literature

218d

#art #history: when asked, in 1970, by australian journalist, richard carleton, why the PFLP didn't engage in negotiations with the israeli state, ghassan kanafani (esteemed author & a leading figure of palestine's marxist resistance) explained that to do so would be 'a kind of conversation between the sword & the neck'. ghassan *should have* celebrated his 90th birthday yesterday, but he was assassinated by mossad in 1972.
#ghassanKanafani #literature #palestine #gaza #resistance

digital ink drawing of author & PFLP activist, ghassan kanafani. here, he looks intently at his subject, who seems to be sat slightly to his left.
above him, in a staticky black box, is part of one of his famous citations, paraphrased. in uppercase text, it reads: '(to talk to your oppressors is) a kind of conversation between the sword & the neck'.
colours are black, white medium peach & light cocoa.

digital ink drawing of author & PFLP activist, ghassan kanafani. here, he looks intently at his subject, who seems to be sat slightly to his left.
above him, in a staticky black box, is part of one of his famous citations, paraphrased. in uppercase text, it reads: '(to talk to your oppressors is) a kind of conversation between the sword & the neck'.
colours are black, shades of peach & light cocoa.

Edited 218d ago

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196d

For International Workers’ Day, here’s Hamish Henderson’s “Freedom Come-All-Ye”, sung by Karine Polwart in the Italian Chapel, Orkney. The chapel was built & decorated by Italian POWs during WW2 using scraps & reclaimed materials, & is still in use today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PhuH2K5yzw

#Scottish #literature #song #politics #politicalsong #MayDay #InternationalWorkersDay #Orkney

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214d

5 Classic Novels That Almost Had Completely Different Endings

Would these classic tales still be as popular with different endings?

By Chelsea Thatcher

https://www.mentalfloss.com/literature/books/classic-novels-alternate-endings

The 5 classics at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/105
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1400
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/174
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/75201

#books #literature

Miss Havisham, Pip, and Estella, in art from the Imperial Edition of Charles Dickens's Great Expectations. Art by H. M. Brock.

An interior scene — a woman in a dark dress leans over a seated younger woman in light clothing, holding her close, while a young man sits to the right with his back partly turned, watching. A candlestick and ornate mirror are visible in the background. The caption beneath reads "Well? You can break his heart".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Expectations#/media/File:Breakhisheart.jpg

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214d

5 Famous Operas Based on Greek Mythology

Composers throughout history have taken inspiration for their now-famous operas from the enchanting stories of ancient Greek mythology.

by Jane Fitzpatrick (from the archives)

https://www.thecollector.com/famous-operas-based-greek-mythology/

Operas at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subject/411

#books #literature #music

Bacchus and Ariadne - painting by Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini (MET, 1984.458).

The young man, crowned with a ivy wreath — the attribute of Bacchus — leans toward the woman with an expression of tender, earnest attention, his orange-red drapery falling from one bare shoulder. He extends his hand toward her in a gesture that seems to offer, present, or beckon. The young woman — Ariadne, abandoned on Naxos by Theseus — sits on the rocks in white and golden drapery, a jewelled brooch at her breast, looking up at him with an expression of mingled wonder and dawning trust.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bacchus_and_Ariadne_MET_DT7942.jpg

Edited 214d ago

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214d

Where to start with: Muriel Spark

Today, 13 April, marks 20 years since the death of the novelist, short story writer, poet & essayist Muriel Spark. She was best known for her 22 novels – uncanny, astute & witty – beginning with her 1957 debut The Comforters. James Bailey, the author of a new biography, Like a Cat Loves a Bird: The Nine Lives of Muriel Spark, guides readers through her oeuvre.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/apr/09/where-to-start-with-muriel-spark

#Scottish #literature #MurielSpark #WomenWriters #novels

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214d

To have carved on the days of our vanity
A sun
A ship
A star
A cornstalk

Also a few marks
From an ancient forgotten time
A child may read…

—“A Work for Poets”: the final poem of George Mackay Brown (1921–1996) who died #OTD, 13 April

Published in CARVE THE RUNES (Polygon, 2021)

https://birlinn.co.uk/product/carve-the-runes/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #poets #Orkney #20thcentury #GeorgeMackayBrown

