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Troubles, by J G Farrell, winner of The Lost Booker Prize, 1970

As far as I can discern JGF is a fine writer. Interesting to compare with Elizabeth Bowen. The English have a huge lapse of memory with respect to Ireland.

Lisa Hill's avatarANZ LitLovers LitBlog

Reviews From the Archive

An occasional series, cross-posting my reviews from The Complete Booker.
To see my progress with completing the Complete Booker Challenge, see here.

Troubles, by J G Farrell, was the retrospective winner of the Lost Booker Prize in 1970.

July 7th, 2003

Troubles is the predecessor to The Siege of Krishnapur which won the Booker, and this one won the Faber Memorial Prize in 1970 (and posthumously, the Lost Booker Prize, one which has zero credibility with me because it was determined by popular vote).

Troubles is not as good as The Siege of Krishnapur, but it’s very good in parts. It’s set in Ireland just after WW1 when the Troubles were just beginning. Major Bernard Archer goes to the ill-named and shabby Majestic Hotel (a symbol of the declining British Empire) to sort out an intemperate engagement but ends up falling in love with…

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Thoughts on “Pericles” by William Shakespeare

This play is being streamed to cinemas on September 23 rd from the RSC. Some useful points about this “curate’s egg”!

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#Non-fiction Bolívar

Sounds like essential reading for understanding South America.

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June 25~ Pride Month

Very interesting artwork!

Christy's avatarThe Misty Miss Christy

Paul Cadmus and Jared French and Margaret Hoening
(PaJaMa)

There are six links below

Margaret Hoening was a painter and an etcher [who studied] at the Art Students League. There, she met the artist couple Paul Cadmus and Jared French. In 1937, she married French, fifteen years her junior, who had spent the previous decade with Cadmus. The trio formed a tight bond, with Cadmus and French continuing their relationship. Together, the three formed PaJaMa (a mashup of their first names, Paul, Jared, and Margaret).
~https://d6jcg90g7mpvu.cloudfront.net/s3fs-public/margarethoeningfrench.pdf

Self Portrait by Margaret Hoening French
ND / Pencil on Paper / Private collection

Circus Performers and Animals by Margaret Hoening French
ND / Gouache on board / Private collection

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6 – Detail aus meinen Gedanken – nochmehr Iris – Zeichnung von Susanne Haun

Susanne Haun's avatarSusanne Haun

Detail aus meinen Gedanken, 76 x 56 cm, Tusche auf Hahnemuehle Leonardo Büttenpapier, Zeichnung von Susanne Haun (c) VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020Detail aus meinen Gedanken, 76 x 56 cm, Tusche auf Hahnemuehle Leonardo Büttenpapier, Zeichnung von Susanne Haun (c) VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020

Detail aus meinen Gedanken, 76 x 56 cm, Tusche auf Hahnemuehle Leonardo Büttenpapier, Zeichnung von Susanne Haun (c) VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020Detail aus meinen Gedanken, 76 x 56 cm, Tusche auf Hahnemuehle Leonardo Büttenpapier, Zeichnung von Susanne Haun (c) VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020

In den nächsten Tagen zeige ich euch jeweils ein Detail aus der Zeichnung Aus meinen Gedanken.

Die 76 x 56 cm große Zeichnung ist gerade auf Hahnmühle Leonardo Büttenpapier am Entstehen.

Für mehr Text fehlt mir gerade die Energie.

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Lockdown Litany

dutch east indies architecture | Tempo Doeloe #9 - Bandung, Hotel ...

The usual combination-

a doctor gone to seed and

a rum skipper in the South China Seas,

 

in accordance with the author’s predilections

a handsome tow haired young man

predictably on the run from some

funny business that sadly

he has done.

 

A storm arises and shakes

the bored doctor’s equanimity

to the core;

only the crafty wicked sea captain

can negotiate such raging seas.

 

They arrive to the transparent tranquillity

of a tiny Dutch island.

Finding lodgings and satisfactorily breakfasting

the travellers meet eccentric characters

both esoteric and exotic.

 

Naturally, a beautiful maiden arrives,

a stunning love scene soon  ensues

involving the tow haired Australian

on the loose from his dirty deed

and the prose flows engagingly enough.

 

The novelist must tie up his plot.

The women behave in various unladylike ways.

The story clangs, chancy and unreal.

