An online repository of the eclectic podcast
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| Bob Dylan |
Find on Amazon: US | UK
Also at A Piece of Monologue:
17.12.14
Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour Archive
Find on Amazon: US | UK
Also at A Piece of Monologue:
1.7.14
The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan: 1963 Photoshoot
A selection of the photographs taken by Don Hunstein
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| The original artwork for The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963) |
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| Bob Dylan and Suzie Rotolo in West Village, New York City, February 1963. Photograph: Don Hunstein. |
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| Bob Dylan and Suzie Rotolo in West Village, New York City, February 1963. Photograph: Don Hunstein. |
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| Bob Dylan and Suzie Rotolo in West Village, New York City, February 1963. Photograph: Don Hunstein. |
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| Bob Dylan and Suzie Rotolo in West Village, New York City, February 1963. Photograph: Don Hunstein. |
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| Bob Dylan and Suzie Rotolo in West Village, New York City, February 1963. Photograph: Don Hunstein. |
Also at A Piece of Monologue:
22.2.13
Terrence Malick on Days of Heaven
A rare interview with the American filmmaker
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| A still from Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven (1978) |
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| A still from Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven (1978) |
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| A still from Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven (1978) |
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| A still from Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven (1978) |
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| A still from Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven (1978) |
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| A still from Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven (1978) |
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| A still from Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven (1978) |
It was in Austin, Texas that I had the idea for Days of Heaven. I found myself alone for a summer in the town I had left when I was a high school student. There were those green, undulating hills, and the very beautiful Colorado river. The place is inspired. It is inspiring, and there the film came to me all together.
I had not liked working at harvest time, I have a very good memory of it, of wheat, and the comings and goings in the fields, and of all the people I met. They were mostly petty criminals who were on their way to Phoenix, Arizona or Las Vegas for the rest of the year.
Like those of the film, these were not people of the soil, but urban dwellers who had abandoned their city, their factories. Rather than criminals, it would be fairer to say they lived on the margins of crime, fed by elusive hopes. At the time of the film, those who worked the seasons hated their jobs and the farmers did not trust them. They could not touch the machinery: if something was breaking, they had to signal by raising their hat on a stick. To distinguish themselves, they were always putting on their best clothes. I had noticed that myself when I was a teenager. To the farmers they were bringing - and this is still true - a piece of their homeland and of new horizons. And farmers sat down to listen - charmed - to hear the story of these workers. Already the farmers were almost nothing more than businessmen and they felt nostalgia for those days of yesteryear where they were themselves caretakers of their earthly riches. Workers and farmers were embodying people whose hopes were being destroyed, some more than others, by opulence or poverty. All were full of desires, dreams, and appetites, which I hope permeates the film. For these people, happiness comes and goes, they are fleeting moments. Why? They don't know, just as they don't know how to achieve happiness. If they see before them another season, another harvest, they feel unable to build a life.
Though this is familiar to a European, it may seem puzzling for Americans. Americans feel entitled to happiness, and once they manage to find it, they feel as if they own it. If they are deprived of it, they feel cheated. If they feel it has been taken away from them, they imagine they have been done wrong. This guilt I have felt from everyone I've known. It's a bit like a Dylan song: they have held the world in their hands and let it slip through their fingers.
