Eggplant.place

Episode 2 of the Alasdair Gray Archive’s UNLIKELY OBJECTS MOSTLY looks at Alasdair’s chessboard & the part chess played in his practice, uncovering the game’s pivotal role in the making of his Hillhead Subway mural & the novel POOR THINGS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vbB7OeYkeo

#Scottish #literature #AlasdairGray #PoorThings #mural #murals #publicart #Glasgow #Chess #WorldChessDay

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202d

Belle Stewart (1906–1997) – singer, storyteller, tradition-bearer – was born #OTD, 18 July, in a bow tent on the banks of the Tay at Caputh, near Blairgowrie. She ranks alongside Jeannie Robertson in the roll of the finest Scots ballad-singers.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0sMwlevTMU

#Scottish #literature #travellers #folklore #folksong

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200d

Did Shakespeare Write Hamlet While He Was Stoned?

"Sam Kelly Explores the Potential Influence of Cannabis on the Bard’s Prolific Literary Output"

https://lithub.com/did-shakespeare-write-hamlet-while-he-was-stoned/

Shakespeare at PG

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/65

#books #literature #plays #poetry #drugs

ALT

Edited 200d ago

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222d

Vintage Posters for The Royal Court Theatre

Founded by the English Stage Company (ESC in 1956), London's Royal Court Theatre focuses on contemporary theatre - and great posters

By Sheldon D.

https://flashbak.com/posters-for-the-royal-court-476550/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=posters-for-the-royal-court

English theatre at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=english+theatre

#Books #Literature #Theatre

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222d

How Locke and His Heirs Redefined Beauty (Aesthetic Sense)

In the 18th century, British empiricists, under the influence of Locke, turned to subjectivism and coined the term aesthetic sense.

by Mirjana Jojić

https://www.thecollector.com/notion-aesthetic-sense-british-empiricism/

John Locke at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/2447

#Books #Literature #Philosophy

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222d

Come all ye lovers and affairs,
singles, discrete souls, and bears,
straightest of straights, bentest of bents,
carbolic scrub, Armani scents…

—Edwin Morgan, “G.G.L.C.”

A poem composed for the opening of the Glasgow Gay & Lesbian Centre, 1995

#Pride #PrideDay 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

https://universityofglasgowlibrary.wordpress.com/2014/02/20/lgbt-history-month-poem-that-launched-gglc/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Glasgow #Pride #PrideDay #InternationalPrideDay #LGBTQ

G.G.L.C.
Edwin Morgan

On the opening of the Glasgow Gay & Lesbian Centre, 4th November 1995

Come all ye persons of goodwill,
from Newton Mearns to Maryhill,
rattle the chains and launch the boat
and get it properly afloat.
I bash this poem against the bow,
name it G.G.L.C., and endow
its future cruise with benedictions,
sailing past all feuds and frictions.
Come all ye lovers and affairs,
singles, discrete souls, and bears,
straightest of straights, bentest of bents,
carbolic scrub, Armani scents,
Doc Martens girls, minikilt boys,
buyers of exotic toys,
opera queens, ballet queens,
and all the hesitant in-betweens,
trendsetters and anoraks,
underdogs looking for whacks,
indomitably spring-heeled dykes
sweeping up on mountain bikes,
jessies with attitude, closet cases,
solicitors with bright red braces,
Levis with a coloured hanky
to signal the right hanky-panky,
Lurex and Spandex and other ex-es
to mix the senses and the sexes,
but if you should prefer a suit
we'll certainly no pit ye oot,
for this is where we all can meet
down by the river in Dixon Street,
and the Broomielaw rolls on to the sea
with the happy cargo of G.G.L.C.

ALT

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222d

Queerness in Scotland has always existed, hidden in medieval manuscripts, coded in Jacobite poetry, or expressed through the arts. In the first of a 3-part series, the National Galleries of Scotland explores queer artforms & artists from Scotland, past & present

#Pride #PrideDay 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKBCxUmPBho

#Scottish #literature #poetry #art #manuscripts #medieval #18thcentury #history #jacobites #queerhistory #queerness #Pride #PrideDay #InternationalPrideDay #LGBTQ

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199d

Scotland’s a sense of change, an endless
becoming for which there was never a kind
of wholeness or ultimate category.
Scotland’s an attitude of mind.

