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Post by Maolsheachlann on May 5, 2020 6:45:53 GMT
I remember Ian Paisley joking in an interview that his newspaper boy might have doubts about his Protestantism as he always subscribed to a Catholic newspaper!
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Post by cato on May 5, 2020 9:16:41 GMT
I discovered an unread copy of Chavs - an analysis of white British working class male culture by the above mentioned Owen Jones of the Guardian on a bookshelf at home this morning........ My left wing leanings are now exposed. That cash from North Korea was only resting in my post office account.
Am overwhelmed at learning Dr Paisley was a possible subscriber to the Irish Catholic or the Sacred Heart Messenger.
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Post by Tomas on May 5, 2020 14:37:45 GMT
Now and then appears ads that strikes with the fur. Today came this when opening the forum page (on a new biography, Strindberg A Life, by author Sue Prideaux, Yale University Press): "A mesmerizing account of the chaotic life and brilliant work of a playwright whose influence is undiminished 100 years after his death
Novelist, satirist, poet, photographer, painter, alchemist, and hellraiser-August Strindberg was all these, and yet he is principally known, in Arthur Miller's words, as "the mad inventor of modern theater" who led playwriting out of the polite drawing room into the snakepit of psychological warfare. This biography, supported by extensive new research, describes the eventful and complicated life of one of the great literary figures in world literature. Sue Prideaux organizes Strindberg's story into a gripping and highly readable narrative that both illuminates his work and restores humor and humanity to a man often shrugged off as too difficult."
Last line, too difficult, is what many in our generation would admit in front of his devastatingly voluminous output. He is quite similar to Ingmar Bergman in that respect. Only few cultural nerds or book worms would disregard them altogether. Yet despite their position perhaps not so popular as they were before. Perpetual status as abstract national icon in cultural circles, and outside of them by that venerable definition of a classic, seldom or never read!
In his august years (yes pun intended!!) around the turn of the century, he was in some ways approaching Catholicism. In the Catholic Historical Society were I am active as arranger, we were contemplating making a programme on that aspect, but finding out it was actually so loose threads that it never came closer than a flirt, the ideas were dropped for the time being. The inscript on his grave cross is solid Latin motto no matter what though: Ave O Crux spes unica.
Always the controversialist he is also known as one of the finest stylists in Swedish literature...
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Post by Séamus on May 6, 2020 10:52:06 GMT
One of the glimmers of light in the present gloom.....etc.... I have read John Kennedy Tooles A Confederacy of Dunces at the start of the lockdown. It's main character is an eccentric anti modernist Ignatius J Reilly as he battles every day reality in New Orleans while living with his long suffering mother...etc...? Although it's a bit crass at times, Confederacy is one of the very few books that have genuinely and involuntarily made me actually laugh. The early part of Great Expectations, where Pip describes his bizarre home life is the only other one I can think of offhand. The irony of it all is the actual tragedy attached to the book in real life. (I suppose Ignatius would have also been an extraordinary form mass supporter had he lived in the year 2020,he certainly reminds me of some of the more eccentric cases). I wonder does some of the characterisation pass muster with today's "LGBT" communities?
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Post by Tomas on May 6, 2020 11:56:30 GMT
Easily taking Lewis´s judgement verbatim, asserting literary classics for children as absolutely worthwhile also for their seniors, few "children´s books" are now become dusted and mused.
"I am almost inclined to set up as a canon that a children´s story which is enjoyed only by children is a bad children´s story" he wrote in an essay.
Simple as they stand some of these stories can go down like sheer treat in present shadowland. Others feels just frankly dated. Among those visited or revisited during last months has been Jack the Giant Killer, Just-so stories, and Peter Pan. (All three likeable in nostalgic sentiment if not entirely super in hindsight.) Ongoing is The Hobbit.
Besides that a three hrs long version of Gulliver´s Travels on dvd, featuring none less than Peter O´Toole and with Ted Danson from Cheers in the lead role, is biding its time on the shelf.
