“Yeats wrote frankly about his vocation as a magician in several memoirs.” On how the occult drew in W. B. Yeats because “it was so deeply connected with his poetic craft.”
W.B. Yeats: Poet, Playwright, Magician
Some Links
“I’ve never actually read the books that I’ve blurbed.” – Nick Tosches in BookforumThat terrific Kenneth Tynan piece on Johnny Carson that Tingle was looking for.Want to bone up on philosophy, but can’t quite find the time? Try Squashed Philosophers.The CS Monitor gives capsule reviews of the NBCC fiction finalists, in case you didn’t get to any of them.O, Brother, Where Art Thou? Oh Right, Everywhere: Discarded titles for George Orwell’s 1984 at McSweeney’s (via Kottke).David Sedaris’ recommended reading list
2 comments:
Add Your Comment: Cancel reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Strange Brew
Lorrie Moore once said in an interview that what’s good for writing is bad for life. In this vein, we might assume that coffee, which is bad for your health but good for your writing, neatly supports her conjecture. But what if it turns out that coffee is a detriment to creativity? Maria Konnikova investigates research that suggests this might be the case.
●
●
A Nervous Tic Motion Of The Head To The Left
“She loved that I had to kiss her goodbye 16 times or 24 times if it was Wednesday.” In poet Neil Hilborn’s slam poem “OCD,” he discusses what it’s like for a person with obsessive compulsive disorder to fall in love and incorporates his tics in the performance.
●
●
The Rooster is Nigh
At The Morning News, Rooster hosts Kevin Guilfoile and John Warner lay out “The Pre-Game Primer” for the Tournament of Books. The action kicks off tomorrow.
●
●
Looking forward to reading about this. Someone– think it is Brenda Maddox– has a bio of Yeats focused on his love of the supernatural. what really stuck with me from that book, however, was that Yeats struggled with learning to read. I believe he was 7 or 8 before he did. His father– the painter Jack B. Yeats–used to throw books at William Butler’s head, which just about broke my heart. And his mother was very remote, but took pleasure in telling them fairy tales of west of Ireland.
There is a new book that is available on Amazon called “W.B. Yeats and the Secret Masters of the world.” Its a fictional account of his involvement with the occult and the Golden Dawn. I thought it was a fantastic read and for anyone interested in Yeats or the Golden Dawn I highly recommend it. The author is Peter Jennings and it only came out recently as far as I know. Although it is fictional and fairly satirical it seems clear that the writer has done his research and his presentation of Yeats as a character has been accomplished in a thoughtful manner.
Link for anyone interested:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Yeats-Secret-Masters-World-ebook/dp/B00APLNSMG/ref=zg_bs_426323031_46