As for the title, it is a feeling that a place exists that is within reach and where we will be safe. It is a place where a house will not rest on the sand, where you will not become crazier by fighting again and again against the impossible. [Read More]
Also at A Piece of Monologue:
28.6.12
Obscene: A Portrait of Barney Rosset and Grove Press
24.10.11
Barry Feinstein 1931-2011
Iconic photographer passes away, aged 80
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| Bob Dylan. Photograph: Barry Feinstein. |
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| Bob Dylan. Photograph: Barry Feinstein. |
Also at A Piece of Monologue:
- Bob Dylan to release Chronicles II and III
- Joyce Carol Oates on Bob Dylan
- Will Self on Bob Dylan
- The Photography of Tom Palumbo
19.9.11
Arthur Rimbaud, The Poems
Matthew Bell on the 'libertine linguist'
Matthew Bell of The Independent discusses Arthur Rimbaud, and a new collection of his poetry: 'He was the archetypal Romantic figure, a drunken libertine who inspired artists from Picasso to Bob Dylan. But Arthur Rimbaud was more than a poetic pin-up. A new anthology of the French 19th-century poet's work will include five previously unseen verses written in Latin, which show him to have been a gifted classicist.' [Read More]Also at A Piece of Monologue:
14.9.11
Review: Arthur Rimbaud, Illuminations
John Ashbury's new translation of Rimbaud's poetry
In The Independent, Michael Glover reviews John Ashbery's new translation of Arthur Rimbaud's Illuminations: 'Thief, teenage master-poet, gun-runner in Africa, attempted murderer: the short life and sensational achievements of Arthur Rimbaud fascinate us. When I finished re-reading Carcanet's parallel-text edition of his cycle of visionary poems in prose, in its new translation by John Ashbery, my head was full of words by those whom Rimbaud so palpably influenced, from Bob Dylan's "Desolation Row" to John Lennon's "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and "I Am the Walrus". It struck me that there was no real distance between Dylan, Lennon and Rimbaud.' [Read More]
Also at A Piece of Monologue:
19.6.11
Jack Kerouac's On The Road as iPad App
Penguin release classic Beat novel in 'amplified' edition
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| Screenshots of the new On The Road iPad app |
About the App
The legendary novel from the postwar prophet of American literature—brought to life with exclusive content for an absorbing and transformative experiencePulsating with the rhythms of jazz, frenetic sex, illicit drugs, and the mystery and promise of the open road, this iconic novel defined what it meant to be “beat” and captured the impulses of a liberated underground America. Based on Jack Kerouac’s adventures with Neal Cassady, On the Road tells the story of two friends crossing the country in search of a new kind of experience and authenticity that they could not find in mainstream culture. Expressing a quintessential American vision of freedom and longing, On the Road is a timeless tale that resonates with each new generation.
With the complete text of the original 1957 novel at its heart, this digital edition has been curated by Penguin editors, the Kerouac estate, and Beat scholars and includes a set of spectacular features that immerse readers in the book’s backstory and legacy—making for a truly unique literary encounter.
Features
- Prized family photographs from Kerouac’s estate, many published here for the first time
- Exclusive audio clips of Kerouac himself reading three excerpts from an early draft
- Documentary footage of fellow Beats sharing their firsthand impressions of Kerouac
- Pages from the journals Kerouac kept while on the road
- Reproductions of Kerouac’s first draft of the novel on the 120-foot scroll, as well as later typescripts with corrections made by him and his editors
- Slideshow of cover art from international editions
- Extensive collection of original reviews
- Tributes to Kerouac and On the Road by leading artists from John Updike to Bob Dylan
- Previously unreleased editorial documents from the archives of Viking, the novel’s publisher
- Side-by-side comparisons of Kerouac’s famous original scroll draft and the published text, highlighting the editorial work that went into his masterpiece as well as the elements removed on the recommendation of Viking’s lawyers—including some of Kerouac’s most explicit treatments of sex, drug use, and other “obscenities”
- An expert introduction by Beat scholar Howard Cunnell
- Fully interactive map of the now legendary trips from 1947, 1949, and 1950 taken by Dean and Sal in the book
