This insightful quote from JRR Tolkien comes via the always rich and fascinating Hammock Papers…
It is precisely the colouring, the atmosphere, the unclassifiable individual details of a story, and above all the general purport that informs with life the undissected bones of the plot, that really count.
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“The best translations into English do not, in fact, read as if they were originally written in English. The English words are arranged in such a way that the reader sees a glimpse of another culture’s patterns of thinking, hears an echo of another language’s rhythms and cadences, and feels a tremor of another people’s gestures and movements.”
— Ken Liu, Translator’s Postface to The Three Body Problem (via as-if-falling)
I love this. It goes straight to the heart of language and highlights why so much translation is so poor.
Hat-tip to Je t’aime / N’arrete pas.
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This looks interesting, a new exhibition at the V&A exploring the influence of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
The Times’ Ben Macintyre has some theories on the book’s inspirations, here.
Here are a couple of fine songs inspired by Alice…
… and, of course…
The books themselves – Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass – are worth a read, too. It’s good to go straight to the source.
Image: John Tenniel’s illustration from the original publication (Source: British Library: https://www.bl.uk/alice-in-wonderland/articles/alice-at-150#)
The Times’ Literary Editor, Robbie Millen on identity politics and its stifling effect on writers:
It makes me queasy, this idea that “identity” is so sacrosanct that writers’ imaginations must be policed by self-appointed gatekeepers.
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Execupundit’s Michael Wade points to a forthcoming series on General Grant — US Civil War general and, later, 18th president of the United States.
It was Michael who first sparked my interest in Grant. It’s on the History channel. I hope it’s available in the UK.
Here’s the trailer:
How’s your tsundoku? In our present time of limited distraction, I’m hoping to eat my way through mine.
For tsundoku is the Japanese word for books piling up, unread.
Learned readers will of course appreciate that this is a positive thing.
It’s another of those valuable concepts ( Shinrin-yoku, or forest bathing, wabi-sabi) that the Japanese have a word for.
More here (Open Culture), here (Wikipedia) and here (BBC).
Main image, photo by Ed Robertson on Unsplash
We all should have a reading nook in which to snuggle down and escape into a book.
TheMindCircle.com has some excellent examples, here.
Images: TheMindCircle.com
I’ve just finished The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity by Douglas Murray. It opens…
We are going through a great crowd derangement. In public and in private, both online and off, people are behaving in ways that are increasingly irrational, feverish, herd-like and simply unpleasant.”
If you struggle to find a logic to follow in identity politics, if you’re somewhat mystified by the raging debates about gender versus sex, or the rights of actors or writers to present a perspective other than that of their own race-gender-sexuality, then this is the book for you.
As a result, I too found myself googling “European art” and “straight white couple”. I’ve so far resisted the temptation to google Nicki Minaj’s Anaconda video … but, the days are longer in self-isolation.
A valuable, insightful book.
There’s a taster in this interview from Uncommon Knowledge:
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Classic works of literature by William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens and other great writers can boost your brain and relieve depression, chronic pain and dementia.
Andrew Gregory, The Sunday Times, The Pick-me-up Papers: Dickens better for mental health than self-help books
Here’s a thought-provoking piece from last week’s Sunday Times. Mental health is improved by reading classic works of literature because…
Unusual phrases and unfamiliar words in great works of literature command the undivided attention of readers, provoking moments of self-reflection and helping shift brains into a higher gear.
And, the approach seems to be having a positive impact in clinical scenarios…
There is no evidence bibliotherapy, or reading therapy, can cure mental health disorders, but medics have reported dramatic results in those with poor mental health. Dr Helen Willows, a GP, said she had seen reading “transform the lives of the people that we see day after day at our surgery — those that are stuck, perhaps with low mood or who are socially isolated.”
Dr David Fearnley, executive medical director of the Betsi Cadwaladr University health board and one of the longest- serving medical directors in the NHS, goes further. Reading aloud with others in particular, he says, is “the most significant development in mental healthcare in the past 10 years”.
It’s interesting that, in all areas of life, we pursue ease and a reduction in friction, whether that’s making writing simpler, our background music less intrusive or our daily lives less exercised. But, like resistance work in the gym, or fibre in food, it’s the push-back, the friction that has greatest effect.
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