“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
Near Deaths in Literature
Last week, JK Rowling announced that, midway through writing the Harry Potter series, she nearly killed off Ron Weasley “out of spite.” Ron isn’t the first supporting character to narrowly avoid death in an author’s rough draft. The Awl illustrates some of literature’s other close calls with death.
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Bold, Clear, Rude
“I am going to propose: The rigmarole is truly underexploited. Everyone should write a ‘Conversations with Drummond’ about themselves and about every opinion-spouting person they know. For the historical record. For revenge. For the children. Especially if you’re well-known, or right in the middle of the action, or both.” Anthony Madrid for The Paris Review looks at Ben Jonson, William Drummond, and the rigamarole.
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Romance Incarnate
The best way to celebrate May Day? Read Tennyson‘s “The May Queen,” become “Romance Incarnate.”
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The 3 Quarks Daily annual Arts and Literature Prize!
The 3 Quarks Daily annual prize for Arts and Literature blog writing has been announced! Nominations are open in the comments of the announcement. This year’s judge is author, professor, blogger, intellect Laila Lalami. Dear readers, feel free to nominate any Millions writing you enjoyed here. And to the guest contributors out there, be sure to nominate your Millions contributions!
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U.S. History Textbooks or J.K. Rowling’s Magic
Over at Indian Country Today Media Network, read a statement in response to the controversy surrounding J.K. Rowling’s History of Magic in North America. “What matters here, folks, in this debate over J.K. Rowling’s latest work is the language society uses – the language that is still taught to kids in schools today about Native Americans and our spiritualities.”
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An Excess of Symmetry
“What a perfect couple, two halves of the same little orange.” Guernica Magazine has a fantastic flash fiction piece by Andrés Neuman in anticipation of his upcoming collection of stories, The Things We Don’t Do.
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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