“With the Trump campaign and Brexit getting credit for drawing on populist angst, Coriolanus deserves a second look.The play can help us reconsider what populism is and the ways a ‘populist’ movement can be fostered by, yet not necessarily conducive to, democracy.”
Category: words
We’ve All Been Misunderstanding Robert Frost’s Most Famous Poem
Even the first person to read “The Road Not Taken” first understood it the way generations of schoolteachers have explained it; Frost himself had to explain (several times) what he meant. Other readers have taken the poem to be a parody of the lofty individualistic sentiments of the interpretation we learned in grade school. David Orr takes apart both those readings, and provides alternative versions of the poem that would actually fit them, to highlight what Frost actually did write.
Lost Pre-Columbian Manuscript Discovered Under Another Manuscript (Hooray For Palimpsests!)
Scholars have suspected for decades that the Codex Selden (also called the Codex Anute), a Mixtec document in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, had an earlier document underneath the one visible, but modern hyperspectral imaging technology has now confirmed it.
J.K. Rowling Launches Series Of Mini E-Books
“The first three titles, to be released on Sept. 6 by her publishing platform Pottermore, will focus on the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The e-books, each about 10,000 words long, will include new material as well as writing previously published on Pottermore.com.”
Ellipsis – The Long, Strange History Of A Strange Punctuation Mark
“The punctuation mark of the ellipsis is perhaps the most unusual mark in the English language, for punctuation marks are designed to convey meaning by indicating relationships between ideas, but the ellipsis does the exact opposite.” What’s more, those three little dots date back centuries before Shakespeare.
Barnes And Noble’s Board Fires CEO
“In a terse statement that lacked any attempt at corporate spin, the company said that ‘the board of directors determined that Mr. Boire is not a good fit for the organization and that it was in the best interest of all parties for him to leave the company.’ … [He] is the third chief executive to leave the troubled company in just three years.”
Have We Worn Out Our Swear Words?
“In short, if English should lose its surprisingly small profane vocabulary set through overusage, we would be forced to invent new obscenities. That would be no easy task, given the polished perfection of what biology, time and chance has already bequeathed us.”
Gertrude Stein Wrote A Children’s Book, And Her Style Is Perfect For It
What’s more, Stein gave advice on reading the book that fits almost everything she ever wrote: “Don’t bother about the commas which aren’t there, read the words. Don’t worry about the sense that is there, read the words. If you have any trouble, read faster and faster until you don’t.”
How Did This Messy, Illogical, Inconsistent Language Get To Be English?
English is as much of an international language as we have today. But its spelling and syntax and just about everything else about it is inconsistent and capricious. So how did English get to be English?
PEN America Creates New $50,000 Award For Foreign Authors
“The PEN/Nabokov award, supported by the Vladimir Nabokov Literary Foundation, replaces another award with the same name but a different remit. It will go to a writer born or residing outside the US, either writing in or translated into English to honor ‘an outstanding body of work over a sustained career’. “