It was strikingly appropriate that Sir Geoffrey Hill should have focused his final lecture as Oxford Professor of Poetry on a quotation from Charles Williams. Not only was the lecture, in May 2015, delivered almost exactly seventy years after Williams’s death; but Williams himself had once hoped to become Professor of Poetry.
The post Charles Williams: Oxford’s lost poetry professor appeared first on OUPblog.
Composer, cosmopolite, cultural force, Nicolas Nabokov (1903-1978), first cousin of Vladimir Nabokov (the author of Lolita), came to prominence in Paris in the late 1920s with Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. He then emigrated to America, returning to Europe in postwar Germany and subsequently as head of the Congress Cultural Freedom, for which he organized groundbreaking festivals. A tireless promoter of international cultural exchange, he was also remarkable for the range of his friendships, from Balanchine to Stravinsky and from Auden to Oppenheimer.
The post Nicolas Nabokov: a life in pictures appeared first on OUPblog.
Who was Nicolas Nabokov? The Russian-born American composer had a huge impact on music and culture globally, but his name remains relatively unknown. He had friends and acquaintances in a variety of circles, whether his cousin the writer Vladimir, the poet Auden, or the choreographer Balanchine.
The post An A – Z guide to Nicolas Nabokov appeared first on OUPblog.
Here are some literary events to pencil in your calendar this week.
To get your event posted on our calendar, visit our Facebook Your Literary Event page. Please post your event at least one week prior to its date.
Author Amy Tan will discuss her newest novel, The Valley of Amazement, at a signing event. See her on Tuesday, November 5th at Barnes & Noble (Union Square branch) starting 7 p.m. (New York, NY)
continued…
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
I just didn’t have the oomph to blog last night. Not only was it another really hot and humid day, but the street where I de-bus (Is that a word? We de-plane, why not de-bus?) is closed for repaving and I am forced to de-bus five blocks away from my house and walk home in the 95F (35C) heat and near tropical humidity. Weather like this just zaps my will to do much of anything. Sorry to complain. I am not a heat-loving person and it has been an atrociously hot and record-breaking heat sort of summer.
Anyway, after Book Expo America a couple months ago, lots of bloggers were talking about what it means to be a book blogger and how a book blogger should go about writing about books. Of course everyone has a different opinion and style and some bloggers don’t even consider what they write reviews but simply their personal thoughts on a book. Others found John Updike’s rules for reviewing helpful in providing direction. The conversation about what one should do when reviewing books has been going on longer than there have been blogs and I expect that as long as there are people writing about books, the conversation will continue.
W.H. Auden had a lot to say about reviewing. The other day I had Auden’s Eden (try saying that 10 times fast, it’s harder than you might think!). To carry on with a theme, or a similar topic, I give you Auden’s function of the reviewer/critic:
- Introduce me to authors or works of which I was hitherto unaware.
- Convince me that I have undervalued an author or a work because I had not read them carefully enough.
- Show me relations between works of different ages and cultures which I could never have seen for myself because I do not know enough and never shall.
- Give a “reading” of a work which increases my understanding of it.
- Throw light upon the process of artistic “Making.”
- Throw light upon the relation of art to life, to science, economics, ethics, religion, etc
The one thing Auden says a critic should never ever do is
tell me what I ought to approve of or condemn. I have no objection to his telling me what works and authors he likes and dislikes; indeed, it is useful to know this, for, from his expressed preferences about works which I have read, I learn how likely I am to agree or disagree with his verdicts on works which I have not. But let him not dare to lay down the law to me. The responsibility for what I choose to read is mine, and nobody else on earth can do it for me.
The six dos and the don’t-you-dare are useful when thinking about blogging about books, yes? I don’t expect every book blogger to do all of them, heck I don’t do all of them. I think one, two, and four are the ones I strive for even if I may not always be successful. And if three or six manage to make an appearance now and then I count myself lucky. I’m not entirely certain what Auden means by the process of artistic making, whether it is the creative process or the nuts and bolts of a work and how things are put together. If it is the latter I might have a chance to accomplish this point sometime otherwise I fear I am out of the loop.
I am behind Auden 100% on the don’t-you-dare tell me what I should and shouldn’t read. I would never pass that kind of judgment. I like to try to suggest who might like a particular book and who might not like it but to lay down a judgment from on high? Uh, no, my feet aren’t that big and besides, I don’t like stomping on people. It isn’t nice and only makes one likely to be stomped by someone else in return and they usually have much bigger feet.