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Post by Tomas on May 6, 2020 12:04:43 GMT
One of the glimmers of light in the present gloom.....etc.... I have read John Kennedy Tooles A Confederacy of Dunces at the start of the lockdown. It's main character is an eccentric anti modernist Ignatius J Reilly as he battles every day reality in New Orleans while living with his long suffering mother...etc...? Although it's a bit crass at times, Confederacy is one of the very few books that have genuinely and involuntarily made me actually laugh. The early part of Great Expectations, where Pip describes his bizarre home life is the only other one I can think of offhand. The irony of it all is the actual tragedy attached to the book in real life. (I suppose Ignatius would have also been an extraordinary form mass supporter had he lived in the year 2020,he certainly reminds me of some of the more eccentric cases). I wonder does some of the characterisation pass muster with today's "LGBT" communities? This is one of only some handful books that I´ve heard recommended at long intervals over the years, part of definition for a literary classic too? Would very much like to read it. If it makes you laugh, it has more than enough in its favour.
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Post by Tomas on May 6, 2020 12:08:08 GMT
Waiting to be read in the summer is Faulkner, Intruder in the Dust. Postponed for last summers and I really think it would be best suited to be read during a lazy hot July week.
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Post by Tomas on May 6, 2020 14:40:20 GMT
Late reply for the original list:
1. War and Peace. Never read. Hearing he was genteel Socialist does not make me more inclined to do so. The first and only Russian novelist ever read (last year) is Dostoyevsky. I´ve always felt most inclined to choose him before anyone else. Have now read seven of his shorter novels. Sentimental page turners with lots of emotional quality. Maybe his works will be the only thing for me on the Russian library market.
2. Crime and Punishment. Would probably like it but still way down on the long waiting list.
3. The Divine Comedy by Dante. Begun in translation one day sitting in a park in resort deep into old Etruscian heartland. It seems all Italians read it in school. The most obvious book for literary pedagogues and interesting both for the story framework and its major impact. The thing with real people placed in various settings has not made it more accesible but rather the opposite for me. Would have preferred the Tolkien approach to have nothing to do with real people written into the story. Maybe that idea should be different for poetry than prose.
4. Ulysses by James Joyce. Never read either. Only Dubliners which I read because being curious about Dublin and not for literary value in particular. Liked some of the short stories that had atmosphere. Can´t remember much now since it was nearly two decades ago but there was an amazing beginning in one of the first episodes "It was too late already.." (or similar) and one later set at a house in winter time. Would be more interesting to read Portrait of a young man since it covers the Jesuit school years. The most funny part of Flann O´Brien The Dalkey Archives (along with the fantastic scene where he actually met Joyce himself later on, in hiding yet well alive in a suburb or small town miles away…) was where he had an appointment applying for service job at the Jesuit house.
5. The Aeneid by Virgil. Impossible both for its form and content (for me).
6. The Oddyssey. Same as Aeneid.
6. The Iliad. Same.
7. The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer. Was thinking about it several years ago but after reading an essay about it recently the whole wish is vanished. Abridged version never so alluring.
8. Paradise Lost by Milton. Very long poems are too difficult and tardily to read for me. English in old poems is difficult even in other format. The longest ones I have read were rewarding read still so maybe there is no principle here but only expression of wrong attitude.
9. In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust. Liked the idea about writing in detail on a limited place and time. Its theme of memory is no dull entry either. But probably just another one so far down on the waiting list that it will never actually be read.
10. Don Quixote. Similar to the Canterbury Tales and too long to read etc etc.
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Post by Maolsheachlann on May 7, 2020 5:47:58 GMT
I think Tolstoy can be cleared of the charge of genteel socialism. He was more an extreme anarchist than anything else! And a very unorthodox Christian. I've only ever read one short story by him, though.
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Post by Tomas on May 8, 2020 8:58:49 GMT
I think Tolstoy can be cleared of the charge of genteel socialism. He was more an extreme anarchist than anything else! And a very unorthodox Christian. I've only ever read one short story by him, though. The Socialist umbrella covering many, from Russian & Prussian landowners up to rugged outcasts in search of breadcrumbs outside the city dump? No, besides joking my fault is often that I just see the redness and am missing the blackness. Thanks for proper view!
