Eggplant.place

249d

Are we reading Machiavelli wrong?

What we’re missing in Machiavelli’s The Prince, explained by an expert.

by Sean Illing

https://www.vox.com/the-gray-area/414753/machiavelli-prince-authoritarian-critique-political-philosophy

Machiavelli at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1232

#books #literature

Portrait of Niccolò Machiavelli by Santi di Tito.

In this classic Renaissance portrait by Santi di Tito, Niccolò Machiavelli is depicted in a half-length pose, turned slightly to his left but with his gaze directed outward, engaging the viewer with a calm and penetrating expression. His face is oval-shaped, with high cheekbones, a prominent nose, and tightly drawn lips.

He wears a dark, simple tunic with a high collar and red sleeves underneath

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Portrait_of_Niccol%C3%B2_Machiavelli_by_Santi_di_Tito.jpg

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265d

So, they say Abercrombie's The Devils is absolutely worth it?

https://joeabercrombie.com/books/the-devils/

#books #amreading #reading #kindle #literature #bookwyrm #booktoot #book #knihy #fantasy @bookstodon @fantasy @knihy

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264d

This book club has been reading the same book for 12 years. They’re not even close to done.

The Finnegans Wake Reading Group of Austin, TX reads one page every other week.

By Sean Saldana

https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/finnegans-wake-reading-group-austin-tx-atx-texas-james-joyce-book-club/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnegans_Wake

James Joyce at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/1039

#books #literature

The cover of the Faber and Faber edition of Finnegans Wake by James Joyce.

Faber and Faber - http://www.leeds.ac.uk/library/adopt-a-book/pics/joyce_wake.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnegans_Wake#/media/File:Joyce_wake.jpg

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264d

L. Frank Baum’s Literary Vision of an American Century: The Wizard of Oz at 125 Years

Ed Simon on Grifters, the Chicago World Fair, and Oz as Symbol of a Modern USA

https://lithub.com/l-frank-baums-literary-vision-of-an-american-century-the-wizard-of-oz-at-125-years/

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/43936

#books #literature

"The Soldier with the green whiskers led them through the streets."

Title: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Author: L. Frank Baum

Illustrator: W. W. Denslow

https://gutenberg.org/cache/epub/43936/pg43936-images.html

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248d

‘A culture is no better than its woods’ – what our trees reveal about us, by W H Auden

The trees encountered on a country stroll
Reveal a lot about a country’s soul.
– from Bucolics (1952-53) by W H Auden

https://aeon.co/videos/a-culture-is-no-better-than-its-woods-what-our-trees-reveal-about-us-by-w-h-auden

#books #literature

Hunt Piero di Cosimo Oil and tempera on panel, 70.5 x 169.5 cm New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The painting portrays a dynamic and chaotic hunting scene set in a dense forest. Human figures, satyrs, and centaurs are depicted engaging in a fierce hunt, wielding clubs and other primitive weapons. They pursue various animals, including lions and bears, which are fleeing from a forest fire in the background.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Piero_di_cosimo,_scena_di_caccia_primitiva,_1494-1500_ca._(met)_09_uomini_con_preda_di_caccia.jpg#/media/File:Piero_di_cosimo,_scena_di_caccia_2.jpg/2

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213d

SHIPS: Live Poetry & Music
10 July, An Tobar, Mull – tickets from £8

A live evening of poetry & music with five acclaimed poets: Sharon Black, Leonie Charlton, Julie Antill, Jon Miller, & Cait O’Neill McCullagh.

https://www.antobarandmulltheatre.co.uk/whats-on/ec276n5cy0uxkyu4xc55hrskyopw6r

#Scottish #literature #poetry #Highlands #HighlandsandIslands

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248d

We needed it—and he stood there,
feet on the dry porch, saying rain,
cloud and skyful, the sound of drumming…

—Niall Campbell, “The Rainmaker”
published in POETRY (July/August 2020)
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/153822/the-rainmaker

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #rain

The Rainmaker
by Niall Campbell

We needed it—and he stood there,
feet on the dry porch, saying rain,
cloud and skyful, the sound of drumming;

the bath trough in the garden listened,
white and bone dry, as he described
a bright wash across the dust fields,

the surest downpour, the flushed skin,
my soaked shirt, heavy as a bell.
Then off he went to the scorched fields,

humming, and weighing what we paid.
What did he say: prayer is moisture;
hope is a well—I didn’t care,

I wanted just the words from him—
what I couldn’t dare say—not there
beneath that sun, that blur of fire-sky.

My thoughts all thoughts of water, I
spun my head round—to hear the spill
of the word rain across the boards,

and nothing grew dark, nothing fell—
but something fell, and the ground took,
and something wild as garlic grew.