—“Speaking of Scotland” by Maurice Lindsay (1918–2009) – born #OTD, 21 July
Published in COLLECTED POEMS 1940–1990 (AUP 1990)

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https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/speaking-scotland/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #20thcentury

Speaking of Scotland
Maurice Lindsay

What do you mean when you speak of Scotland?
The grey defeats that are dead and gone
behind the legends each generation
savours afresh, yet can’t live on?

Lowland farms with their broad acres
peopling crops? The colder earth
of the North East? Or Highland mountains
shouldering up their rocky dearth?

Inheritance of guilt that our country
has never stood where we feel she should?
A nagging threat of unfinished struggle
somehow forever lost in the blood?

Scotland’s a sense of change, an endless
becoming for which there was never a kind
of wholeness or ultimate category.
Scotland’s an attitude of mind.

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221d

Oh ye, wha in your oors o ease, ‍‍
‍‍Are fashed wi golochs, mauks, an flees,
Fell stingin wasps an bumble bees,
Tak tent o this:
There’s ae sma pest that’s waur nor these
To mar your bliss…

—W.R. Darling, “The Pest”
published in Oor Mither Tongue: An Anthology of Scots Vernacular Verse (Alexander Gardner, 1937)

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Scots #Scotslanguage #midge #midges

The Pest
W. R. Darling

Oh ye, wha in your oors o ease, ‍‍
‍‍Are fashed wi golochs, mauks, an flees,
Fell stingin wasps an bumble bees,
Tak tent o this:
There’s ae sma pest that’s waur nor these
To mar your bliss.

They hing ower hedges, burns, an wuds, ‍‍
‍‍An dance at een in dusky cluds;
Wi aw your random skelps an scuds,
They’re naeweys worrit:
Gin there’s a hole in aw your duds,
They’ll mak straucht for it.

I’ve traivled wast, I’ve traivled east; ‍‍
‍‍‍I’m weel aquaint wi mony a beast;
Wi lions, teegers, bears – at least
I’ve kent their claw:
I’ve been the fell mosquito’s feast –
But this cowes aw.

Auld Scotland, on thy bonnie face, ‍‍
‍‍Whan Mither Nature gied ye grace,
Lown, birken glens an floery braes,
Wild windy ridges,
To save ye frae deleerit praise,
She gied ye midges.

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221d

We were oot for oor usual dauner roond the toun, Tam and me, and had stopped for a pech at the tap o the hill, whaur they’re plannin tae build eichty new hooses if naebody objects, and probably even if they dae …

—James Robertson, “Bible Talk”
published in THE BOTTLE IMP 3, 2008

https://www.thebottleimp.org.uk/2008/05/bible-talk-by-james-robertson/

#Scottish #literature #shortstory #FlashFiction #bible

Too long for ALT-text, but the whole story is available via the link.

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221d

At the Canongate Wall

“Stone suits the poetry. Or perhaps it’s the other way round. I think poetry suits stone, more than it suits paper, certainly more than it suits a screen. The poetry releases something latent in the stone.”

Kathleen Jamie visits the Canongate Wall in Edinburgh.

https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/june/at-the-canongate-wall

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #scottishparliament #publicart

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198d

How Is Nature Portrayed in Shakespeare’s Macbeth?

In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, we see the imagery of nature used both to set a tone and as symbols of its character’s struggles and dispositions.

by Ivy Bowler

https://www.thecollector.com/how-is-nature-portrayed-in-shakespeare-macbeth/

Macbeth at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subject/5016

#Books #Literature #Painting

Macbeth and Banquo Meeting the Witches on the Heath by Théodore Chassériau.