- Complete text of the 1957 edition of the novel, thoroughly annotated with biographies of the real-life Beats behind the famous characters, notes on their favorite hot spots and hangouts around the country, and explanations of cultural references
- Gallery of new and classic photographs of all the famous Beats
- Detailed biography with an in-depth look at Kerouac’s personal and artistic life
- Noteworthy articles by Kerouac on his unique, innovative writing style and the philosophy of the Beat generation
- Easy book navigation features, including text search, bookmarks, and the ability to flip pages with a tap or swipe
- Sidebar annotations alongside the novel hide away for an uninterrupted reading experience
- Reproduced archival documents can be enlarged to full screen with a double tap
Download
Also at A Piece of Monologue:
23.1.11
Disjecta: This week's links
Your guide to this week's best cultural links
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| Bob Dylan. Photograph: Daniel Kramer. |
Literature:
London Review of Books: Winter Lecture s 2011: Includes Judith Butler on Franz Kafka, T. J. Clark on Picasso's Guernica and Elif Batuman on Cervantes and Balzac.Joycean Literature: Fiction and Poetry 1910-2010: An academic conference to be held at the University of London, June 2011
James Joyce & Samuel Beckett: Top 10 Literary Mentorships
Joyce Carol Oates: New short story collection, Give Me Your Heart
Thomas Bernhard: German television documentary, spanning 1967-88
Beat Generation: Neal Cassady's wife, Carolyn, is interviewed by The Guardian on life with the Beats
J. D. Salinger: David L. Ulin reviews Jeffrey Slawenski's J. D. Salinger: A Life
Jorge Luis Borges: Martin Schifino reviews five new anthologies of the Borges' work
Jorge Luis Borges: The Riddle of Poetry, a lecture delivered at Harvard University 1967.
H. P. Lovecraft: GalleyCat presents a free documentary
Edgar Allan Poe: For the second time in two years, the mysterious 'Poe Toaster' fails to appear at the writer's gravesite
Philosophy & Critical Theory:
Roland Barthes: Columbia University Press publishes The Preparation of the NovelRoland Barthes: Mairéad Hanrahan reviews Barthes' The Preparation of the Novel in the Times Literary Supplement
Roland Barthes: University of York launches a new reading group based around Barthes' The Neutral
Susan Sontag: Varia celebrates the birthday of the renowned cultural critic
Friedrich Nietzsche: Slate on why Nietzsche is so often misunderstood by angry young men
Jacques Derrida speaks about 'Forgiveness'
Film:
65 Things You Didn't Know About David LynchArt & Design
Ezra Stoller: Exploring Mad Men era New York through the photography of Ezra StollerTheatre
Thomas Bernhard: A translation of Elisabeth IIFrankenstein: The Guardian on Danny Boyle's new production at the National
Theatre and Performance: An online preview
Music
Bob Dylan: American musician signs six-book deal, which will include two further volumes in the Chronicles seriesPatti Smith appears on Charlie Rose
Joy Division: Recordings from two Dutch concerts
Etc.
Woody Allen: 'Money Can Buy Happiness-As If', in the New YorkerThank you to all link contributions, which can be found on the A Piece of Monologue Twitter page.
19.1.11
Bob Dylan to release Chronicles II and III
American songwriter signs a six-book deal with Simon & Schuster
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| Douglas R. Gilbert/Redferns/Getty |
Source: Andy Greene, 'Bob Dylan signs Six-Book Deal', Rolling Stone, 18 Janury 2011
Also at A Piece of Monologue
12.1.11
Joyce Carol Oates on Bob Dylan
Why did Oates dedicate 'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?' to Bob Dylan?
The American writer and critic answers in an interview.
Source: Celestial Timepiece on Twitter
Also at A Piece of Monologue
15.11.10
LitPop Conference: Writing and Popular Music
24 June 2011, Northumbria University
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| Design: Rhys Tranter |
Friday 24th June 2011
Northumbria University
Friday 24th June 2011, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne
Going beyond well-rehearsed comparisons between Dylan and Keats, this conference aims to bring fresh perspectives to debates about the forms and functions of popular music in relation to literature, exploring connections and conflicts between writing (fiction and non-fiction, past and present), and popular music (modern, contemporary or otherwise). Where cultural value was once sought for popular music through analogy with literature, or popular music and literary texts were seen as incompatible, writers and critics now borrow the demotic idioms of pop. Why?