A Work for Poets
George Mackay Brown

To have carved on the days of our vanity
A sun
A ship
A star
A cornstalk

Also a few marks
From an ancient forgotten time
A child may read

That not far from the stone
A well
Might open for wayfarers

Here is a work for poets –
Carve the runes
Then be content with silence

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214d

On BBC Radio 4 Extra, 13 April, 3pm BST & on BBC Sounds thereafter

Drama by Sarah Wooley, based on Muriel Spark’s wartime work creating “Black Propaganda” for MI6. Her job was to produce what she called “a tangled mixture of damaging lies, flattering & plausible truths”

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09k8v3t

#Scottish #literature #MurielSpark #WW2 #propaganda #MI6 #20thcentury #novelist #radiodrama

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214d

God said: Let the dark be dark.
Let the stars shine properly.
And let darkness with no stars
heal the damage caused by light…

—Robin Fulton Macpherson, “In the Dark”

Today, 13 April, is the start of International Dark Sky Week

https://idsw.darksky.org

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #DarkSkies #DarkSky #astronomy #InternationalDarkSkyWeek

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214d

Bang-Bang You’re Dead by Muriel Spark
via BBC Sounds

Sybil’s friends begin to see her in a new light when they watch film footage, peppered with hippos, poets & shooting affairs, taken during her time in Africa. First published 1958. Dramatised by Gowan Calder.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002tzst

#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #MurielSpark #womenwriters #radiodrama

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196d

In the blunted night of the coal shed,
without a torch, my fingers dig
among the coal for the coal.
Hear it scutter into the bucket…

—Brian McCabe, “Coal”
published in BODY PARTS, @canongatebooks 1999

https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/coal/

#Scottish #literature #MayDay #InternationalWorkersDay #poem #poetry #coalmining

Coal
Brian McCabe

In the blunted night of the coal shed,
without a torch, my fingers dig
among the coal for the coal.
Hear it scutter into the bucket.

Something else is gathered, uttered
from a darker place where memory digs
and throws its coal into a bucket –
as if a ghost stuttered, spoke:

My father clears his throat, curses
the government: ‘Thirty years in Rosewell,
in Bilston Glen, in Monktonhall –
and what is there to show for it?’

And what is there to show for it?
Flattened sites, non-places, absences
surrounded by meaningless villages.
The bars look like air-raid shelters.

‘If the shops need iron grilles here,
they’ll need them everywhere.
Like the miners of Monktonhall
we’ll all know what siege means.’

I stumble from the dark into the dark
of that night into this, to light a fire,
to watch the flames rise and flare
into eloquent tongues.

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196d

Tae the Lords o’ Juteopolis the weavers hae spoke
“If ye rug doon oor wages, as sure as the cleck
We’ll fling up the shuttle; we’ll sune lat ye pree
The pluck o’ the lasses o’ Bonnie Dundee.”

—Mistress Lapstane, “Ane Strik(eing) Ballant”, 12 August 1875
✊
1/2

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #InternationalWorkersDay #MayDay #19thcentury #Victorian #strike #union #tradesunions

75. ‘Ane Strik(eing) Ballant’, Air – ”Bonnie Dundee”, by Mistress Lapstane, 12 August 1875. Published 28 August 1875.

Tae the Lords o’ Juteopolis the weavers hae spoke –
”If ye rug doon oor wages, as sure as the cleck
We’ll fling up the shuttle; we’ll sune lat ye pree
The pluck o’ the lasses o’ Bonnie Dundee.”

Chorus – Then hurrah for the lasses, sae dauntless an’ fair,
Let them stand by their colours, an’ tyranny dare;
While there’s hearts that can feel, an’ hands gleg tae gie,
Nae fear o’ starvation tae Bonnie Dundee.

The lasses hae struck, they march up the street;
They cry, ”We’ll ne’er yield while there’s shune on oor feet;”
An’ ilka douce neebour says, ”E’en lat it be –
There’s room for improvements in Bonnie Dundee.”

Chorus – Then hurrah for the lasses, &c.

There are weavers in Forfar an’ weavers in Perth,
There are weavers in Belfast an’ ilk ither airth;
An’ the cry frae ilk point is, ”We’re willin’ tae gie;”
An’ subscriptions are hurlin’ tae Bonnie Dundee.

Chorus – Then hurrah for the lasses, &c.

Noo, defy ilka bribe, though the shuttles sud rust –
Be ruled by your leaders, they’re worthy o’ trust;
I’m nae sworn prophet, but bide ye awee,
An’ ye’ll get a’ ye’re wantin’ in Bonnie Dundee.