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Post by assisi on May 15, 2020 17:49:40 GMT
I think Tolstoy can be cleared of the charge of genteel socialism. He was more an extreme anarchist than anything else! And a very unorthodox Christian. I've only ever read one short story by him, though. The Socialist umbrella covering many, from Russian & Prussian landowners up to rugged outcasts in search of breadcrumbs outside the city dump? No, besides joking my fault is often that I just see the redness and am missing the blackness. Thanks for proper view! I read Turgenev's 'Fathers and Sons' (published 1862), recently, for the 2nd time in my life. This time I was able to understand the political dynamic throughout the book. Of the 2 main protagonists, one, Bazarov is the liberal genius full of anti-establishment ideas and the other his friend Arkady who is under his spell but still has much residual respect for the old ways of his estate owning father and serfs in the countryside. I am suddenly finding this liberal v traditionalist tension in more and more books written in the 19th and early 20th century than I would have imagined before. I would think that the French Revolution must have been the catalyst for much of this tension. Turgenev was a friend of the younger Tolstoy but it seems that Tolstoy could be very bitter and condescending to Turgenev. At one point they arranged to have a duel after Tolstoy had insulted Turgenev, but thankfully it was called off. Before Turgenev died in France he asked Tolstoy to come visit him one last time but Tolstoy didn't visit even though Turgenev lived on for a few more months.
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Post by Séamus on Mar 29, 2021 8:43:29 GMT
Pope Francis seems to have released an apostolic letter to mark the anniversary of Dante's death. I wonder is it the first time an official Papal document has been written to honour somebody in virtue of their literary contribution, marking neither their theology or their personal saintliness? Does it open the way for others remembered for the same? Belloc,Tolkien Chesterton?
Worth mention that His Holiness had last week given his disapproval of the Marian 'co-Redemptorix' title during a sermon- a popular or once-popular hymn beginning 'Maiden Yet A Mother', paraphrased by Monsignor Knox from words put in St Bernard's mouth by Dante,contained one verse that was considered too untheological for inclusion in some hymnals, indeed the current ordinary form liturgy of the hours skips it, Knox's flowery English is hard to read plainly but we're told that reaching heaven without Mary is flying without wings.
As Easter approaches it might be argued that Australia has a creature called the sugar glider (possum) that reaches from gum tree to gum tree simply through parachute-like skin flabs. But that's not really flying.
Probably a more potent lesson to reflect on the contribution to poetry that the Virgin has inspired,from Dante onwards.
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Post by cato on Mar 29, 2021 15:19:32 GMT
Pope Francis seems to have released an apostolic letter to mark the anniversary of Dante's death. I wonder is it the first time an official Papal document has been written to honour somebody in virtue of their literary contribution, marking neither their theology or their personal saintliness? Does it open the way for others remembered for the same? Belloc,Tolkien Chesterton? Worth mention that His Holiness had last week given his disapproval of the Marian 'co-Redemptorix' title during a sermon- a popular or once-popular hymn beginning 'Maiden Yet A Mother', paraphrased by Monsignor Knox from words put in St Bernard's mouth by Dante,contained one verse that was considered too untheological for inclusion in some hymnals, indeed the current ordinary form liturgy of the hours skips it, Knox's flowery English is hard to read plainly but we're told that reaching heaven without Mary is flying without wings. As Easter approaches it might be argued that Australia has a creature called the sugar glider (possum) that reaches from gum tree to gum tree simply through parachute-like skin flabs. But that's not really flying. Probably a more potent lesson to reflect on the contribution to poetry that the Virgin has inspired,from Dante onwards. I have dipped into the papal document on Dante and it looks good. I 'll read it at leisure later. It's available on the Vatican website. Like many specialised works it's probably the handy work of some curial official who is a Dante fan. The Italians have a widespread Dante cult regarding him as the father of literary Tuscan Italian.Almost every modern pope since Leo XII has issued letters on Dante and his connection with catholic truth so Francis isn't breaking new ground here. I expect Seamus papal letters have been issued on other writers. Although not a writer I was always impressed by John Paul II spontaneously beatifying the Florentine artist Fra Angelico and issuing a letter to artists in 1982 making him their patron. I do agree with Francis on the Co-redemptrix issue which has caused some grinding and gnashing of teeth in Traddydom. Sometimes well meaning popular devotion can stray outside the boundaries of orthodoxy.
