2007: A Year on the Shelf |
People who are more conscientious or, at least, more practical than I tend to keep a record of their lives in some kind of diary or journal. In my own case, I find it much easier to distinguish one ye...
Posted by on Mon, 31 Dec 2007 07:09:00 GMT |
Ramblings on W. G. Sebalds "Rings of Saturn." |
Among the writers Hippolyte has recommended to me over this last year is W.G. Sebald. In fact, he sent me a copy of The Emigrants in the post. I read it, and was impressed by what I suppose critics me...
Posted by on Sun, 25 Nov 2007 15:36:00 GMT |
False Friends |
In one of my ongoing Norwegian language classes, I was recently introduced to the Scandinavian concept of the false friend. It turns out that Norway and Sweden have sent a number of these across one a...
Posted by on Wed, 17 Oct 2007 06:27:00 GMT |
Translation |
On the side of every bus in Tromsø one finds the following instruction:Gå ikke over veienfør bussen har kjørtAnyone fluent in Norwegian will understand this to mean that one should not walk in front o...
Posted by on Tue, 25 Sep 2007 06:10:00 GMT |
Pieces of Paper and Other Places |
It is something of a cliché to remark that in venturing out upon a new book one is potentially venturing into a new world. Nonetheless, I find that few things elicit such a quickening of the senses as...
Posted by on Fri, 07 Sep 2007 01:07:00 GMT |
Cultural Analysis: An Onanastic Experience |
Last night, I went to the cinema to see The Sorrow and the Pity, the notorious four-hour documentary on French collaboration in the Second World War, which split open the rotten apple of national prid...
Posted by on Mon, 03 Sep 2007 00:40:00 GMT |
Trains of Thought |
It was Joseph Brodsky who admitted that the more he travelled the more he found himself eyeing up new places as likely venues for future nightmares. The way things have been going for me so far this m...
Posted by on Mon, 27 Aug 2007 07:58:00 GMT |
Somerset |
Anyone who is at all familiar with the cultural topography of England will know what Somerset is: it's where the country people live. Here, the locals eat straw, drink cider and say little other than ...
Posted by on Wed, 25 Jul 2007 16:50:00 GMT |
Art and the Market |
With the news last week that one of Damien Hirst's 'Medicine Cabinets' had sold for a princely £9.65m at auction, making him 'the most expensive living artist in Europe', it seemed timely to reflect a...
Posted by on Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:05:00 GMT |
Brodskys Talents |
Some time ago, Hippolyte - my co-conspiritor in this blog, as in many other projects (mostly unrealised) - recommended to me the essays of Joseph Brodsky, the poet and Soviet dissident. I've just star...
Posted by on Thu, 21 Jun 2007 16:14:00 GMT |