By Théodore Chassériau. Musée D' Orsay

Set in a dark, windswept landscape, the composition is thick with supernatural tension. Macbeth and Banquo stand at the left, their postures alert and cautious. Banquo appears skeptical, while Macbeth is captivated—already seduced by the witches’ prophecy. The three witches emerge ghostlike from the misty heath, cloaked and enigmatic, evoking dread and mysticism.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MacbethAndBanquo-Witches.jpg

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198d

“When the lights come out at sundown along the shores of Scotland, I am proud to think they burn more brightly for the genius of my father.”
—from MEMOIRS OF HIMSELF, Robert Louis Stevenson’s uncompleted (indeed, barely begun) autobiography

Thomas Stevenson (1818–1887), lighthouse engineer & father of Robert Louis Stevenson, was born #OTD, 22 July

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#Scottish #literature #Victorian #19thcentury #lighthouse #engineer #engineering #RobertLouisStevenson

Sepia photograph of Thomas Stevenson – a pensive-looking head-and-shoulders portrait of a Victorian gentleman, balding, clean-shaven with side-whiskers, his left hand raised to touch his face. A ring is visible on the pinkie of his left hand.

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220d

This photo’s saying nothing, is black and white, opaque.
A frozen moment, not a memory.
The boyfriend with the Pentax took it for the sake
Of taking it…

—Liz Lochhead, “Photograph, Art Student, Female, Working Class, 1966”
published in FUGITIVE COLOURS (Birlinn, 2016)

29 June is #NationalCameraDay

https://birlinn.co.uk/product/fugitive-colours/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #1960s #photograph #photography #womenwriters

Photograph, Art Student, Female, Working Class
Liz Lochhead

Her hair is cut into that perfect slant –
An innovation circa ‘64 by Vidal Sassoon.
She’s wearing C&A’s best effort at Quant
Ending just below the knicker-line, daisy-strewn.
Keeping herself in tights could blow her grant
Entirely, so each precious pair is soon
Spattered with nail varnish dots that stop each run.
She’s a girl, eighteen – just wants to have fun.

She’s not ‘a chick’. Not yet. Besides, by then
She’ll find the term ‘offensive’. ‘Dollybird’ to quote
Her favourite mags, is what she aspires to when
Her head’s still full of Honey and Petticoat.
It’s almost the last year that, quite this blithely, men
Up ladders or on building sites wolf-whistle to note
The approval they’re sure she will appreciate.
Why not? She did it for their benefit, looks great.

Nor does she object. Wouldn’t think she has the right.
Though when that lech of a lecturer comments on her tits
To a male classmate, openly, she might
Feel – quick as a run in nylon – that it’s
Not what ought to happen, is not polite,
She’ll burn, but smile, have no word that fits
The insult, can’t subject it to language’s prism.
In sixty-six there’s plenty sex, but not ‘sexism’.

ALT

Soon: The Female Eunuch and enough
Will be enough. Thanks to newfound feminism and Greer,
Women’ll have the words for all this stuff,
What already rankles, but confuses her, will seem clear
And she’ll (consciously) be no one’s ‘bit of fluff’
Or ‘skirt’ or ‘crumpet’. She’ll know the rule is ‘gay’ not ‘queer’,
‘Ms’ not ‘Miss’ or ‘Mrs’ – she’ll happily obey it
And, sure as the Pill in her pocket, that’s how she’ll say it.

This photo’s saying nothing, is black and white, opaque.
A frozen moment, not a memory.
The boyfriend with the Pentax took it for the sake
Of taking it, a shot among many others, randomly,
To see how it would develop. Didn’t imagine it’d make
An image so typical it’d capture time so perfectly.
How does she feel? Hey, girl, did it feel strange
To be waiting for the a-changing times to change?

ALT

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188d

It was upon a Lammas night,
When corn rigs are bonie,
Beneath the moon’s unclouded light,
I held awa to Annie…

—Robert Burns, “Corn Rigs”
pages from Robert Burns: Selected Poems & Songs (OUP, 2013)

Today, 1 August, is Lammas Day

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/selected-poems-and-songs-9780199682324?cc=gb&lang=en&

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #song #18thcentury #folksong #RobertBurns #Lammas #LammasDay #romanticism #Scots #Scotslanguage

SONG
Tune-Corn Rigs are bonie

It was upon a Lammas night,
When corn rigs are bonie,
Beneath the moon's unclouded light,
I held awa to Annie:®
The time flew by, wi' tentless heed,
Till 'tween the late and early;
Wi' sma' persuasion she agreed,
To see me thro' the barley.

