Eggplant.place

87d

Today, 20 September, is Batman Day. You’d think there would be a signal or something but

Anyway, here’s “Batman’s Aff His Nut”, by Robert Florence

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Glasgow #comics #comicbooks #Batman #BatmanDay

Batman’s aff his nut
by Robert Florence

Have you seen the way he cuts aboot
Dressed up as a mad fuckin bat
Batterin guys
I was lit at:
“Mate, I’m worried aboot ye
I know your ma and da died
But everybody’s ma and da dies
And we’re no aw runnin aboot
Hookin muggers and
Kickin psychopaths in the baws.”
And that was when Batman went
“Aye, but do ye ever feel like it?
Do you ever look at the world and feel like it?
Like having a big mad base under your hoose?
Do you ever feel like drivin a big mad motor
that turns intae a tank?
And leatherin fuck oot of guys aw night?
Scarin the fuckin shite oot of them?”
And that’s when I was lit at:
“Aye. Fuck it. Ah dae.”
And that’s the Secret Origin of Robin
And everyone else.

ALT

Blurry photo of a man in a (partial?) Batman costume, on a wet Glasgow street – probably taken during the filming of the 2022 movie THE BATMAN, where Glasgow was a stand-in for Gotham City.

Text: She’s turned the Waynes against us…

She’s turned the Waynes against us

ALT

4 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

1y

"Every sensitive person carries in himself old cities enclosed by ancient walls."

Swiss writer Robert Walser was born #OTD in 1878.

One of Walser's most notable works is his collection of short prose pieces titled "Der Spaziergang" (1917). Walser's writing fell out of favor after his death in 1956, but experienced a revival in the late 20th century, thanks in part to the efforts of literary scholars and translators.

Books by Robert Walser at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/26294

#books #literature

ALT

Cover of Der Spaziergang by Robert Walser

ALT

Edited 1y ago

1 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

86d

Call it not vain:—they do not err,
Who say, that when the Poet dies,
Mute Nature mourns her worshipper,
And celebrates his obsequies…

—from Canto V, “The Lay of the Last Minstrel” by Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832) – died #OTD, 21 September

https://www.theotherpages.org/poems/canto05.html

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #WalterScott #19thcentury #romanticism

Sir Walter Scott
The Lay of the Last Minstrel
Canto V

I.
Call it not vain;—they do not err,
Who say, that when the Poet dies,
Mute Nature mourns her worshipper,
And celebrates his obsequies:
Who say, tall cliff and cavern lone
For the departed Bard make moan;
That mountains weep in crystal rill;
That flowers in tears of balm distill;
Through his lov'd groves that breezes sigh,
And oaks, in deeper groan, reply;
And rivers teach their rushing wave
To murmur dirges round his grave

II.
Not that, in sooth, o'er mortal urn
Those things inanimate can mourn;
But that the stream, the wood, the gale
Is vocal with the plaintive wail
Of those, who, else forgotten long,
Liv'd in the poet's faithful song,
And with the poet's parting breath,
Whose memory feels a second death.
The Maid's pale shade, who wails her lot,
That love, true love, should be forgot,
From rose and hawthorn shakes the tear
Upon the gentle Minstrel's bier:
The phantom Knight, his glory fled,
Mourns o'er the field he heap'd with dead;
Mounts the wild blast that sweeps amain,
And shrieks along the battle-plain.
The Chief, whose antique crownlet long
Still sparkled in the feudal song,
Now, from the mountain's misty throne,
Sees, in the thanedom once his own,
His ashes undistinguish'd lie,
His place, his power, his memory die:
His groans the lonely caverns fill,
His tears of rage impel the rill:
All mourn the Minstrel's harp unstrung,
Their name unknown, their praise unsung.

