Category Archives: Literature

Rowan on Auden: WTF?

Posted on March 21, 2008 by acb

Last week Rowan Williams contributed a preface to the Guardian’s little pamphlet of Auden poetry. Did anyone at any stage, read what he wrote? In particular, did anyone actually read the following two sentences? The technical skill is always exceptional. … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in God, Literature | 9 Comments

Raymond Chandler

Posted on February 28, 2008 by acb

So hard to do right; so easy to do like this: For an instant, I saw the golden ring on his drumming fingers. A five-pointed star was engraved on the ring that Dr Albert Fowler was no longer wearing when … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Literature | 3 Comments

Mumin blogging

Posted on February 9, 2008 by acb

It’s my birthday today, and I’ll translate a bit of Tove Jansson if I want to: this is chapter 3 of Sent i November which I have never actually read in English. I really really wish I knew some small … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Literature | 2 Comments

Kornbluth and Eugenics

Posted on January 30, 2008 by acb

Looking around for links with which to embellish my last piece, I discovered that almost all of the references on the net to the great Cyril Kornbluth story The Marching Morons stressed its eugenicist — actually dysgenicist — character, something … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Book cover

Posted on December 9, 2007 by acb

Here at last: the back cover text is in the alt tag. Continue reading →

Posted in Literature, Sweden | 6 Comments

Mailer and Waugh

Posted on November 12, 2007 by acb

A note in the Telegraph’s obituary of Norman Mailer leads me to ponder the distinction between egomaniacs and shits. They might seem indistinguishable, but the comparison with Evelyn Waugh shows they are not. Mailer, it’s obvious from his biographies, was … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Literature | 1 Comment

Angela Lambert

Posted on September 27, 2007 by acb

My friend Angela Lambert died early yesterday morning. She had been horribly ill for a long time; had indeed sent a message to all her friends in April saying “Goodbye”, so I was able to tease her about missing a … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Brief Lit Crit

Posted on August 29, 2007 by acb

I’m seventy pages into Oliver Morton’s Eating the Sun but that’s all right because I only started last night and I am writing at the breakfast table. It’s very good indeed. Go out and buy it if you have any … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Two stories of secluded life

Posted on July 26, 2007 by acb

From the latest LRB: Graham Greene is staying in a leper colony in the Congo: We tried to protect Greene from people’s curiosity. The most obvious nuisances were those who wanted his opinion on some manuscript they had in a … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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A thought on history

Posted on July 22, 2007 by acb

The point of history is surely, still, to discover what actually happened but the past can only be understood if we know what actually didn’t happen. People’s actions, their understandings of the world, can only be understood in the light … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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