Keynote speakers include:
- Paul Farley (Professor of Poetry, Lancaster University, award-winning author of The Ice Age and Tramp in Flames, and The Electric Polyolbion)
- Gerry Smyth (Reader in Cultural History, Liverpool John Moores University, author of Music in Contemporary British Fiction: Listening to the Novel)
- Sheila Whiteley (Professor Emeritus, University of Salford, editor of Sexing the Groove: Popular Music and Gender)
Call for Papers
The organisers invite scholars and students working in literary and cultural studies, music, film, creative writing, history, philosophy, and related disciplines to submit 200-word abstracts for 20 minute papers relating to any of the following themes and questions by 1 February 2011. Contributors are free to interpret and address these as broadly as they deem appropriate:Making LitPop
- How has writing past and present been influenced by popular music, and vice versa? How have ‘literary’ texts appropriated the sounds and idioms of popular music? How have popular musicians invoked ‘literary’ texts, imagery and motifs in their work?
- How does writing construct or represent popular music cultures (fans, collectors, consumers, subcultures), industries (performers, moguls, producers), or histories and mythologies (through nostalgia, pastiche and memory)?
- What happens when a popular musician becomes a novelist or poet (or vice versa)?
- What critical frameworks are appropriate for the analysis of popular music and fiction or non-fiction?
- Can we categorise writing in terms of the genres of popular music? Is there such a thing as a ‘jazz’, ‘hip-hop’, or ‘punk’ novel or poem?
- How do different genres of writing represent popular music differently? What is the function of the ‘literary soundtrack’ (charts and ‘mixtapes’ in novels, for example)? Are music criticism, journalism and biography ‘literary’? Can we speak of a ‘narratology’ of music biography, music journalism, blogging, fanzines or fan fiction? Should we listen to popular songs as ‘texts’?
- How do class-based, sexualised, gendered and racialized identities inform ‘litpop’?
- In what ways have adaptations of literary texts in film or elsewhere employed popular music? How have representations of popular music (in music videos, for example) referenced literary forms? And how do songs, compilations or soundtracks brand writers and their work?
- Does relating popular music and literature confirm or disturb ideas of cultural hierarchy and status?
- To what extent are the politics and poetics of ‘literature’ and popular music complementary or conflicted?
- Given technological innovations, do writing and popular music share equally compromised or empowering modes of production and reception?
Submissions
The conference organisers – Rachel Carroll (Teesside University), Adam Hansen (Northumbria University), and Mel Waters (Northumbria University) – will be submitting an edited collection of selected papers for publication to the Ashgate Popular and Folk Music Series.Please submit 200-word abstracts for 20 minute papers plus a 50-word author profile to: az.litpop2011@northumbria.ac.uk by 1 February 2011.
Disjecta: This week's links
Your guide to this week's best cultural links
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| Woody Allen |
Literature:
Samuel Beckett: Volume 2 of The Letters of Samuel Beckett, covering the years 1941-1956, to be released August 2011Samuel Beckett: Grove Atlantic release The Selected Works of Samuel Beckett
Samuel Beckett: This weeks Ends and Odds from the Debts and Legacies website
Samuel Beckett: BookGeeks reviews the new Faber edition of Company, and other short prose works.
Samuel Beckett: Beckett included in a recent Irish Times article about resistance heroes of the Second World War
Margaret Atwood: The Handmaid's Tale celebrates its 25th Anniversary this year
Joyce Carol Oates: HarperCollins release Sourland, a new collection of short stories
J. M. Coetzee: Patrick McGrath reviews The Master of Petersburg
Michel Houellebecq: 2010 Interview in The Paris Review
25 words of fewer: 'Hint fiction'
Ian McEwan: Could British novelist's son hold cure for the common cold?