ALT

0 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

86d

“The goal with this type of literature is that spark of recognition”

The Skinny Magazine speaks with Glasgow author Selali Fiamanya, whose debut novel BEFORE WE HIT THE GROUND is a tender & wrenching account of immigrant family dynamics

@bookstodon

https://www.theskinny.co.uk/books/features/selali-fiamanya-on-his-debut-novel-before-we-hit-the-ground

#Scottish #literature #Glasgow #immigrants #immigration

0 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

86d

The Battle of Prestonpans was fought #OTD, 21 September 1745. The first major engagement in the Jacobite rebellion, Prestonpans was a stunning victory for the (mostly Highland) troops under Charles Edward Stuart. The song “Johnnie Cope”, composed very shortly afterwards, probably by Adam Skirving, exists in numerous versions & arrangements – including one by Beethoven – but it is originally a pipe tune.

1/2

#Scottish #literature #bagpipes #music #song #Jacobites #18thcentury

Cope sent a challenge frae Dunbar,
Sayin “Charlie meet me an’ ye daur;
An’ I’ll learn ye the airts o’ war,
If ye’ll meet me in the morning.”
Hey! Johnnie Cope, are ye waukin’ yet?
Or are your drums a-beating yet?
If ye were waukin’ I wad wait,
Tae gang tae the coals i’ the morning.

When Charlie looked the letter upon,
He drew his sword its scabbard from,
“Come, follow me, my merry men,
And we’ll meet Johnnie Cope i’ the morning.”
Hey! Johnnie Cope, &c.

“Now Johnnie, be as gude’s as your word,
Come, let us try baith fire and sword,
And dinna flee like a frighted bird,
That’s chas’d frae its nest i’ the morning.”
Hey! Johnnie Cope, &c.

When Johnnie Cope he heard o’ this,
He thought it wadna be amiss
To have a horse in readiness,
To flee awa i’ the morning.
Hey! Johnnie Cope, &c.

“Fy now, Johnnie, get up an’ rin;
The Highland bagpipes make a din,
It’s best to sleep in a hale skin,
For ’twill be a bluidie morning.”
Hey! Johnnie Cope, &c.

When Johnnie Cope to Dunbar came,
They speer’d at him, “Where’s a’ your men?”
“The de’il confound me gin I ken,
For I left them a’ this morning.”
Hey! Johnnie Cope, &c.

“Now Johnnie, troth ye wasna blate,
Tae come wi’ the news o’ your ain defeat,
And leave your men in sic a strait,
Sae early in the morning.
Hey! Johnnie Cope, &c.

“I’faith”, quo’ Johnnie, “I got a fleg
Wi’ their claymores an’ philabegs,
If I face them again, deil break my legs,
So I wish you a gude-morning.”
Hey! Johnnie Cope, &c.

ALT

1 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

89d

La libertad es una cosa noble: Bruce and Wallace translated into Spanish
2 Oct, Glasgow University – free

A talk by Fernando Toda of the University of Salamanca, exploring the translations of Barbour’s THE BRUS & Blind Hary’s THE WALLACE into Spanish.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/la-libertad-es-una-cosa-noble-bruce-and-wallace-translated-into-spanish-tickets-1715246240679

#Scottish #literature #Scots #Scotslanguage #translation #Spanish

1 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

1y

French philosopher, an influential early socialist thinker, and one of the founders of utopian socialism Charles Fourier was born #OTD in 1772.

He developed a comprehensive system of societal organization known as Fourierism which influenced many writers and thinkers such as Dostoevsky, André Breton, Walter Benjamin, Herbert Marcuse and many others. He is is credited with having originated the word feminism in 1837.

About Fourier at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=charles+fourier&submit_search=Go%21

#books #literature #philosophy

Portrait de Charles Fourier, fondateur du Phalanstère.
Toile, école de Jean Gigoux, 1835.

