Nepenthe

Bad sex award goes to Jonathan Littell's The Kindly Ones The American winner of the Prix Goncourt, Jonathan Littell, has added another feather to his cap. His novel, The Kindly Ones, was tonight announced as the winner of the Literary Review's 2009 bax sex in fiction award . The Kindly Ones, which tells the story of the Holocaust through the eyes of one of the executioners, beat off stiff competition from a stellar shortlist that included entries from Philip Roth, John Banville, Paul Theroux and the literary rock star Nick Cave. The judges paid tribute to the novel's breadth and ambition, calling it "in part, a work of genius". "However," the citation continued, "a mythologically inspired passage and lines such as 'I came suddenly, a jolt that emptied my head like a spoon scraping the inside of a soft-boiled egg' clinched the award for The Kindly Ones. We hope he takes it in good humour." According to Jonathan Beckman at the Litera...

Esta semana no Sound + Vision ;)

Against Camel Case By CALEB CRAIN As you probably know, the California-based company Apple makes a portable communication device — a device that an acquaintance of mine whose first language is not English distinguishes as a “self” phone. Though proper nouns conventionally begin with a capital letter, Apple spells the device’s trademark with an initial lowercase i , followed by an uppercase P . Thus styled, the word has a hump in the middle. I could print it here to show you, but I refuse to allow my prose to be so disfigured. On account of the hump, midword capitals are sometimes called “camel case.” Other terms include “intercaps” and “incapping.” There is some precedent for the unsightliness. Dictionaries list a variety of apple known as a McIntosh, for example, and the language has long tolerated such identities as Ian McEwan , Louis MacNeice and even Myles na gCopaleen. In my considered opinion, the juxtaposition of majuscule and minuscule in a personal name may be...

Some nations -- Por tugal and Poland among them -- argued for delaying replication for at least a year. Three compelling counterarguments were presented. First, as Lloyd pointed out, the more time that elapsed, the more likely some external factor would change sufficiently to prevent replication. Second, the need for absolute safety during a replication was clear in the public's mind right now; the more the severity of the accidents that occurred last time faded into memory, the more likely that people would be cavalier in their preparations. Third, people wanted new visions that confirmed or denied the events portrayed in their first visions, letting those with disturbing insights see if they were indeed now on track to avoiding those futures. If the new visions would also be of a time twenty-one years, six months, two days, and two hours ahead of the moment at which the replicated experiment began, each passing day diminished the chances that the second vision would be sufficie...

Thanx to JC ;) Similar, if we like, to this short film posted some time ago: This Is Where We Live from 4th Estate on Vimeo .

This week Richard Linklater's Me and Orson Welles is finally making its way to the big screen. It's not a big buzzed-about film, but it is, indeed, one worthy of your time. The movie offers a peek at Efron's possible future (which the abysmal 17 Again completely failed to do), a delightful look into creating art in the '30s, and it recreates the nuances of theater on the big screen. And hey, it's a Linklater film, which seems to be painfully rare these days. But none of those reasons are why I urge you to see it. It all rests on the shoulders of actor Christian McKay , who plays Orson Welles. I missed the film at TIFF , and spent the next year listening to raves over McKay's performance before I finally got the chance to make it to a screening. Even with the rave reviews and raised expectations, it was quite easy to get mesmerized by McKay, who not only bears an uncanny resemblance to the iconic actor and filmmaker, but also adeptly embodies the man's l...

Aslan, 14, arrives in a convertible car ;) Parvati, 3, does some yoga Radha, a two-month-old female Golden Tabby Tiger there are only 30 thirty 30 left in the world (I have no words worthy of such beauty...) Bija, 2, or my cat in a magnifying glass ;) Barry Bland , this most talented - and patient - of photographers   click to buy at Amazon More from a Telegraph Gallery

More from the Smithsonian's Mag Teotihuacan, Mexico: The Pyramid of the Sun Meroe, Sudan: The Nubian Pyramids Ur, Iraq: Ziggurat of Ur Peten, Guatemala: Mayan Pyramids of Tikal Rome, Italy: Pyramid of Cestius

See them all at the Telegraph Gallery   Craters surround a site at Peenemunde in Mecklenburg-Vorpommem, Germany on 2 September 1944 following an Allied bombing raid on the site where the V weapons were designed and tested   Central Caen in Normandy in France. This oblique image was taken by the Royal Air Force on 2 October 1944 An unidentified urban part of Germany, pictured on May 7, 1945 A picture taken on D-Day, 6 June 1944, of the Allied invasion. In the picture vehicles can be seen at the moment they disembark from landing craft