What do you think about Auden’s ideas about the role of the critic? If you blog, do you
In Auden’s essay “Reading” collected in his book The Dyer’s Hand, he talks quite a lot about reviewers and reviewing books. He says:
Though the pleasure which works of art give us must not be confused with other pleasures that we enjoy, it is related to all of them simply by being our pleasure and not someone else’s. All the judgments, aesthetic or moral, that we pass, however objective we try to make them, are in part a rationalization and in part a corrective discipline of our subjective wishes. So long as a man writes poetry or fiction, his dreams of Eden are his own business, but the moment he starts writing literary criticism, honesty demands that he describe it to his readers, so that they may be in the position to judge his judgments.
To that end, Auden created a questionnaire for himself of things he would like to know about other critics when he was reading them. Does it help to know a reviewer’s idea of Eden? You be the judge. I give you my answers to Auden’s Eden Meme:
Landscape
Mesic prairie transitioning to savanna with lots of rivers, streams and some forested lakes.
Climate
Moderately cold and snowy winters and mildly warm summers.
Ethnic Origin of Inhabitants
As diverse as possible
Language
English will be the official language but all languages are encouraged (even Elvish and Klingon) and everyone should know more than one.
Weights and Measures
I know metric is easy, but I am attached to the quirkiness of feet and pounds and ounces and since this is my Eden, quirkiness rules.
Religion
Nature worship in which trees are sacred and animals can talk. Summer and winter solstice and spring and autumn equinox will be high holidays with festival celebrations.
Food
Auden doesn’t have food on his list so I thought it should be added. All food will be sustainably grown and organic and vegan with no weird processed chemicals or ingredients that no one can pronounce.
Size of Capital
Small enough that no one gets lost but big enough that everybody doesn’t know your name. Maybe somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 people.
Form of Government
An empire ruled by me. No just kidding! A democracy in which everyone is engaged and participates. It’s messy everyone gets a voice and plays fair because this is my Eden.
Sources of Natural Power
Wind, water, solar. Also human power especially in winter when it is cold. There will be communal power generating stations with stationary bikes hooked up to the power grid. For fun there will be community events – films and concerts – and those who attend will pedal the bikes for as long as they want to. That way people get out of the house, get some exercise and have fun. There will be no coal and no oil.
Economic Activities
Farming, arts and humanities, science and technology
Means of Transport
Bicycles, trolley cars, trains and boats. In winter skis and dog or horse-drawn sleds will be encouraged.
Architecture
Hobbit holes or other architecture that looks organic and melds with the landscape. There will be no skyscrapers. Buildings should be beautiful and human-scale and energy efficient.
Domestic Furniture and Equipment
Clean and simple design of natural materials in the style of the Amish and Shakers. Kitchen gadgets like coffee makers and food processors, and modern appliances are a must.
Formal Dress
In my E
When should writers work for free? It is one of the most difficult questions facing writers in the 21st Century as unpaid outlets multiply online.
In an interview at The Paris Review, we found a historic moment when famous authors wrote for free in a completely unknown publication. When the legendary editor Robert Silvers launched The New York Review of Books in 1962, he went straight to the most talented writers in the country and asked them to work for free.
Check it out:
Our thought was to think of the best writers in the world to review the books of the season—even people who hadn’t written book reviews for years or ever. Many of them we knew—Norman Mailer, [William] Styron, W. H. Auden, Edmund Wilson. We said, “Look, we have three weeks, we can’t pay a penny, will you do it?” And they all did.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
When should writers work for free? It is one of the most difficult questions facing writers in the 21st Century as unpaid outlets multiply online.
In an interview at The Paris Review, we found a historic moment when famous authors wrote for free in a completely unknown publication. When the legendary editor Robert Silvers launched The New York Review of Books in 1962, he went straight to the most talented writers in the country and asked them to work for free.
Check it out:
Our thought was to think of the best writers in the world to review the books of the season—even people who hadn’t written book reviews for years or ever. Many of them we knew—Norman Mailer, [William] Styron, W. H. Auden, Edmund Wilson. We said, “Look, we have three weeks, we can’t pay a penny, will you do it?” And they all did.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
