I’ve been reading a biography of Leonard Cohen, recently: the 2012 I’m Your Man, by Sylvie Simmons. It’s an interesting journey through the life and thoughts of an exquisite artist who is, by nature, somewhat reclusive and stays out…
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Molly'sBlog: Love Poems of Ovid
Love Poems of Ovid selected and translated by Horace Gregory, Mentor Books, Toronto, 1964 Ovid (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ovid) – full name Publius Ovidius Naso – is considered one of the greats of Latin literature, up there with Virgil and Horace. Certainly his ‘Metamorphosis’ is a great work, one that has influenced many other
Continue readingMolly'sBlog: Love Poems of Ovid
Love Poems of Ovid selected and translated by Horace Gregory, Mentor Books, Toronto, 1964Ovid (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ovid) – full name Publius Ovidius Naso – is considered one of the greats of Latin literature, up there with Virgil and Hor…
Continue readingMolly'sBlog: Love Poems of Ovid
Love Poems of Ovid selected and translated by Horace Gregory, Mentor Books, Toronto, 1964Ovid (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ovid) – full name Publius Ovidius Naso – is considered one of the greats of Latin literature, up there with Virgil and Hor…
Continue readingScripturient: Judas, a Biography
Long before Darth Vader, long before Lord Voldemort, long before Stephen Harper, Judas Iscariot reigned as the supreme icon of evil in Western mythology. Judas betrayed God. How much worse can you get?* For 2,000 years we’ve used the term Judas
Continue readingScripturient: Read, Re-read, Repeat
I’m currently re-reading Mikhail Bulgakov’s fantasy novel of Soviet life under Stalin, The Master and Margarita. Since this is actually a newer translation than the original one I read many years ago, I’m not sure it properly qualifie…
Continue readingScripturient: In Praise of Audio Books
Although I had listened to them in the past, I really discovered the joys of audio books several years ago, when my 92-year-old father entered hospital for his final months. As I travelled to and from the city frequently that summer, audio books kept me entertained and my mind from
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Lament For A Nation – A Review
(Originally written as a review for Good Reads) Here is a must-read for all Canadians – George Grant’s classic masterpiece, documenting the poor decisions which led to the loss of sovereignty of Canada to the US empire, just at a time when the British empire had been weakened enough that
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Lament For A Nation – A Review
(Originally written as a review for Good Reads) Here is a must-read for all Canadians – George Grant’s classic masterpiece, documenting the poor decisions which led to the loss of sovereignty of Canada to the US empire, just at a time when the British empire had been weakened enough that
Continue readingScripturient: Boccaccio’s Decameron
I never read The Decameron in any original, or complete translation. I have a bowdlerized edition I read in part some time ago, perhaps the 1970s. I recall seeing an art film based on the book, in the 1970s (directed Pier Pasolini). But I can’t recall it in any detail,
Continue readingScripturient: Anthony and Cleopatra
While Julius Caesar is my favourite of all Shakespeare’s plays, I think Anthony and Cleopatra is my second favourite. I know it’s hard to choose any favourites from his plays, they’re all so good, but this one seems to resonate with me more than most others, enough to encourage me
Continue readingPostArctica: Fictional Characters in Public
For me Literature always tells us more about the human condition than does our history books so there is something wonderful and enlightening about bringing the great characters of fiction to life in local ways such as the Bloomsday celebrations in Dublin or the statues of Don Quixote and Sancho
Continue readingPostArctica: Fictional Characters in Public
For me Literature always tells us more about the human condition than does our history books so there is something wonderful and enlightening about bringing the great characters of fiction to life in local ways such as the Bloomsday celebrations in Dublin or the statues of Don Quixote and Sancho
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: Prenzie Scamels
Four hundred years after he wrote them, we still use in everyday speech the many words and phrases Shakespeare coined. He gave us so many, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to list them all here. But two words he wrote have stopped us dead: prenzie and scamels. What do
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: Too Many Books?
Tim Parks* wrote an intriguing essay in the New York Review of Books last week with that title. My first thought on seeing it was to wonder if one can ever have too many books. But of course, Parks – an author himself – is looking at the bigger picture,
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: Julius Caesar: Best of the Bard?
For my money, Julius Caesar is simply Billy Shakespeare’s best ever play. I mean, what’s not to like in it? It has some stonking great speeches in it – including one of his top five ever (Marc Antony’s “Friends, Romans, countrymen….”) as well as a passel of memorable lines you can
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Short Story in ‘Trust & Treachery’
This one’s a long time coming, folks. A short story I wrote a while back — “Infinitas,” it’s called, about a group of shipwreck survivors who slowly lose touch with reality while trying to forge a new society aboard their life raft — is now available in an anthology of
Continue readingmark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: Why do lit-ah-rary types look down on SF
So what is it about science fiction that causes “literary” types to look down upon it? Like any genre, SF has its bad and good. No scratch that, like any writing, there is both bad and good. I’ve read plenty … Continue reading →
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: The difficult art of reading poetry
Synecdoche. Metonymy. Not exactly words that trip lightly off the tongue. Unless, I suppose, you’re Harold Bloom. Those are two of the four fundamental tropes in literature, Bloom tells us. Identified originally by Kenneth Burke, who, as Bloom calls him, was a “profound student of rhetoric.” Bloom references Burke in
Continue readingPostArctica: Bookish Butch
Proud to say my favorite former used bookstore owner has won best blog in the GLBT category! Way to go, Caroline!! Canadian Blog Awards 2014 results Bookish Butch
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