ALT

Lithograph, "Vue d’un phalanstère, village français [composé] d’apres la théorie sociétaire de Ch. Fourier", H. Fugère. Date uncertain, but from 19th century. 860.05, Houghton Library, Harvard University

ALT

Edited 1y ago

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

62d

Allan Ramsay (1684–1758) – poet, playwright, founder of modern Scots writing, & with a claim to be the father of Romanticism – was born #OTD, 15 Oct
A 🎂 🧵

1/6

🖼️ Allan Ramsay, 1684–1758, by William Aikman – Scottish National Portrait Gallery
(This portrait was owned by Sir John Clerk of Penicuik, who wrote on the back of the canvas: “Here painted on this canvas clout by Aikman’s hand is Ramsay’s snout”)

https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/3526

#Scottish #literature #drama #poetry #18thcentury #Romanticism

Portrait of Allan Ramsay (1684–1758), by William Aikman. Oil on canvas. Ramsay is clean-shaven, and looks out at the viewer with a half-smile. He wears a collarless dark green velvet coat, unbuttoned, and has an orange silk cloth wound about his head like an improvised turban.

ALT

1 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

85d

Yestreen I heard a birdie sing
Inbye a bonnie beech tree hedge
As if it didnae ken nor care
Autumn wis hidin in the sedge…

—Sheena Blackhall, “Autumn IX”
via the Sottish Poetry Library

https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/autumn-ix/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Scots #Scotslanguage #autumn

Autumn IX
by Sheena Blackhall

Yestreen I heard a birdie sing
Inbye a bonnie beech tree hedge
As if it didnae ken nor care
Autumn wis hidin in the sedge

The daith o leaves is roon the neuk
It peints them yalla, reid an broon
An doon they’ll drap like faain rain
In waesome Autumn’s dowie croon

Sic cheenges cam tae great an sma
First ae grey hair, a nippin knee
The stert o auld age: clawin cleuks
That herald yer mortality

Autumn draws near, like cat wi moose
It winna stop, nor else devaul
A jeelin in a body’s banes
A cheenge, the turn frae warm tae caul

Noo blawin in the win, dry leaves
Like Simmer’s ghaists, ethereal
This is the Sizzen o the scythe
The nichts draw in, a mournin pall

ALT

1 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

85d

Michael Pedersen and Peter Mackay in conversation with Gemma Cairney
28 September, Braemar. Tickets £10

Michael Pedersen and Peter Mackay in conversation with Gemma Cairney about their work, their love of language, and the inspiration they draw from Scotland’s landscapes, contemporary culture and ways of living.

https://www.tickettailor.com/events/thefifearms/1742592

#Scottish #literature #language #landscape #culture

0 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

62d

A Curious Episode at Balquhidder: Placenames in the North & the Nackens
28 October, Scottish Storytelling Centre, Edinburgh – free, ticketed

Dr Robert Fell on how the folklore of Nackens (Scottish Gypsy Travellers) can give insights into Scotland’s history & place names

https://sisf.online.red61.co.uk/event/913:6267/913:27696/

#Scottish #literature #minoritylanguage #travellers #Nacken #folklore #placenames #history #storytelling #folktale

Talks & Lectures
A Curious Episode at Balquhidder: Placenames in the North and the Nackens

Alan Bruford Memorial Lecture 2025

(Tue 28 Oct: 6pm)

Scottish place names and their origins are important. Join Dr Robert Fell to hear about the perspectives of Nackens (Scottish Gypsy Travellers) and how their folklore can give us unique insights into Scotland’s history and her place names. With special guest Shamus McPhee, who recounts a curious episode from Highland Perthshire that gave Balquhidder its name.

Presented in memory of Scottish scholar Alan Bruford, in partnership with the University of Edinburgh’s Department of Celtic and Scottish Studies.

ALT

0 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

88d

#AynRand is quoted, misquoted, praised, and vilified — often by people who haven’t read her.

_The Ayn Rand Reader_ offers excerpts from her #fiction and #nonfiction: her ideas, her voice, her terms.

If you’re serious about understanding her — whether to agree or disagree — start here: https://aynrand.org/novels/the-ayn-rand-reader/

#philosophy #books #bookstodon #literature #AynRand #Objectivism

0 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

62d

Mary Wollstonecraft, The Woman Who Laid the Foundation for Feminism

Think 18th-century feminism must be outdated? Think again—there is still so much to learn from the life and writing of Mary Wollstonecraft.

by Dr. Victoria C. Roskams

https://www.thecollector.com/mary-wollstonecraft-woman-laid-foundation-feminism/

Wollstonecraft at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/61

#books #literature

Mary Wollstonecraft by John Opie .