The body count mounts

as fictional fate  mechanically reveals.

 

You really have to ask yourself

if this is the best use of your time.

Reading this second-rate novel

by this first-rate novelist.

 

Even then the ending was uncertain,

though

perhaps prefiguring the postmodern.

 

 

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#French Jean Barois

Been meaning to read Michael Rosen on Zola in England.

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Dampfschiff „Fürth“: Bordverpflegung nach Musterrolle

Sehr iinteressant und detailliert!

juergenfeytiat's avatarDas kurze, aber bewegte Leben des Frachtdampfers „Fürth“

Heute gibts Labskaus!

Bildnachweis Titelbild: Musterrolle des Dampfschiffes „Neumünster“, Seite 2, Ausschnitt,
mit freundlicher Genehmigung des © State Records Office of Western Australia, Perth, Cons. 4230/1.03

Die Musterrolle

Von einem Schwesterschiff der „Fürth“, dem Dampfschiff „Neumünster“, ist in Westaustralien eine Musterrolle erhalten, die nach der Beschlagnahmung des Schiffes in Fremantle zu den Gerichtsakten kam und bis heute vom Nationalarchiv aufbewahrt wird (© State Records Office of Western Australia, Perth, Cons. 4230/1.03)

Darin finden sich auch Informationen über die Verpflegung der Seeleute, denn diese musste laut Seemannsordnung in der Musterrolle des jeweiligen Schiffes eingetragen sein.

So schön, wie es die Seemannsordnung von 1902 in der Sprache der damaligen Zeit formuliert, könnte ich das nicht ausdrücken, deshalb hier der Text im Original:

„Insbesondere muß aus der Musterrolle erhellen, was dem Schiffsmanne für den Tag an Speise und Trank gebührt.“
Zitat aus § 14 der Seemannsordnung vom 2. Juni 1902; abgerufen unter de.m.wiksource.org

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Guest article: ‘Ten Things I can’t Wait to do in London when the World Reopens’ by Cathryn Goddard

Near to Daunt’s in Marylebone High Street is the Oxfam shop which also has a pretty good selection and CDs too!

tashtasticblog's avatartashtastic

I live in the depths of South London and have missed the freedom of the Capital. This isn’t exactly a hardship in the grand scheme things. But when the days are grey and I feel down in lockdown, I think of what I will do when I can fully return to the City I love.

Going down the rabbit hole

I have been so excited for the V&A’s major exhibition of Alice: Adventures in Wonderland, since its announcement in 2019. How could you not be with the lead marketing images? Luckily, according to the museum’s website, the exhibition is postponed for a later date.

I’ve also missed coffee in the V&A’s cafe, designed by William Morris, James Gamble and William Poynter. I love starting my day in this mosaic wonderland with the most spectacular chandelier in London @vam

1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair

Every Autumn, 1-54 brings together the most…

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Film Literature Uncategorized

The past uncovered- an aircraft in the sands

Extract from the Daily Mirror

The emergence of this wrecked Beaufighter after more than 75 years struck me as interesting for a variety of reasons. Rather as memories emerge from traumatic periods in the past. It seems to me that much of the current political debate over Brexit and other matters is connected with unresolved conflicts from the past. Also there is the contrast or juxtaposition between the terrible last moments in the cockpit, as the engines failed, and the discovery of the wreck by the arrival of the dog bounding across the sands so many years later.

Thinking of the variety of persons lost from Leslie Howard, the Film-star in 1943, Antoine St Expupery in July 1944 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoine_de_Saint-Exup%C3%A9ry) and the disappearance of Jazz Band leader Glenn Miller in December 1944, I came across this famous poem by W.B.Yeats.

An Irish Airman Forsees His Death

I know that I shall meet my fate
Somewhere among the clouds above;
Those that I fight I do not hate
Those that I guard I do not love;
My country is Kiltartan Cross,
My countrymen Kiltartan’s poor,
No likely end could bring them loss
Or leave them happier than before.
Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,
Nor public man, nor cheering crowds,
A lonely impulse of delight
Drove to this tumult in the clouds;
I balanced all, brought all to mind,
The years to come seemed waste of breath,
A waste of breath the years behind
In balance with this life, this death.

This  great poem exposes what sometimes is forgotten – the treatment of the Irish in the shady forgotten history of British imperialism. Kiltartan by the way is not far from Galway.