Saturday, January 06, 2001
Edward Lear.
The author of one of the most original books of comic verse ever written, Edward Lear, though he was a great traveller, had not much to do with Bohemia. An artist he was in more than one sense and in more than one branch of art; but none of his artistries led him Prague-wards, just as the fact that he owed not a little to patronage did not, in the least, subject him to any of the trials, or tempt him into any of the revolts and excesses, of Bohemia’s uglier elder sister Grub street. Severe critics in the arts of design have admitted him to be an excellent draughtsman: it would be a sufficient and final testimony of the hopelessness of a literary critic if he failed to find in Lear a super-excellent writer of an almost unique kind.
The delightful Book of Nonsense (the form of the verse of which was long afterwards senselessly vulgarised and, in fact, prostituted, in newspaper competitions under the equally senseless name “Limerick”), taking, perhaps, a hint from the immemorial nursery rime, combined sense and nonsense, after the specially English fashion, in a way never known before; while his somewhat longer peoms—The Owl and the Pussy-Cat, the famous Jumblies and others—readjusted the combination in a fashion almost more delectable still.
The Cambridge History of English Literature. Vol. 13. The Victorian Age, Part One. VI. Lesser Poets of the Middle and Later Nineteenth Century. §11.
Bartleby Project
posted by Marco Graziosi 1:03 PM
Wednesday, January 03, 2001
ALISON LURIE: On Edward Gorey (1925-2000)
Edward Gorey, who died on April 15, was associated with The New York Review of Books from the beginning. His fantastic and memorable cover illustrations were a feature of every anniversary issue; and in 1975 he contributed an ongoing serial, Les Mystères de Constantinople, whose heroine was thought by some to resemble one of the NYR's editors.
The New York Review of Books
posted by Marco Graziosi 5:38 AM
Monday, January 01, 2001
The Art of Dr. Seuss
Theodor "Dr. Seuss" Geisel's first children's book, "And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street," was published in 1937; in the year 2000, nine years after his death, the ageless appeal of his whimsical world is selling seats on Broadway ("Seussical") and at the movies ("The Grinch").
Yet most of Geisel's legacy is on paper: nearly four dozen books and countless sketches, drawings, editorial cartoons and commercial art.
latimes.com
posted by Marco Graziosi 1:50 PM
Sunday, December 31, 2000
Self-similar syncopations:
Fibonacci, L-systems, limericks and ragtime
[This is an alternative (USA) URL for the same article mentioned below: it is really very interesting!]
posted by Marco Graziosi 1:51 PM
Self-similar syncopations:
Fibonacci, L-systems, limericks and ragtime There are interesting symmetries shared by the limerick and ragtime, which can be observed and heard in their family groups of stressed and unstressed syllables, or beats, and which lie at the heart of what gives these forms their characteristic structure or 'feel'. They possess self-similar qualities which are related to fractal models used by contemporary scientists, and can provide a keen insight into some quite profound inter-relationships between the arts and sciences.
[Does this sound abstruse? Well, read the rest!]
+Plus Magazine, issue 10
posted by Marco Graziosi 1:06 PM
Knowsley Safari Park
[Knowsley is now a small zoo.]
posted by Marco Graziosi 1:02 PM
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