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248d

Love rules. Love laughs. Love marches. Love is the wolf that guards the gate.
Love is the food of music, art, poetry. It fills us and fuels us and fires us to create.
Love is terror. Love is sweat. Love is bashed pillow, crumpled sheet, unenviable fate…

—Edwin Morgan, “Love”
A poem for Pride Month 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️
published in A BOOK OF LIVES (Carcanet, 2011)

https://www.carcanet.co.uk/9781857549188/a-book-of-lives/

#Scottish #literature #EdwinMorgan #poem #poetry #love #lovepoem #loveislove #Pride #PrideMonth #PrideMonth2025

Love
by Edwin Morgan

Love rules. Love laughs. Love marches. Love is the wolf that guards the gate.
Love is the food of music, art, poetry. It fills us and fuels us and fires us to create.
Love is terror. Love is sweat. Love is bashed pillow, crumpled sheet, unenviable fate.
Love is the honour that kills and saves and nothing will ever let that high ambiguity abate.
Love is the crushed ice that tingles and shivers and clinks fidgin-fain for the sugar-drenched absinthe to fall on it and alter its state.
With love you send a probe
So far from the globe
No one can name the shoals the voids the belts the zones the drags the flares it signals all to leave all and to navigate.

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248d

Tenderness is mandatory.
Careless lurches may draw blood,
enthusiasms leave abrasions,
excessive ardour has been known
to snap off spinal plates…

—“The Mating of Dinosaurs”, by William Oliphant (1920–2004)
published in The Mating of Dinosaurs (Taranis Books, 1992)

Today, 1 June, is Dinosaur Day 🦖

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #dinosaurs #DinosaurDay

The Mating of Dinosaurs
William Oliphant

Tenderness is mandatory.
Careless lurches may draw blood,
enthusiasms leave abrasions,
excessive ardour has been known
to snap off spinal plates.

There is the constant burden of
the force of gravity that pulls
against the need for viable eggs.

The wear and tear on genitalia,
like spoil of grind of glacier, is
lost in some future fossil count.

The adaptationists suggest
that gentleness emerges here,
and some will come to call it love.

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262d

Tagore in Saigon: Culture, Contradictions, Champagne

Rabindranath Tagore’s visit to Vietnam in 1929 fanned the debate about the region’s potential future without the French.

By: H.M.A. Leow

https://daily.jstor.org/tagore-in-saigon-culture-contradictions-champagne/

At PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/942

#books #literature

Rabindranath with Einstein in 1930

UNESCO - UNESCO Gallery

In the image, Tagore, the Indian poet-philosopher and Nobel laureate in literature, stands beside Einstein, the renowned physicist and Nobel laureate in physics. Both are seen in thoughtful poses—Einstein with his characteristically wild hair and simple attire, and Tagore draped in traditional Indian robes with a composed, serene expression.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabindranath_Tagore#/media/File:Rabindranath_with_Einstein.jpg

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262d

Only Surviving Roman Cookbook Reveals Origins of Europe’s Most Iconic Recipes

By Filio Kontrafouri

https://greekreporter.com/2025/05/16/roman-cookbook-europe-iconic-recipes/

Cookbooks at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=cookbook&submit_search=Search

#books #literature

Roman Feast by Roberto Bompiani, Getty Museum. Apicius’ cookbook still intrigues scholars and cooks with its glimpses of Roman life. Credit: Roberto Bompiani/Public Domain

The artwork portrays elegantly robed Roman men and women reclining on couches around a lavish table, engaging in conversation and indulgence. Servants and musicians attend to the guests, enhancing the sense of luxury and leisure.

Set within a richly adorned interior—with marble columns, classical décor, and detailed frescoes—the painting evokes the grandeur and sensuality of elite Roman dining.

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213d

The poems of Arthur Conan Doyle
16 September, online – pay what you can

Although best known for his Sherlock Holmes stories, Arthur Conan Doyle also published several volumes of verse. While his poetry never achieved the same level of acclaim as his fiction, it remains an important part of his literary legacy, & The Live Canon ensemble will perform a selection of his poems

@litstudies

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-poems-of-arthur-conan-doyle-tickets-1284197211429

#Scottish #literature #poetry #19thCentury #ConanDoyle

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246d

‘Am I not at least something?’ A surreal dive into Descartes’s Meditations

https://aeon.co/videos/am-i-not-at-least-something-a-surreal-dive-into-descartess-meditations

Meditations on First Philosophy at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23306

#books #literature #philosophy

Original title page for the first Latin edition (1641) of the Meditationes de prima philosophiaby René Descartes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meditations_on_First_Philosophy#/media/File:Meditationes_de_prima_philosophia_1641.jpg