J. G. Ballard: Norton releases The Complete Short Stories in Paperback
Paul Auster: Biblioklept compiles six online interviews with the American author
Paul Auster: Interview with Paul Auster about his new novel, Sunset Park
Paul Auster's favourite books
Paul Auster: Borders interviews Auster about Sunset Park
Paul Auster on Book Reviews: Interview in the Wall Street Journal
Don DeLillo: A review of what is perhaps DeLillo's signature novel, White Noise
English Literature: A very short introduction: Jonathan Bate's guide reviewed in The Independent
AHRC: Funding opportunity for 'a new generation of thinkers'
wwword: A new website for lovers of language and literature
Philosophy & Critical Theory:
Assuming Gender: Annual Lecture at Cardiff University, 1 December, free to attendSimon Critchley: Interview with Frieze
Shakespeare and Derrida: Call for Papers
Roland Barthes on Alain Robbe-Grillet
Theatre:
Samuel Beckett: New production of Happy Days produced by the Corn Exchange in DublinSamuel Beckett: Mary Bryden unravels the cultural and historical significance of Beckett's Godot
Samuel Beckett: Queen Elizabeth is reportedly a fan of Waiting for Godot
Samuel Beckett: Michael Lawrence writes and stars in Krapp, 39, a personal adaptation of Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape
William Shakespeare: Fabler Shakespeare Readers in Cardiff
Music
Bob Dylan After the Fall: NYRB reviews writings on Dylan by Sean Wilentz and Greil MarcusFranz Kafka: Review of György Kurtág's Fragments
Film
Woody Allen: Illustrated online biography of the early Woody Allen, 1952-1971Thank you to all link contributors, who can be found on the A Piece of Monologue Twitter page.
10.10.10
Disjecta: This week's links
Your guide to this week's best cultural links
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| T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land and other poems |
Literature:
Mario Vargas Llosa: Winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize for Literature (New York Times)Mario Vargas Llosa: BBC reports on Llosa's Nobel Prize award
Mario Vargas Llosa: Three Character Sketches, published in Granta
Franz Kafka: The New York Times unravels the legal history of the Kafka estate
Allen Ginsberg: Television interview with the American Beat poet
Philip Roth: Excerpt from Philip Roth's new novel, Nemesis
Philip Roth on the decline of the novel
Philip Roth's Literary Javelin
Philip Roth: J. M. Coetzee on Philip Roth's Nemesis
Gabriel Josipovici: Nicholas Lezard reviews Only Joking
Paul Auster: Graphic novel adaptation of Auster's City of Glass published on Playstation
J. M. Coetzee and Fyodor Dostoyevsky: Patrick McGrath on Coetzee's novel, The Master of Petersburg
Fyodor Dostoyevsky: A. S. Byatt on David McDuff's translation of The Idiot
On book guilt
T. S. Eliot reads The Waste Land
William S. Burroughs: Interview with The Paris Review, 1965
Film & Television:
Philip K. Dick: Blade Runner director Ridley Scott to oversee four-part adaptation of Dick's The Man in the High CastleJohn Berger: Landmark television documentary, Ways of Seeing, now available to watch online
Theatre:
William Shakespeare: Academic Conference, Shakespeare: Sources and Adaptation, University of Cambridge, September 2011Music:
Barack Obama on Bob DylanThank you to all link contributors, who can be found on the A Piece of Monologue Twitter page.
