Nepenthe

Last post about life with the wizard at McKellen .com

"La mujer del médico se levantó, se acercó a la ventana. Miró hacia abajo, a la calle cubierta de basura, a las personas que gritaban y cantaban. Luego alzó la cabeza al cielo y lo vió todo blanco, Ahora me toca a mí, pensó. El miedo súbito le hizo bajar los ojos. La ciudad aún estaba allí." José Saramago Ensayo sobre la ceguera

Breaking News: Umberto Eco on Translation as Negotiation , a must read (well, since we read him in college, for Narratology and Methodology purposes, what the heck :-)

This is the movie everybody talks about and I've already seen it in an airplane! :-P Movie site: Finding Nemo

Can't resist to publish the following story. It's a tradition I've just discovered by investigating the origin of a Buddist statue in Japan: Jizzo. It's as beautiful as it is bittersweet: According to tradition, children who die prematurely are sent to the underworld as punishment for causing great sorrow to their parents (their death caused grief to their folks). They are sent to Sai no Kawara, the dry bed of the river of souls in purgatory, where they pray for Buddha's compassion by building small stone towers, piling stone upon stone. But an underworld demon soon arrives and scatters their stones and beats them with an iron club. But, no need to worry, for Jizo comes to the rescue to help the children. Because of this traditional story, children who die prematurely in Japan are called "mizuko children," or water children, and the saddened parents pray to "Mizuko Jizo." Even today, you will invariably find little heaps of stones aroun...

It's not all Greek to me they say, and methinks we can both say that in our languages. Essay on ancient Greek thought compared with contemporary Chinese ideas.

Following the appearance of the movie The Human Stain , adapted from a novel by Philip Roth , here's an article on The Best Novelists, the Worst Movie Adaptations from the NY Times, registration required.

The NY Times publishes a retrospective that includes reviews, interviews and excerpts from the books of Martin Amis, whose new novel is "Yellow Dog."

Just guess who's meeting the parents... in May.... (guess what trailer is already waiting in some ftp server!)

Una crítica literaria del Quijote en el New York Times....

Which Trainspotting Character Are You?

A Gallimard publica esta Antologia da Poesia Portuguesa Contemporânea : O que se diz: Le Portugal est sans doute un des pays où la vitalité de la poésie contemporaine est la plus manifeste. Les poètes vivants connaissent des tirages que bien des romanciers pourraient leur envier ; les journaux leur consacrent de pleines pages à l'égal des prosateurs, les prestigieux prix littéraires ne les épargnent pas et le nombre de recueils traduits en diverses langues est impressionnant. En France, parmi les quelque trois cents titres de littérature portugaise traduits depuis 1980, près d'un tiers sont des livres de poésie. Mais aujourd'hui, quoi de neuf au Portugal ? Pessoa, serait-on tenté de dire, tant sa présence éditoriale est encore vive. Ce serait pourtant ignorer l'extraordinaire diversité de la poésie portugaise depuis 1935. Cette anthologie témoigne, par sa diversité et l'originalité des voies explorées, de la manière singulière et fervente qui incite les poète...

Vi este filme ontem em ante-estreia e gostei muito. A Guerra Colonial em exorcismo, como já há muito era preciso. Aqui está o sítio de uma das produtoras, cujos nome e símbolo me agradam :-) Samsa , embora desactualizado.

Wine is constant proof that God likes to see us happy -Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

How Putin became Rasputin ? With such a title, glaringly obvious but newfound to me (caraças!) ensues an article about the growing totalitarianism of the Russian helmer.

Toni Morrison, Nobel Prize for Literature recipient (1993), in a lecture titled How can Values be taught in the University? . Response by Denis Dutton , the scholar behind Arts & Letters Daily , to be found here and titled Dare to Think for Yourself . I know, reams of links :-)