The painting depicts Wollstonecraft, a pioneering writer and advocate for women’s rights, in a calm and thoughtful pose. She is shown in a white dress with soft lighting that highlights her face.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Wollstonecraft#/media/File:Mary_Wollstonecraft_by_John_Opie_(c._1797).jpg

ALT

2 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

82d

Andrew O’Hagan: On Friendship
16 October, Glasgow. Tickets £5–£15

From the bestselling author of MAYFLIES and CALEDONIAN ROAD, a celebration of what makes us great: our friends.

In these personal reflections, Andrew O’Hagan explores friendship through music and poetry, memory and history, illuminating the many ways and reasons that people come together, and how our lives are all the better because we do.

https://www.waterstones.com/events/andrew-ohagan-in-conversation-with-kirstin-innes/glasgow-sauchiehall-street

#Scottish #literature #friendship #AndrewOHagan

Edited 82d ago

0 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

1y

Irish writer and poet who wrote under the pseudonym "Æ" George William Russell was born #OTD in 1867.

As a poet, Russell's work often explored themes of spirituality, mysticism, nature, and the Irish landscape. One of Russell's most famous works is "The Candle of Vision" (1918), a mystical autobiography in which he describes his spiritual experiences and encounters with the divine.

Books by George William Russell at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/1869

#books #literature

George William Russell - Project Gutenberg eText 19028

ALT

Cover of Imaginations and Reveries by George William Russell

ALT

1 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

1y

“Knowledge leaves no room for chances.”

American lawyer, Union general in the American Civil War, politician, diplomat, & author Lew Wallace was born #OTD in 1827.

He is best known for his historical novel "Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ" (1880), which became one of the best-selling novels of the 19th century. He wrote several other novels, essays, and biographies, though none achieved the same level of success as Ben-Hur.

Books by Lew Wallace at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/836

#books #literature

Lew Wallace in 1903
published by L C Page and company Boston 1903; https://archive.org/details/storyofamericanh00unse/page/523 - little pilgrimages

ALT

Cover of Ben-Hur: A tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace

ALT

2 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

84d

What Pride and Prejudice Tells Us About British History, Class, and Women’s Leisure Time

Patricia A. Matthew Explores the Historical Context of Jane Austen’s Most Famous Novel

https://lithub.com/what-pride-and-prejudice-tells-us-about-british-history-class-and-womens-leisure-time/

Pride and Prejudice at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=pride+and+prejudice

#books #literature

A card of Brock's illustrations of Jane Austen's Novel Pride and Prejudice, (some possibly touched up by his brother).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pride_and_Prejudice#/media/File:Scenes_from_Pride_and_Prejudice.png

ALT

0 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

1y

#OTD in 1897

The Grand Guignol is opened in Paris by Oscar Méténier.

From its opening in 1897 until its closing in 1962, it specialised in naturalistic horror shows. Its name is often used as a general term for graphic, amoral horror entertainment, a genre popular from Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre (for instance Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, and Webster's The Duchess of Malfi and The White Devil), to today's splatter films.

#books #literature #theatre

Promotional poster for a Grand Guignol performance.

Théatre du Grand Guignol de Paris. L'homme qui a tué la mort, drame en 2 actes de M René Berton - mise en scène de C. Choisy (affiche)

ALT

1 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

84d

Leave, leave your well-loved nest,
Late swallow, and fly away.
Here is no rest
For hollowing heart and wearying wing…

—Edwin Muir, “The Late Swallow”
first published in One Foot in Eden (Faber, 1956)

https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/late-swallow/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #20thcentury #EdwinMuir #autumn

The Late Swallow
by Edwin Muir

Leave, leave your well-loved nest,
Late swallow, and fly away.
Here is no rest
For hollowing heart and wearying wing.
Your comrades all have flown
To seek their southern paradise
Across the great earth’s downward sloping side,
And you are alone.
Why should you cling
Still to the swiftly ageing narrowing day?
Prepare;
Shake your pinions long untried
That now must bear you there where you would be
Through all the heavens of ice;
Till falling down the homing air
You light and perch upon the radiant tree.