I was conceived in a damp, sand-flecked room of Curley's Hotel in Rockaway Beach, New York. August 1936. A headline in that Saturday's New York Post said "Hot, sticky, rainy weekend begins. High humidity and temperatures in the 90s send millions to the beaches." At the Paramount Theater in Times Square, Bing Crosby and Frances Farmer starred in Rhythm on the Range . Meanwhile at Curley's Hotel on Beach 116th Street, Mary and Patrick Carlin starred in yet another doomed Catholic remake of Rhythm in the Sack. For several generations Rockaway Beach had been a favorite weekend retreat for New York's alcohol-crazed Irish youth in search of sex and sun. Popular ethnic slurs to the contrary, the Irish do enjoy sex — at least the last ten seconds or so. But we must admit that Irish foreplay consists of little more than "You awake?" Or the more caring, sensitive "Brace yourself, Agnes!" Not that my conception was the tale of two young lovers, c...

Thanx to PR on FB ;)

Diz Cristóvão de Aguiar : N o JL, de 3 de Novembro, Miguel Real, entre muitas outras coisas, escreve: “Em Caim permanece o estilo tradicional de Saramago (já amiúde anali­sado), tanto barroquizante (…) ( uma floresta de palavras (subli­nhado meu) ilustra­dora de uma ideia) e anarquizante (uma espécie de every­thing goes ), isto é, a con­fluência de um léxico antigo e ver­nacular – avonde (pp.16 – com um voca­bulá­rio moderno, dese­nhando um melting pot semântico, aparente­mente espontâ­neo, pelo qual a lógica do texto cria as suas pró­prias hierarquias gra­maticais e ideológicas (…)". O estilo enxuto, descarnado, nunca foi dom de Saramago. O escritor explica tudo até à exaustão, o que não raro se torna enfa­donho. Dir-se-ia que há uma inundação de palavras, grande parte delas inúteis, como se tivesse ocorrido uma séria avaria na canali­zação provinda da nas­cente criadora. Por esta e outras razões, muita boa gente letrada costuma(va) afir­mar, em surdina (o politica­ment...

"É um caso notável e exemplar a vários níveis: a origem humilde e a formação académica reduzida e de natureza técnica; a tarimba de longos anos numa, digamos, segunda linha literária, como revisor tipográfico, tradutor e consultor editorial; o ter começado tarde, ou melhor, sido arrancando para a fama quase na velhice, é caso para admirar. E o saber assumir não só a fama mas também as canseiras que acarreta: viagens, entrevistas, colóquios, discursos, cerimónias, autógrafos, revela um sentido de dever que se deve realçar. Os trabalhos forçados das traduções e revisões deram-lhe muita leitura, experiência e estofo que ele soube aproveitar. O tempo de maturação é sábio, mas quem o compreende hoje? Saramago entendeu-o e aprendeu por si muita coisa, e servindo-se do talento que andou muitos anos escondido, a ganhar força, projectou-se subitamente de uma forma esplendorosa. De repente, com toda a gente a olhar para outros lado, isto é, para outros autores, um nome até aí muito discr...

Dizem-nos em De Rerum Natura : Suponhamos, por um momento, que o empregado comercial Fernando Pessoa, o mestre Alberto Caeiro, os dois discípulos, Álvaro de Campos, Ricardo Reis, e ainda o ajudante de guarda -livros Bernardo Soares eram membros da mesma associação secreta de viajantes. Será que o lema da associação, a senha passe-partout dos seus membros, poderia ser outra que não esta? Para que precisa de viajar com o corpo quem tão bem viaja com a alma? Ilustrado com pintura e fotografia, este livro é um claro exemplo da filosofia da Guerra e Paz Editores cujo motto é “inventar os seus próprios livros”. Neste Livro de Viagem o editor reuniu textos de Fernando Pessoa, Álvaro de Campos, Alberto Caeiro, Ricardo Reis e Bernardo Soares, oferecendo aos leitores uma visão sistemática da viagem na obra pessoana. Com toda a certeza, nunca nenhum leitor viajou com Fernando Pessoa “ele mesmo” e com os heterónimos, “outros que talvez sejam ele”, como nesta peculiar publicação que o editor...

so says Martin Amis. Writers on Jane Austen's enduring appeal: Jane Austen – born a year before the American Revolution – remains a hot literary property. A Truth Universally Acknowledged: 33 Great Writers on Why We Read Jane Austen (Random House, $25), edited by Susannah Carson, explains her eternal appeal. • Lamenting Austen's death at 41, Virginia Woolf reflects on how Austen's work might have evolved had she lived longer, perhaps becoming "the forerunner of Henry James and of Proust." Woolf calls Austen "the most perfect artist among women, the writer whose books are immortal." • Writing about Pride and Prejudice , Martin Amis confesses that, having read the novel five or six times, he would perhaps relish a more detailed conclusion involving a "twenty-page sex scene featuring the two principals, with Mr. Darcy, furthermore, acquitting himself uncommonly well." • Amy Heckerling explains why she set Austen's 1815 Emma in 199...