22.8.10
Disjecta: This week's links
Your guide to this week's best cultural links
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| Michael McClure, Bob Dylan and Allen Ginsberg outside City Lights Bookstore, San Francisco |
Literature:
Maud Newton: 'On grief - and dying without finishing your book'Joyce Carol Oates: American writer's summer reading
Paul Auster: Daniel Roberts reviews recent novel, The Invisible, at The Millions
Paul Auster: Review of Collected Prose
William S. Burroughs: On novelistic form
Virginia Woolf: BBC interview with Virginia Woolf, first broadcast in 1937
Christopher Isherwood: Interviewed by the BBC in 1959
Anthony Burgess: Interviewed by the BBC in 1989
Frank Kermode 1919-2010: Esteemed literary critic has passed away
Bob Dylan, the Beat Generation and Allen Ginsberg's America
J. G. Ballard: First aired in 1989, BBC are streaming The Late Show: Face to Face with J. G. Ballard
My favourite font: A selection of writers select their preferred typefaces
Roger Ebert's Lovely, Sarcastic Tweets about E-Books
W. G. Sebald: An audio recording now available of Will Self's lecture on Sebald and the Holocaust
Philosophy & Critical Theory:
Is pop philosophy taking over the bookshelves?Jacques Derrida: Kantian and Hegelian readings of Derrida's work
Jacques Derrida: What is literature?
Jacques Derrida: Is there anything outside the text?
Art, Design & Photography:
Robert Mapplethorpe: Arena documentary profileEtc.
Stewart Lee on The FallThank you to all link contributors, who can be found on the A Piece of Monologue Twitter page.
7.2.10
Disjecta: This week's links
Penguin Classic (RED) edition of Dostoyevsky's Notes from Underground
This week, Vintage claim the rights to a fourth novel in the Gormenghast series, Titus Awakes. 3:AM Magazine reports that Iain Sinclair will be talking at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London (the city of disappearances). Lee Rourke announces publication of his debut novel, The Canal. And Mark Lawson reviews the status of the Great American Novelist for The Guardian. As if that wasn't enough, Bob Dylan is set to release a children's book; comedian Stewart Lee to publish a memoir; and Beckett's Waiting for Godot breaks box office records at the Haymarket Theatre in London.
Literature:
J. D. Salinger: Widow thanks neighbours for maintaining privacyIain Sinclair: Upcoming talk at the ICA
Shane Jones: Lee Rourke shares his thoughts on Jones' work
Mervyn Peake: Vintage buys rights to Gormenghast sequel, Titus Awakes
Lee Rourke: Lee Rourke's new novel, The Canal
Franz Kafka: This month's featured artist on A Piece of Monologue
Bob Dylan: New children's book, Man Gave Names to All the Animals
Irish Writers' Centre: IWC has been refused arts funding
Masters of American Literature: Lawson on Salinger, Roth, Morrison, and others.
Paul Celan: On Under the Dome: Walks with Paul Celan
European Literature in Translation: Discussion with Aleksandar Hemon and Anthea Bell
On Defacing Books
Penguin Classics (RED): New editions published for AIDS relief charity
Philosophy & Critical Theory:
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel: Conference,' Rational Agency as Ethical Life'
David Shields: Stephen Mitchelmore reviews Reality Hunger
Gender and Difference: Academic Conference, May 2010
Music:
Jazz: Ask Sonny RollinsJazz: New interview with Dave Brubeck
Film:
Theatre:
Samuel Beckett: The success of London Haymarket's Waiting for GodotArt:
Kieron Williamson: The boy who paints like an old masterBanksy: Anindya Raychaudhuri on Banksy and graffiti-art
Etc.:
Stewart Lee: New book, How I Escaped My Certain Death: The Lives and Deaths of a Stand-Up ComedianCookie Crumbs: This month's links from Critical Cookie
Thank you to all link contributors, who can be found on the A Piece of Monologue Twitter page.
31.1.10
Disjecta: This week's links
[Image: Albert Exergian's modernist TV poster for Twin Peaks]
This week has seen new developments in the world of the e-book: Apple has introduced the new iPad, while Amazon has fallen out with Macmillan publishers over retail prices. Jonathan Safran Foer promotes his new book, Eating Animals. A new art exhibition pays homage to the work of J. G. Ballard. And Martin Amis makes the provocative but questionable statement that J. M. Coetzee has 'no talent'. The deaths of historian Howard Zinner and writer J. D. Salinger have also loomed large in this week's headlines, and a selection of links have been included below.