Chorus – Then hurrah for the lasses, sae dauntless an’ fair,
An’ three cheers for the strike that’ll sune be nae mair;
Sin’ there’s hearts that can feel, an’ hands gleg tae gie,
Nae fear o’ the weavers o’ Bonnie Dundee.

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196d

Cuiridh mi làmh air corran na gealaich
agus òrd ceann-chruaidh thairis
air an òr f hann is troimhe:
is canadh Dia gur h-e an toibheum…

—Somhairle MacGill-Eain, “Gealach Ùr”
published in Sorley MacLean: Collected Poems (Carcanet, 2017)

https://www.carcanet.co.uk/9781847771711/collected-poems/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #InternationalWorkersDay #MayDay #Gaidhlig #Gaelic

Gealach Ùr
Somhairle MacGill-Eain

Cuiridh mi làmh air corran na gealaich
agus òrd ceann-chruaidh thairis
air an òr f hann is troimhe:
is canadh Dia gur h-e an toibheum.

Brat crò-dhearg air a chùlaibh,
suaicheantas dòchais is dùile,
meirghe ’chinne-daonna ’g èirigh,
solas ùr laist’ anns na speuran.

A New Moon
Sorley MacLean

I will put a handle on the sickle of the moon
and a steel-headed hammer over
the feeble gold and through it:
and let God call it blasphemy.

A blood-red banner behind,
emblem of hope and expectation,
the standard of mankind arising,
a new star lit in Heaven.

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97d

How storytelling can help us grasp climate change

As glaciers melt, a writer considers what stories can do that data cannot

by Adam Loften, Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee

https://aeon.co/videos/as-glaciers-melt-a-writer-considers-what-stories-can-do-that-data-cannot?utm_source=Aeon+Newsletter&utm_campaign=3df5931741-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2026_07_29_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-4ef8a26106-72664972

More information about Vatnajökull:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatnaj%C3%B6kull

#books #literature #climate

Ascending Icy Mountains.

Title: Through the first Antarctic night, 1898-1899

a narrative of the voyage of the "Belgica" among newly discovered lands and over an unknown sea about the south pole

Author: Frederick Albert Cook

A photograph showing polar expedition members in heavy fur-lined coats, gathered in deep snow with sledges and equipment, including what appears to be snowshoes on a stand.

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196d

Moonrise, an maudlin in the mirk,
we coorie in, hoose selt, hame hawked,
oor labour thirled tae yesterday,
the morra pawned fur brick-a-brack…

—Janet Paisley, “Aw Jock Tamson’s”
published in THE GOLDEN TREASURY OF SCOTTISH VERSE, @canongatebooks 2021

https://canongate.co.uk/books/3267-the-golden-treasury-of-scottish-verse/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #InternationalWorkersDay #MayDay #Scots #Scotslanguage

Aw Jock Tamson’s
Janet Paisley

Moonrise, an maudlin in the mirk,
we coorie in, hoose selt, hame hawked,
oor labour thirled tae yesterday,
the morra pawned fur brick-a-brack.

Thieves tout the mercat, flashin cash
in credit caird tricks yince cried tick.
Gowks gawp. It’s easy money. Hauns
dip threidbare pooches skint by lees;

yin cat feeds fat, an hunners sterve.
Dunderheids, we bocht intae grief,
gied up sense fur greed, furgoat brass
barters work, its worth inventit.

A dreich rain faws oan rentit roofs.
We pey tae drain the run-aff, pey
again tae pipe it back. Nae debt
is gain. If lochs fill, mountains droon.

Yit bairns sleep an dream, fit tae bigg
a warld whaur love gies shelter, breid
daily, care redds up, prood tae bide
an fecht whaur fowk cry foul at cheats:

nae man worth mair. It’s wha we are.
Tak tent. Waukened, sleeves rowed up,
drookit, set tae work, a new stert.
Day breks, mornin sun ay rises.

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197d

Was Emerson the True Father of American Literature?

Bruce Nichols on the American Renaissance of Prose and Poetry in the 1850s

https://lithub.com/was-emerson-the-true-father-of-american-literature/

Emerson at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/1071

#Books #Literature

1880 albumen print copied by J.J. Hawes from an 1857 daguerreotype by J.J. Hawes.

