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John Hodgman and Climax
Most students of literature are familiar with the concept of “Bathos”, defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as the “ludicrous descent from the elevated to the commonplace in writing or speech” –...
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From the Bookshelf: Atlas Shrugged – Ayn Rand, (Saxobank Special 35th...
This is a riveting mystery, not about the murder of a man’s body, but about the murder – and rebirth – of man’s spirit. It is a philosophical revolution, told in the form of an action thriller of...
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The Monday Cartoon: Plumbing (Tom Browne, 1906)
Working Man, sitting on the steps of a big house in, say, Russell Square, smoking pipe. A mate passes by with plumbing tools, &c. Man with tools. “Hullo, Jim! Wot are yer doin’ ere? Caretakin’?”...
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The Badger’s Literary Pilgrimage: Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (London W2,...
“Poor little Peter Pan, he sat down and cried, and even then he did not know that, for a bird, he was sitting on his wrong part. It is a blessing that he did not know, for otherwise he would have lost...
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The Wednesday Read: On Form in Cricket and It’s Mystery – A.E Knight (Strand...
With the Ashes series looming, I thought this might provide a helpful insight Despite the accepted uncertainty of cricket, there is no subject which causes so great an amount of discussion, of...
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The Friday Cartoon: Lord Tennyson (Phil May 1892)
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, was the Victorian poet laureate. He held the position for 42 years of Victoria’s reign, from the death of William Wordsworth in 1850 until the 1892, the year of his own death....
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Good news everyone
I’ve bought a hand held scanner. It’s great and will allow me to scan lots of things in great detail things that were too fragile to wedge into a normal scanner.
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The Badger’s Literary Pilgrimage: Lady Ottoline Morrell’s House (10 Gower...
“How on earth does Ottoline suck enough nourishment out of the solitary male? I was thinking of your tea parties and I thought of Stephen Spender talking about himself and of old Tom [TS] Eliot also...
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The Wednesday Read: Curiosities. (The Strand, 1907)
A HOUSE NO MONEY CAN BUY The adjoining photograph is one I took on a mining claim in the Rocky Mountains, Colorado. The house is an old structure standing on a very rich mining area, known as the...
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From the Bookshelf: First Steps to Rugby Football – W.D. Gibbon (Mills &...
Another sporting feature this week, I’m afraid, this time to celebrate the glorious performance of the British Lions, in their triumph over Australia at the weekend, clinching a first series victory...
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Some musings on imagination and space in A Midsummer Night ’s Dream, Twelfth...
Considerations of the relationship between imagination and space in theatre permeate Shakespeare’s writing. He revels in meta-theatrical flourishes – reminders to his audience they are witnessing drama...
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The Monday Cartoon: Scene – In a ‘Bus. Time – During the Hot Spell (Leonard...
SCENE – In a ‘Bus. TIME – During the Hot Spell. First City Man. “D–d hot, isn’t it –, I–I beg your pardon, madam, I — I quite forgot there was a lady pres–” Stout Party. “Dont apologise. It’s much …...
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The Badger’s Literary Pilgrimage: St Botolph’s Aldgate, London, EC3N
In 1684 the perpetually indebted writer, businessman, and occasional spy Daniel Defoe (author of Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders) married Mary Tuffley, a merchant’s daughter who also happened to be...
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The Wednesday Read: The NSA and Hamlet (1985) – Daniel Knauf
Given all the current publicity surrounding whistle-blowing – from Edward Snowden in Moscow Airport, to the Magnitsky trial, to Bradley Manning, and Julian Assange etc, I thought readers might be...
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A rose by any other name…
In an internal meeting today, one of the young office juniors referred to a client who’d just gone off on a yachting holiday as “flamarous”. The other junior laughed along. I laughed politely while...
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Musings on the Great Gatsby
I had an interesting debate on The Great Gatsby at a party last night. To me, while Fitzgerald exposes the synthetic nature of the American Dream, he also glories in it’s art. In doing so he is part of...
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Nicholas Lezard on the lasting importance of the literary critic
A good article on Friday from the Guardian’s literary critic Nicholas Lezard, in defence of the cultural critic in an age of popular aggregate review systems – be it Amazon, IMDB, Tripadvisor etc....
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