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Post by Séamus on Apr 6, 2021 11:30:03 GMT
Pope Francis seems to have released an apostolic letter to mark the anniversary of Dante's death. I wonder is it the first time an official Papal document has been written to honour somebody in virtue of their literary contribution, marking neither their theology or their personal saintliness? Does it open the way for others remembered for the same? Belloc,Tolkien Chesterton? Worth mention that His Holiness had last week given his disapproval of the Marian 'co-Redemptorix' title during a sermon- a popular or once-popular hymn beginning 'Maiden Yet A Mother', paraphrased by Monsignor Knox from words put in St Bernard's mouth by Dante,contained one verse that was considered too untheological for inclusion in some hymnals, indeed the current ordinary form liturgy of the hours skips it, Knox's flowery English is hard to read plainly but we're told that reaching heaven without Mary is flying without wings. As Easter approaches it might be argued that Australia has a creature called the sugar glider (possum) that reaches from gum tree to gum tree simply through parachute-like skin flabs. But that's not really flying. Probably a more potent lesson to reflect on the contribution to poetry that the Virgin has inspired,from Dante onwards. I have dipped into the papal document on Dante and it looks good. I 'll read it at leisure later. It's available on the Vatican website. Like many specialised works it's probably the handy work of some curial official who is a Dante fan. The Italians have a widespread Dante cult regarding him as the father of literary Tuscan Italian.Almost every modern pope since Leo XII has issued letters on Dante and his connection with catholic truth so Francis isn't breaking new ground here. I expect Seamus papal letters have been issued on other writers. Although not a writer I was always impressed by John Paul II spontaneously beatifying the Florentine artist Fra Angelico and issuing a letter to artists in 1982 making him their patron. I do agree with Francis on the Co-redemptrix issue which has caused some grinding and gnashing of teeth in Traddydom. Sometimes well meaning popular devotion can stray outside the boundaries of orthodoxy. Should probably be mentioned that the visions of Irish missionary-monk Fursey are said to have influenced Divine Comedy. Certainly he was one of the few Irish saints included in Golden Legend which shows his importance to the Italy of that era. I wonder how often will it be the case that the same voices who dismiss early mysticism like St Fursey or the acts of martyrs as too fanciful to contain merit will claim that western literature was only born with Chaucer and Dante and generally with the Renaissance. If earlier writings up to Hildegard's hagiographical poems were fanciful were they not then literature? British Royal Mail has recently issued stamps depicting King Arthur,Sir Lancelot,Sir Galahad and the Round Table. A reminder that literary merit has always been there in the West in different forms.
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Post by Séamus on Aug 14, 2021 10:05:41 GMT
Some of the more committed supporters of Brexit,whether British,Irish or whatever, have recently found reasons to criticize Macron and other European leaders, Gibraltar being one cause of angst (can Ireland claim an opinion there as it was one of the Rock was one of few mentions of a world outside of Dublin in Ulysses?).
I don't think there can be a greater apologia for the old British Empire than Jules Verne's Mr Passepartout- a French character seeing British India, Singapore and Hong Kong through his Frenchman's eyes. No doubt the concept of "Around the World" and "in Eighty Days" was a reflection on the cutting edge technology of the time- similar to seeing Misters Bezos and Branson jetting off into space (possible but out of reach).
It comes to mind now as controversy emerged this past week about how much isolation was required of Olympic athletes from the state of South Australia,some people wondering whether almost a month of quarantine was necessary- two weeks in Sydney in case of Tokyo covid germs and two weeks in Adelaide in case of Sydney covid germs.... What was barely possible in the 1800s via Victorian Britain and the emerging American superpower- world travels in minimum time- became more commonplace as decades rolled on and has become more less possible in our day as entry and exit becomes more difficult,in small ways earlier this century as security was increased due to terrorism; now in a more profound way in many countries in a way that the Al Qaeda fighters could never have achieved. It might pay to emulate the pragmatism of Mr Fogg.
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