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261d

Robert Louis Stevenson & Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne married #OTD, 19 May, 1880. In this article, Prof Penny Fielding explores the dangerous collaboration between RLS & his wife: granting female agency on the page & in life

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https://dangerouswomenproject.org/2017/01/06/a-dangerous-collaboration/

#Scottish #literature #19thcentury #Victorian #RobertLouisStevenson #RLS #WomenWriters

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261d

How Losing a Poetry Competition Launched Edna St. Vincent Millay’s Career

By Nava Atlas

https://www.literaryladiesguide.com/classic-women-authors-poetry/losing-poetry-competition-millay/

Edna St. Vincent Millay at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/70

#books #literature #poetry

Edna St. Vincent Millay portrait (c. 1920)

In the photograph, Edna appears poised and introspective, exuding a quiet confidence. Her hair is cropped short in a stylish bob, reflecting the flapper fashion of the era and her alignment with the progressive spirit of the 1920s.

She wears simple, elegant attire—a dark blouse—with minimal adornment, allowing her expressive eyes and finely sculpted features to command attention.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edna_St._Vincent_Millay#/media/File:Edna_St._Vincent_Millay_Portrait_(c._1920).jpg

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246d

Memory & Moggies: McIlvanney, Muriel & Making a Novel
10 June, free online

Prof Zoë Strachan explores the inspiration behind her latest novel, the historical fiction Catch The Moments as They Fly (2023) – including the work of William McIlvanney, & Muriel Spark’s advice that writers should acquire a cat…

@writingcommunity
@litstudies

https://www.scotland.uni-mainz.de/reading-scotland/

#Scottish #literature #writing #historicalfiction #novel #IAmWriting #WritingCommunity #Scotland #Ayrshire #memory

READING SCOTLAND
with Zoë Strachan

Memory and Moggies:
McIlvanney, Muriel and Making a Novel

Tuesday 10th June 2025
6:00 – 7:30pm (German time) on MS Teams

www.scotland.uni-mainz.de

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260d

Explained: Shakespeare's 'Macbeth' explained in 10 sentences

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/books/web-stories/explained-shakespeares-macbeth-explained-in-10-sentences/photostory/121212146.cms

By Aakanksh Sharma

Macbeth at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1533

#books #literature #drama

Macbeth and Banquo encounter the witches for the first time.

Théodore Chassériau - Musée d'Orsay

The painting vividly captures the eerie moment from Shakespeare's Macbeth when the two Scottish generals meet the three witches on a desolate heath.

Chassériau's Romantic style infuses the scene with dramatic tension and supernatural atmosphere. Macbeth and Banquo, dressed in rich, flowing garments and mounted on horseback, confront the witches, who are ghostly and otherworldly in appearance. The witches stand or hover in unnatural postures, with windswept robes and haunting expressions, emphasizing their mystical power and unsettling presence.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macbeth#/media/File:MacbethAndBanquo-Witches.jpg

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260d

See Flannery O’Connor’s Little-Known Visual Artworks That Had Been Collecting Dust in Storage

From childhood cartoons to thoughtful self-portraits, the acclaimed Southern writer was always a keen observer of her surroundings

By Eli Wizevich

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/see-flannery-oconnors-little-known-visual-artworks-that-had-been-collecting-dust-in-storage-180986591/?utm_source=smithsoniandaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=editorial&lctg=93133550

#books #art #literature

Top Row (left to right): Felix Nussbaum; Edith Sitwell; Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
Middle Row (left to right): Rachel Carson; Edvard Munch; Flannery O’Connor; Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Bottom Row (left to right): Glenn Miller; Wassily Kandinsky; Ian Fleming; Piet Mondrian

https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/class-of-2015/

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260d

The Cosmic Library on Reflection and Refraction

The Final Episode of the Dostoevsky Season

https://lithub.com/the-cosmic-library-on-reflection-and-refraction/

The Brothers Karamazov at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/28054

#books #literature

Dostoyevsky's notes for Chapter 5 of The Brothers Karamazov.

The manuscript is densely packed with cursive script, marginal annotations, and line edits, reflecting the author's intense thought process and narrative structuring. The paper bears visible creases and ink smudges, conveying a sense of urgency and meticulous labor.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Brothers_Karamazov#/media/File:Bkdraft.jpg

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247d

it is dawn and my wife is coming to bed
and she has been watching a film about the life of charlie parker

and the air in the bedroom is silent while she undresses
and the light is there at the side of the curtain beyond her head…

—Tom Leonard, “June the Second”, from outside the narrative: poems 1965–2009 (Etruscan Books/Word Power Books 2009)

https://lighthousebookshop.com/book/9780956628336

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #TomLeonard

June the Second
Tom Leonard

it is dawn and my wife is coming to bed
and she has been watching a film about the life of charlie parker

and the air in the bedroom is silent while she undresses
and the light is there at the side of the curtain beyond her head

and she tells me his body gave up of drink and drugs when he was 34
and I decide I am awake and go to the kitchen for a drink of water

and the sky in the north is translucent like a lake
translucent like a lake though it is only 3 am

and when I go back we lightly hold hands as we sometimes do
until the first to be falling asleep begins to twitch and tonight it’s Sonya

and I withdraw my hand and lie back looking at the ceiling
I am aged 51 years and nine months and nine to ten days

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246d

“Of aal the fish there iss in the sea,” said Para Handy, “nothing bates the herrin’; it’s a providence they’re plentiful and them so cheap!”