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'When you're writing a song, it's like you're the director, scriptwriter, cinematographer, everything. You're trying to create this little world, and although that's liberating, it's also a real head scratch. When you're just coming up with one part of the process, it's liberating in another way." Alison Goldfrapp is trying to explain, I suspect to herself as much as anyone else, why she and her musical partner, Will Gregory, spent most of the summer frantically writing the score for Nowhere Boy , Sam Taylor-Wood's biopic of the young John Lennon, when every shred of common sense suggested they should have been finishing the next Goldfrapp record instead. "It's enjoyable and fascinating to try and complement something that already exists," she continues. "You're doing something in parallel. It's a weird space to get into, but really interesting." Not only is the space "weird", it's increasingl...

LONDON ( Reuters Life! ) - A London-based translation firm is offering parents-to-be the chance to check the meaning of prospective baby names in other languages to avoid inadvertently causing their offspring future embarrassment. Celebrity couple Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes might have thought twice about naming their daughter Suri if they'd known that it means "pickpocket" in Japanese, "turned sour" in French, and "horse mackerels" in Italian, suggest Today Translations. For 1,000 pounds ($1,678), the company's linguists will carry out a "basic name translation audit" of names, checking their meaning in 100 languages, or more for an additional cost. While open to everyone, the firm said it expects the service is likely to attract celebrity clients, who are known for giving their babies unusual names. Other celebrity baby names it has checked include Kai Rooney, the newborn son of English soccer player Wayn...

EAT YOUR VEGETABLES All you have to do is stop eating beef. Worldwide, beef production contributes more to climate change than the ­entire transportation sector. The carbon footprint of the average meat eater is about 1.5 tons of CO2 larger than that of a vegetarian. Cutting beef out of your diet will reduce your CO2 emissions by 2,400 pounds annually. DRINK FROM THE TAP You can save money and your environment by giving up bottled water. The production of plastic water bottles together with the privatization of our drinking water is an environmental and social catastrophe . Bottled water costs more per gallon than gasoline. The average American consumes 30 gallons of bottled water annually. Giving up one bottle of imported water means using up one less liter of fossil fuel and emitting 1.2 pounds less of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. OBSERVE AN ECO-SABBATH For one day or afternoon or even one hour a week, don’t buy anything, don’t use any machines, don’t switch on ...

A Cinematical take :) The Twilight Saga has whipped up a frantic fervor in fangirls, opening doors to female fandom while sticking incessant and neverending thorns in the folks who want Bella and Edward to go far, far away. But it's also brought up a pretty interesting argument: What makes a vampire? I teased about the notion yesterday when I wrote about the Daybreakers PSA ; however, can we really define what makes a vampire beyond sharp teeth and a thirst for blood? And if we can, what is necessary and what can be finagled? Vampires have been around forever in some shape or form, flying through the worlds of folklore and darkness before shuffling into their modern guise of pale, 19th century blood drinkers. In 1819, John William Polidori presented The Vampyre ushering in this idea of the mysterious man entering high society, seducing young women with vampiric charm. "In spite of the deadly hue of his face, which never gained a wanner tint, either from the blush of mo...

[my bold ] By:  Allison Ford Many people have always wanted to learn a second language. Even though most of us have slogged our way through a few years of high school language classes, comparatively few are fluent in a language other than English, as opposed to countries in Europe where learning a second, third, or even fourth language is de rigueur . Speaking another language can be useful when traveling, it can enrich our cultural experience, and it can be fun to discover the quirks and peculiarities of another language. But which language to choose? Many languages are useful for one reason or another, but regardless of the lyric beauty of Italian or utility of Mandarin, for most people, it comes down to what is the easiest to learn. Few people have time to take intensive language immersion courses, so we want to feel like we’re progressing quickly. No one likes endless staged classroom conversations about the weather—we want to be able to navigate a foreign city or...