Nat Leach

CD cover- “Respect” by Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians

Now listening:

And the devil asked me to supper - he said “Careful with the spoons!”
And God said “Oh, ignore him! I’ve got all your albums.”
I said “Yes, but who’s got all the tunes?” (“When I Was Dead”)

Dominique (Brigitte Bardot) looks on as her lawyer defends her from the scandalous accusation of bringing The Mandarins to school.

Now watching: Henri-Georges Clouzot’s La Verite (1960) including a courtroom discussion of the corrupting power of literature.

Last time I posted a Penelope Fitzgerald book, people on here pretty much recommended them all, so now I just buy them when I see them. As for the Spark, it was a bit of an arbitrary decision, but I’m glad I chose well!

Just some Canadian novel I’ve heard good things about (can’t remember exactly where…)

Stack of 18 books.

New arrivals

“You got Rush Limbaugh on your side, but I got Ricky Tomlinson on mine”- Chumbawamba, “I’m Not Sorry, I Was Having Fun”

Yes, it got me a few times too, shamefully, although once I had just commented on the fact that a publisher had used the name Fanny Burney, so it felt rather unjust!

One thing I miss about Twitter is the Burney-bot that would scold you (in first person!) if you used the name Fanny Burney in a tweet (even in the context of “don’t call her Fanny Burney”).

Cover of Dick’s Standard Plays edition of Peake’s Frankenstein adaptation, featuring a well-proportioned “monster” posing seductively in a toga.

This edition of the play takes the “non-monstrous” approach to the extreme.

“Yet all history may convince us, that he, who resolutely professes himself attached to any party, is in danger of yielding to every extreme for the mere reputation of his opinion: he will argue for the most manifest errors of this or that statesman, because he has hitherto agreed with him— an obstinacy as stupid, as if a pedestrian were to express his satisfaction with a tempest at night, because he had enjoyed sunshine in the morning.”

Leigh Hunt’s political commentary from 1807 still seems relevant somehow (from Prospectus to the Examiner)

Sheep don’t always fare so well either.

I am definitely going to!

Great book. Not sure that’s the cover image I would have chosen.

One of my favourite albums.

And the title indicates that it is also derivative of Peake’s theatrical adaptation of 1824.

I’ll let you know!

Makes me think of Billy Bragg’s “The Few”: “And they salute the foes their fathers fought by waving their right arms in the air…”

Cover of Now We Shall Be Entirely Free- Andrew Miller

I know this is usually my secret distress signal, but I really am reading another book *that was written in this century*. Holding @ds228.bsky.social responsible for this one.

Yes!

Wonderful and devastating.

Thomas Middleton- Five Plays

Now reading: bawdy Jacobean comedy (A Chaste Maid in Cheapside)

This was a pleasure to listen to, thanks! I was already interested in the book, but you make it sound absolutely wild (that’s a good thing, by the way)

Alphabetical list of 19th century Spanish authors, with their Library of Congress numbers. Benito Perez Galdos is included with other authors whose surnames begin with P.

Great, I make a joke and you guys are making me do research!? Anyway, I found roughly equal numbers of online articles referring to him as “Perez Galdos” and “Galdos”. But if we trust the Library of Congress (do we?) he is a “P”

“The Lady Poverty” by Alice Meynell

Here’s one of my favourites as an example

That’s tough, but maybe I’d describe her as being sort of like Christina Rossetti, but with more modern sensibilities. What I like about Meynell is how she plays with poetic conventions and versification, and in some ways looks ahead to modernism.

Three books by Alice Meynell- Poems, Essays, and Later Poems

Drawing of Alice Meynell by John Singer Sargent

Now reading: my favourite neglected Victorian poet

Saw it on TCM about 10 years ago in good but not great quality- probably the VHS quality stream you mention.

It does feel a bit overwhelming- even though I’m trying to be selective.

Looks like you’re right. I always struggle with these types of name (like I have Simone de Beauvoir as a “B” but Paul de Man as a “D” - I think that’s right but no idea why)

I have been trying to digitize mine (at least the films not readily available in other formats) before my last VHS player dies.