Neil Munro (1863–1930) – journalist, novelist, short-story writer, & poet – was born #OTD, 3 June. Rigby’s Encyclopaedia of Herring discusses Munro’s PARA HANDY stories, as well as giving the full text of the tale “The Herring – A Gossip”

1/4

https://www.herripedia.com/para-handy/

#Scottish #literature #humour #shortstory #herring #19thcentury #20thcentury

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260d

A Question of Free Will: Inside the Final Days of Katherine Mansfield

Allison Buccola Complicates Some of Popular Culture's Common Narratives About Cults

https://lithub.com/a-question-of-free-will-inside-the-final-days-of-katherine-mansfield/?utm_source=Klaviyo&utm_medium=campaign&utm_id=01JVN4QNGF8T03QHGNH5NAWAJB&_kx=3MZUehzXM-41qlWAMPUiuNZadX2p0SByuNf_t0eMLB0.U5D8ER

Katherine Mansfield at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/631

#books #literature

Katherine Mansfield (14 October 1888 – 9 January 1923)

This is a black and white portrait photograph. In the image is a young woman with short, bobbed hair styled in a somewhat tousled fashion with bangs across her forehead. She has a serious, contemplative expression and is looking directly at the camera. She's wearing what appears to be a light-colored blouse or dress with a delicate collar detail.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katherine_Mansfield#/media/File:Katherine_Mansfield_(no_signature).jpg

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260d

#Literature picks of the day:

➡️ @nybooks - New York Review of Books official account

➡️ @scotlit - Association for Scottish Literature

➡️ @canongatebooks - Award-winning indie publisher since 1973

➡️ @ilfu - Netherlands' largest literary festival

➡️ @gutenberg_org - Project distributing free public domain e-books

➡️ @publicdomainrev - Highlighting best public domain books, art etc

➡️ @avldigital - Online information project for Comparative Literature scholars (in German & English)

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246d

Robert Tannahill (1774–1810), “the weaver poet”, was born #OTD, 3 June – “second only to Robert Burns as a poet writing chiefly in the language of the working class of Scotland”

1/3

https://www.thenational.scot/culture/24360177.celebrating-scotlands-second-greatest-poet-robert-tannahill/

#Scottish #literature #poetry #18thcentury #19thCentury #romanticism #pastoral #workingclass

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247d

Get a head start by having a first name
that doesn’t really go with your second name.
Your parents were just trying to keep everyone happy…

—Palma McKeown, “How To Be Scots-Italian”
published in TALKING ABOUT LOBSTERS: New Writing Scotland 34 (ASL, 2016)
A poem for Festa della Repubblica 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇮🇹

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #ScotsItalian #Italy #FestaDellaRepubblica

Get a head start by having a first name
that doesn’t really go with your second name.
Your parents were just trying to keep everyone happy.
Keep a bottle of Lacryma Christi for when
your Auntie Anna calls in unexpectedly.
Hide the jar of instant coffee in case
she comes into the kitchen & dust off
the old metal coffee pot that unscrews in the middle.
Put out that panettone you got at Christmas
then watch as she scoffs all the Tunnock’s Teacakes.
Learn to sidle down side streets or
melt into shop doorways when you see
old Mr D’Ambrosio coming because, despite
the fact he’s lived here for over sixty years,
you still can’t make out a word he’s saying.
Be prepared to serve sausage rolls & salami di Milano
at Hogmanay parties & give equal play time
to Jimmy Shand & Dean Martin.
You’re just trying to keep everyone happy.
Listen politely to your Auntie Carmen from Coatbridge
when she phones at three in the morning to ask
if everything’s okay because she’s had a dream
about you & the number 62
which signifies death & pestilence.
Try unsuccessfully to get back to sleep.
Feel torn when Italy is playing Scotland at football
until the crowd starts to sing ‘Flower of Scotland’
and a wee tear runs down your cheek.
Try not to get bitter that you never knew
your Italian granddad because during the war
he was taken away by two Scottish policemen
in the middle of the night, herded onto a ship
and was lost at sea when it was torpedoed.
Churchill was just trying to keep everyone happy.

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