A sepia-toned three-quarter view showing Emerson in a dark suit and bow tie, with a composed, thoughtful expression against a dark background.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Waldo_Emerson#/media/File:Ralph_Waldo_Emerson_by_Josiah_Johnson_Hawes_1857.jpg

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213d

4 Key Works by James Joyce You Need to Read

James Joyce was a leading modernist and defining 20th-century writer. These essential books still shape how we read novels today.

by Catherine Dent

https://www.thecollector.com/james-joyce-key-works/

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

#books #literature

Joyce in a September 1922 issue of Shadowland, photographed by Man Ray.

A black-and-white photograph showing Joyce in a dark suit with a bow tie, round wire-rimmed glasses, and a small moustache, gazing downward in a contemplative pose.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/James_Joyce_-_Sep_1922_Shadowland.jpg

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129d

A Write Highland Hoolie – the Mallaig Book Festival 2026
6–8 November

Tickets on sale now!

https://www.a-write-highland-hoolie.com

#Scottish #literature #Mallaig #books #BookFestival

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213d

We used to think the universe was made
of tiny invisible pin-points of energy, jostling
and tumbling and buzzing together…

—J.O. Morgan, “We used to think the universe was made…”
published in INTERFERENCE PATTERN (Jonathan Cape, 2016)

Today, 14 April, is World Quantum Day!

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/431702/interference-pattern-by-j-o-morgan/9781910702024

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #WorldQuantumDay #physics #quantumphysics #quantum

We used to think the universe was made…
J.O. Morgan

We used to think the universe was made
of tiny invisible pin-points of energy, jostling
and tumbling and buzzing together, and so,
by whatever particular arrangement they took,
and the way in which they bounced off one another,
all sorts of physical matter could be produced.
Later we found the universe, in actual fact, is made
of tiny invisible threads of incredible length, and,

in the same way a violin string changes pitch
when touched at points along its measured span,
so all these interweaving loops and knots,
this tangle of quantum spaghetti,
as it flexes and line crosses line,
so it resonates throughout the whole bundle
a complex vibratory code that defines
any outward appearance and characteristic.

After which we discovered the likely reality
was of tiny invisible sheets, many layers
of infinitesimal thinness, each film
undulating at tremendous speeds;
multiple parallel oceans, their rippling surfaces
folding and flattening, wave-crests on wave-crests,
nudged at and nosed at, their lingering kisses
collected, expressed as specific material forms.

We were young, we were anxious to clutch at
whatever proof fitted. Still, humility liberates;
when it comes to matters of truth we’re not picky.
Ironing our numbers presented the ideal
of tiny invisible shapeshifting blocks that squirm
and bulge, interlock and uncouple, that rub,
knock, wobble, split, and so make up
the whole gamut of substances we take for granted.

All this was long ago. Our models had risen
to eleven-dimensional-space when
our application for further funding was rejected
and we were asked to vacate the premises.
We took it well, were optimistic for the future,
though that was hardly the crux of the issue:
just try transporting eleven-dimensional furniture
in an incontrovertibly three-dimensional van.

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213d

Take Four Books: Jenni Fagan

On BBC Sounds: Jenni Fagan tells presenter James Crawford about her new novel, The Delusions, in which she takes readers to the afterlife – or, at least, to its anteroom. Jenni’s three chosen influences are Nina Cassian’s poem “Temptation” (1966), Mary Shelley’s FRANKENSTEIN (1818), & Jeanette Winterson’s WEIGHT (2005)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002tzm1

#Scottish #literature #JenniFagan #womenwriters #novel

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197d

A thousand-foot slog, then a cairn of old stones –
hand-shifted labour,
and much the same river, shining
way below
as the Romans came, saw,
and soon thought the better of…

—Kathleen Jamie, “Glacial”
published in THE BONNIEST COMPANIE (Picador, 2015)

https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/kathleen-jamie/the-bonniest-companie/9781509801718

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #rewilding

Glacial
by Kathleen Jamie

A thousand-foot slog, then a cairn of old stones –
hand-shifted labour,
and much the same river, shining
way below
as the Romans came, saw,
and soon thought the better of.

Too many mountains, too many
wanchancy tribes
whose habits we wouldn’t much care for
(but could probably match),
too much grim north, too much faraway snow.

Let's bide here a moment, catching our breath
and inhaling the sweet scent of whatever
whin-bush is flowering today

and see for miles, all the way hence
to the lynx’s return, the re-established wolf’s.