The sky was blue, the wind was still,
The moon was shining clearly;
I set her down, wi' right good will,
Amang the rigs o' barley:
I ken't her heart was a' my ain;
I lov'd her most sincerely;
I kiss'd her ore and owre again,
Amang the rigs o' barley.

I lock'd her in my fond embrace;
Her heart was beating rarely:
My blessings on that happy place,
Amang the rigs o' barley!
But by the moon and stars so bright,
That shone that hour so clearly!
She ay shall bless that happy night,
Amang the rigs o' barley.

ALT

I hae been blythe wi' Comrades dear;
I hae been merry drinking;
I hae been joyfu gath'rin gear;
I hae been happy thinking:
But a' the pleasures e'er I saw,
Tho' three times doubl'd fairly,
That happy night was worth them a',
Amang the rigs o' barley.

CHORUS
Corn rigs, an' barley rigs,
An' corn rigs are bonie:
I'll ne'er forget that happy night,
Amang the rigs wi' Annie.

ALT

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188d

WRITERS!

Submissions are invited to NEW WRITING SCOTLAND 44! We want poetry & prose in English, Gaelic, & Scots from writers who are Scottish by residence, birth, or inclination. All successful contributors are paid – deadline 31 Oct!

@writingcommunity

Submit free via Submittable 👇

https://nws.submittable.com/submit

#Scottish #literature #writing #WritingCommunity #IAmWriting #poetry #shortfiction #shortstories #Scots #Scotslanguage #Gaelic #Gaidhlig

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220d

The Secret Commonwealth
30 June, online – ticketed

Dr Dòmhnall Uilleam Stiùbhart looks at The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns & Fairies, compiled in the 17th century by minister, Gaelic scholar & folklorist Robert Kirk (1644–1692 – unless he’s still alive…)

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/secret-commonwealth-of-elves-fairies-domhnall-stiubhart-zoom-tickets-694148796737

#Scottish #literature #folklore #Gaelic #Gaidhlig

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220d

so we’re doing the 1960s and leah who’s eleven
nearly twelve says what’s vietnam sir and scott
who has already turned twelve but looks about eight
says it’s in korea isn’t it sir…

—Mark Russell, “Drama”
published in With Their Best Clothes On: New Writing Scotland 36 (ASL, 2018)

https://asls.org.uk/publications/books/newwriting/nws36/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #drama #teaching #teachers

Mark Russell
Drama

so we’re doing the 1960s and leah who’s eleven
nearly twelve says what’s vietnam sir and scott
who has already turned twelve but looks about eight
says it’s in korea isn’t it sir and stephanie laughs
well sort of snorts and looks like she might pee herself
and i say no but it is in the far east like korea
and we look on the map i bought and tacked to the wall
and see why north vietnam was supported by china
but not quite why south vietnam was supported by the usa
and then rab whose name is robbie but he prefers rab
spots korea and says look there’s a north and a south
just like that vietnam hingy and thomas says
wasn’t there a war there too and aiden says shut up
twatface and I have to send him out to mrs lennon
and thomas says it again and we see that north korea
was supported by china and that the americans found
another way of fighting another war a long way from home
and then katie who is very quiet most of the time
says no that wasn’t in the past because it’s happening
today it’s happening now she saw it on her phone
and that we’re all going to die tomorrow or the day after
and both rebeccas stand up waving their hands shouting
we’re not are we sir we’re not are we we’re not going to die
tomorrow are we sir and I say no but what would we do if
we thought we were going to die tomorrow how would we feel
maybe we can make a play about it let’s get into groups

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197d

Escape from the Land of the Dead: On Leonora Carrington’s The Stone Door

"Magic and ideology are both practices of belief."

By Celia Bell

https://lithub.com/escape-from-the-land-of-the-dead-on-leonora-carringtons-the-stone-door/

#Books #Literature #literarycriticism #WomeninArt

Leonora Carrington

This evocative photograph captures Leonora Carrington, the British-born Surrealist artist and writer. Carrington appears poised and enigmatic, her expression calm but intense, often with piercing eyes that suggest her deep inner world.