Literature:
Philip Roth: In praise of phone books (and Philip Roth)Jonathan Safran Foer: On his new book, Eating Animals
Will Self: An introduction to the Book of Revelation
Gabriel Josipovici: New story, 'Love Across the Borders'
J. M. Coetzee: Amis claims Coetzee has 'no talent'
J. G. Ballard: An art exhibition pays homage
Don DeLillo: On DeLillo's 'glacial aesthetic'
J. D. Salinger 1919-2010: More on A Piece of Monologue
Literary Journals: Are literary fiction magazines and journals in decline?
Bookshelves: Lee Rourke on building your own
Amazon/MacMillan: Amazon pulls Macmillan titles in e-book skirmish
Apple iPad: First review of new e-book reader
William Burroughs: John Coulthart on Burroughs The Movie
Philosophy & Critical Theory:
Jean Baudrillard: L'Espirit du Terrorisme
Slavoj Žižek: Welcome to the Desert of the Real
Fredric Jameson: The Dialectics of Disaster
Slavoj Žižek: The world according to Žižek
Jacques Lacan: Desire and the Interpretation of Desire in Hamlet
Howard Zinn 1922-2010: Renowned American historian
Music:
Bob Dylan: Dylan to perform at the White HouseKrautrock: BBC documentary, 'Krautrock: The Rebirth of Germany'
Television:
Art:
Harry Diamond 1924-2009: Photographer of Lucien Freud and Francis BaconEtc.:
Garry Kasparov: The Chess Master and the ComputerHolocaust Memorial Day
Thank you to all link contributors, who can be found on the A Piece of Monologue Twitter page.
13.12.09
Disjecta: This week's links
An example of Austin Kleon's 'Newspaper Blackout' poetry
Literature:
J. G. Ballard: Simon Reynolds speaks to Ballardian.comJ. G. Ballard: Issue four of new journal, Kill Author, focusses on Ballard and his work
J. G. Ballard: Jacob Silverman on J. G. Ballard and Vladimir Nabokov
William S. Burroughs: Franz Wright's poem, 'I Dreamed I Met William Burroughs'
William S. Burroughs: Podcast of Burroughs on Jack Kerouac
Franz Kafka: The Los Angeles Times on new Kafka translations
Paul Auster: Christopher Tayler: 'I was a Teenage Paul Auster Fanatic'
Patricia Highsmith: The New York Times on the author of the Ripley novels
Newspaper Blackout: Newspaper + Marker = Poetry
Top Fifty Literary Websites: Onlinecourses.org offer their guide to the best on the web
Philosophy & Critical Theory:
Simone de Beauvoir: Sarah Glazer on a new translation of The Second SexSlavoj Žižek: The Los Angeles Times reviews Žižek's new book
Existentialism: J. M. G. Le Clézio's reading list for his class, 'Existentialism for Beginners'
Music:
Bob Dylan: An unofficial archive of Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio HourMiles Davis: Miles Davis in Paris
InBFlat: A wonderful collaborative musical experiment
Theatre:
Deaf Theatre: Beckett in British Sign Language? The Guardian on deaf theatreEtc.
Letters of Note: 'Correspondence deserving of a wider audience'15.11.09
Disjecta: This week's links
(Image from The Folio Society: Paul Auster's New York Trilogy)
This week introduces Disjecta, a new weekly feature of A Piece of Monologue. It aims to digest news across philosophy and the arts into manageable bitesize portions. And yes, this format is a blatant steal from 3:AM Magazine's superb Missing Links column.