ALT

0 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

84d

Nobody Would Edit Shakespeare, Right? Right?

by: Neely Tucker via @libraryofcongress

https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2025/09/nobody-would-edit-shakespeare-right-right/

Shakespeare at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/65

#books #literature

SHAKESPEARE sources, or from the familiar stock in English books of the period. The historical materials of his plays are evidently from a very limited number of English authorities, like Holinsheds Chronicles and Norths Plutarch; and in the use of these he often makes mistakes ofwhich an average scholar could never be guilty. It should be understood that the notion that Shakespeare was a learned man is of comparatively modern date. In the references to the dramatist in the literature of his day and for a century after his death (as carefully collected by the New Shakspere Society of London) there is no hint of it, while expressionsof the contrary opinion are frequent.

https://archive.org/details/americanaunivers14newy/americanaunivers14newy?view=theater#page/n264/mode/1up

ALT

3 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

84d

You that through all the dying summer
Came every morning to our breakfast table,
A lonely bachelor mummer,
And fed on the marmalade
So deeply, all your strength was scarcely able
To prise you from the sweet pit you had made…

—Edwin Muir, “The Late Wasp”
from One Foot in Eden (Faber, 1956)

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #20thcentury #EdwinMuir #autumn

The Late Wasp
by Edwin Muir

You that through all the dying summer
Came every morning to our breakfast table,
A lonely bachelor mummer,
And fed on the marmalade
So deeply, all your strength was scarcely able
To prise you from the sweet pit you had made, –
You and the earth have now grown older,
And your blue thoroughfares have felt a change;
They have grown colder;
And it is strange
How the familiar avenues of the air
Crumble now, crumble; the good air will not hold,
All cracked and perished with the cold;
And down you dive through nothing and through despair.

ALT

0 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

84d

#OTD in 1889, writer Walter Lippmann was born.

He "was an American writer, reporter, and political commentator. With a career spanning 60 years, he is famous for being among the first to introduce the concept of the Cold War, coining the term "stereotype" in the modern psychological meaning, as well as critiquing media and
democracy...."

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

Books by Lippmann at PG:

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=Walter+Lippmann

#books #literature

ALT

Edited 84d ago

0 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

84d

…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…

—Mark Russell, “Drama”
in With Their Best Clothes On: New Writing Scotland 36

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

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #rapture

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

ALT

0 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

1y

#OTD in 1914.

The first English-language performance of George Bernard Shaw's comedy Pygmalion at His Majesty's Theatre is given in London starring Mrs. Patrick Campbell and Herbert Beerbohm Tree, and famously including the Act III line "Not bloody likely!".

Shaw's play has been adapted many times, most notably as the 1938 film Pygmalion, the 1956 stage musical My Fair Lady, and its 1964 film version.

Pygmalion at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/3825

#books #literature #theatre

Photograph of the Broadway production of George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion

Caption reads as follows: The flower girl (Mrs. Patrick Campbell) is introduced to high society under the tutelage of Professor Higgins (Philip Merivale). A scene from Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion Merivale played Col. Pickering in the original London production; when the play was taken to Broadway he played the role of Henry Higgins.

ALT

0 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

1y

French author Georges Duhamel died #OTD in 1966.

One of Duhamel's most famous works is the "Chronique des Pasquier" series, which consists of ten novels that follow the lives of the Pasquier family over several generations. Duhamel was also known for his essays and philosophical reflections on literature, art, and the human condition. He was also a committed pacifist and humanist.

Books by Georges Duhamel at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/1445

#books #literature

ALT

Cover of Confession de Minuit: Roman by Georges Duhamel

ALT

1 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original