She has semi-long curly hair and wears a lacy midi-length blouse with a skirt (or black pants), her arms wrapped around one of her knees.

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

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197d

How Gustave Moreau’s Mystical Paintings Defined the Symbolist Movement

Gustave Moreau was the defiant visionary whose mystical paintings shaped a groundbreaking new movement in France and beyond.

by Kelsey Spicuzza

https://www.thecollector.com/gustave-moreau-symbolist-movement/

Symbolism in literature at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subject/7864

#Books #Literature #Symbolism #Art_criticism

L'Apparition (1876), watercolor, 105 x 72 cm., Musée d'Orsay

by Gustave Moreau

Gustave Moreau’s L'Apparition is a haunting and richly symbolic watercolor painting that vividly captures a moment from the biblical story of Salome. In this striking scene, Salome stands transfixed before the vision of the severed head of John the Baptist, which hovers, radiant and bleeding, in the air before her.

Salome is adorned in elaborate, orientalized robes and jewelry that shimmer with color, light, and texture—an opulent reflection of her allure and the decadent atmosphere of Herod’s court. Her expression is one of awe and dread as she gazes upon the miraculous apparition.

The head of John the Baptist floats above a luminous nimbus, glowing with supernatural intensity, contrasting with the dark, richly patterned architectural setting behind.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Moreau#/media/File:The_Apparition,_Gustave_Moreau_1876.jpg

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197d

Afro-Scottish Poetry Event 2025
25 July, Glasgow. Tickets £0–£10

A multicultural evening of poetry, music, & storytelling that celebrates African & Scottish identities through powerful performances. Created & curated by Chisom Okoronkwo with U Belong Glasgow

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/afro-scottish-poetry-event-2025-tickets-1396145632169

#Scottish #African #literature #poetry #storytelling #performance #identity #Glasgow #AfroScottish

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219d

From the lone shieling of the misty island
Mountains divide us, and the waste of seas—
Yet still the blood is strong, the heart is Highland,
And we in dreams behold the Hebrides…

—“Canadian Boat-Song” (Anon.)
published in the Noctes Ambrosianæ, Blackwood’s Magazine Sept 1829

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#Scottish #literature #19thcentury #CanadaDay 🇨🇦🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Canadian Boat-Song (from the Gaelic)

Listen to me, as when ye heard our father
Sing long ago, the song of other shores—
Listen to me, and then in chorus gather
All your deep voices, as ye pull your oars:
Fair these broad meads—these hoary woods are grand;
But we are exiles from our fathers’ land.

From the lone shieling of the misty island
Mountains divide us, and the waste of seas—
Yet still the blood is strong, the heart is Highland,
And we in dreams behold the Hebrides:
Fair these broad meads—these hoary woods are grand;
But we are exiles from our fathers’ land.

We ne’er shall tread the fancy-haunted valley,
Where ’tween the dark hills creeps the small clear stream,
In arms around the patriarch banner rally,
Nor see the moon on royal tombstones gleam:
Fair these broad meads—these hoary woods are grand;
But we are exiles from our fathers’ land.

When the bold kindred, in the time long-vanish’d,
Conquer’d the soil and fortified the keep—
No seer foretold the children would be banish’d,
That a degenerate Lord might boast his sheep:
Fair these broad meads—these hoary woods are grand;
But we are exiles from our fathers’ land.

Come foreign rage—let Discord burst in slaughter!
O then for clansman true, and stern claymore—
The hearts that would have given their blood like water,
Beat heavily beyond the Atlantic roar:
Fair these broad meads—these hoary woods are grand;
But we are exiles from our fathers’ land.

ALT

Edited 219d ago

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219d

Summer 1945, just after VE Day: a group of young women brace for the future as the shattered world is put back into place. Neither they, nor Britain, will ever be the same again.

—currently on BBC Sounds: a new dramatisation of Muriel Spark’s THE GIRLS OF SLENDER MEANS

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002f6p6

#Scottish #literature #MurielSpark #drama #radiodrama #audiodrama

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