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197d

Tha sinn air a bhith ri rudan do-dhèanta a-rithist.
A’ crochadh san adhair, a’ feitheamh diog, tiotag, linn,
nas fhàide nas àirde na bu chòir a bhith comasach.
Chaidh leintean-T a dhèanamh dhinn mus do landaig sinn…

—Pàdraig MacAoidh, “Ris an do-dhèanta”

https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/ris-an-do-dheanta/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Gaidhlig #Gaelic #football #ScottishFootball #TartanArmy

Ris an do-dhèanta
Pàdraig MacAoidh

Tha sinn air a bhith ri rudan do-dhèanta a-rithist.
A’ crochadh san adhair, a’ feitheamh diog, tiotag, linn,
nas fhàide nas àirde na bu chòir a bhith comasach.
Chaidh leintean-T a dhèanamh dhinn mus do landaig sinn.

Tha sinn air fhaighinn tharais air na rudan as miosa,
a’ coiseachd nam mìltean fada sin – coig ceud, coig mìle –
gus cnàmhan agus buill-nasg a chur ceart, gus ar corragan a shìneadh,
agus mion-car a chur air an t-saoghal, tharais air a’ bhàr.

O agus chum sin ar n-anail nar milleanan,
air bhoile le chèile, a’ coimhead bàla a’ tùirling
na àrc àbhaisteach mìorbhaileach coileanta
agus a’ tuiteam, meath mar bhogha-frois, dhan talamh.

Seadh, rinn sinn rudan do-dhèanta. Ach a-nis –
ann am Miami, Boston, ge b’àit – tha againn rin dèanamh
a-rithist. Agus an uairsin, yes sir, nì sinn boogie,
ri òran sam bith a tha sinn ag iarraidh.

At the Impossible
Peter Mackay

We’ve been at the impossible again. Levitating.
Hanging in the air one, two seconds, an age,
longer and higher than should be possible.
The T-shirts were printed before we’d hit the ground.

We have recovered from the worst of times,
walking long miles – five hundred, five thousand –
to wrest bones and ligaments back to fitness
and tip the world over with the last skelf of skin.

And we have held a million breaths
in frantic unison, watching a ball tumble
in its everyday, humdrum perfect parabola,
to fall plump as a rainbow back to earth.

O we’ve been at the impossible but must now –
in Miami, Boston, anywhere, anyhow –
do it all over again. And then yes sir, we shall boogie,
absolutely, to whatever song we choose.

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197d

New copy of earliest poem in English language discovered by researchers in Rome

An early ninth-century manuscript containing a text of the first known poem in the English language has been discovered in Rome by researchers from Trinity College Dublin.

https://phys.org/news/2026-04-earliest-poem-english-language-rome.html#google_vignette

"Caedmon's Hymn" at PG:

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19677

#books #literature

"'The Cædmon Manuscript': parts of Genesis, Exodus and Daniel in Old English verse, illustrated with Anglo-Saxon drawings, c. A.D. 1000" - picryl.com. At the Bodleian Libraries University of Oxford

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197d

Patrick Süskind’s Perfume is about a gifted boy and a cruel world. It offers a glimpse of French history, the perfume industry, and, most of all, the strange, intoxicating universe of scents: streets, flowers, human bodies, and even feelings.

This is a novel you can almost smell.

#books #reading #bookstodon @bookstodon #booksky #bookstagram #book #literature #Süskind #Perfume #bookreview #amreading #readingcommunity #PatrickSüskind

Patrick Süskind’s Perfume

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197d

ScotlandsFest 2026
19–27 August, Edinburgh

ScotlandsFest is Luath Press’s annual festival during the Edinburgh fringe, celebrating the literary, cultural & political landscape of Scotland. The 2026 programme is now available online:

https://luath.co.uk/pages/scotlandsfest

#Scottish #Scotland #literature #culture #politics #festival

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197d

Broken Ground: The Fall of the House of Usher (1928).

A modernist adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe. One of the first avant-garde films from America, directed by Melville Weber and James Sibley Watson, Jr.

https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/fall-of-the-house-of-usher/?utm_source=newsletter

The Fall of the House of Usher at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/932

#Books #Literature #Movies

Harry Clarke, The Fall of the House of Usher. Say, rather, the rending of her coffin. (Illustration for Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Edgar Allan Poe.)

Two horrified figures recoil over an open book as nightmarish creatures — a roaring dragon-beast and a bleeding prostrate figure — emerge in a swirling, macabre dreamscape.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:The_Fall_of_the_House_of_Usher#/media/File:Harry_Clarke_The_Fall_of_the_House_of_Usher.jpg

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