Literature:
Philip Roth: Elaine Blair on Philip Roth's The HumblingPhilip Roth: Alex Clark on Philip Roth's The Humbling
Paul Auster: Joanna Briscoe on Paul Auster's Invisible
Paul Auster: Folio Society publish Paul Auster's New York Trilogy
Philosophy & Critical Theory:
Slavoj Žižek: 20th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin WallMartin Heidegger: New York Times on Emmanuel Faye's book on Heidegger and Nazism
Martin Heidegger: Brian Leiter on the Heidegger and Nazism Question
Walter Benjamin: Terry Eagleton on Walter Benjamin and Barack Obama
Ludwig Wittgenstein: Wittgenstein's eating habits (via Leiter Reports)
Film:
Woody Allen: Trailer for Woody Allen's Whatever WorksAlfred Hitchcock: Alfred Hitchcock Cameos
Alfred Hitchcock: Polish and Czech Hitchcock Posters (via roundmyskull)
Michael Haneke: Philip French on Haneke's The White Ribbon
Michael Haneke: Ryan Gilbey on Haneke's The White Ribbon
Michael Haneke: Time Out reviews Haneke's The White Ribbon
Music:
Jazz: Telegraph on the 100 Best Jazz RecordingsBob Dylan: Will Self on Bob Dylan
Kraftwerk: The Quietus on Kraftwerk reissues
Etc.:
Will Self: On Starbucks coffee12.11.09
Will Self on Bob Dylan
A tribute to the American songwriter
In a New Statesmen article from 2003, Will Self reviewed Neil Corcoran's collection of essays, Do You, Mr Jones?: Bob Dylan with the poets and professors. Skeptical of the book's aims, he attempted to wrestle Dylan's lyrics away from the rabid interpretations of the academic establishment. Self picks this moment to elaborate on his own private fondness for Dylan's music, and the personal significance it holds for him:
[...] My Dylan needs must remain mine alone. From the proleptic punk who snarled Highway 61 Revisited (the first of his albums that yanked me into consciousness, aged 16 in 1977) to the keel-on-shingle, warbling eschatology of Time Out of Mind (the last one of his albums I bought and played to death), I have neither felt the need to justify my Dylanism, nor to qualify it even to myself.
Yet it has been profound. At times - usually bad ones - his has been the only contemporary music I will listen to at all. If I think of my relationships, my children and even my own books, each can be associated with a Dylan album. If I were to reread my own work I'm certain I'd find many tropes I have stolen from Dylan lyrics, and not only the ones I filched with intent. And given that I was able to encounter Dylan - apart from a few sonic outcrops - in the full flower of my musical youth, and given that not belonging exactly to his generation has meant that I've felt no need to keep in step with his output, I've been liberated from any Nick Hornbyesque nerdiness. I can pick 'n' mix my Dylan, and still own probably less than two-thirds of his total output. I've seen D A Pennebaker's luminous Don't Look Back umpteen times, but skilfully dodged Renaldo and Clara. Before this book, I had never read more than liner notes on his work (the best are Greil Marcus's for The Basement Tapes), and I don't think I'll be reading anything more for a long time to come. Christopher Ricks, I do not know you.
Because not only is there a desire to protect my own private Dylan, there is also an acute consciousness that to deconstruct his words would be to open up a Pandora's box of lyrical ills. Dylan's greatness as a writer teeters constantly on the edge of righteous nonsense and awesome self-parody: "On the back of the fish truck that loads/while my conscience explodes" indeed. And yes, I have always understood - something that many of the contributors to this book felt they had to remind me of - that Dylan is a white-faced minstrel, a Jewish, middle-class Middle American who has invented multiple musical personae with which to plunder the rich storehouse of folk music. Yes, even at 17, I grasped intuitively that "Highway 61 Revisited" was a modern jeremiad against the hypocrisies of imperialist Uncle Sam; and yes, I've never felt the least requirement to place his misogyny within the context of his misanthropy. All of which is by way of remarking that Dylan, like the greatest and most universal of writers (whether poets proper, novelists, essayists or songwriters), so powerfully transmutes his idiolect into the contemporary discourse that his songs have no need of any interpretation save for themselves. [Read More]
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