of language, and few writers have done this better than Anthony Burgess in ‘Clockwork Orange’, with a language for his thugs based loosely on Russian. This is his choice of dystopian stories. I’ve not read the JP Hartley or Mailer; I think my favourite is Ridley Walker, again … Continue reading
