”He was a loner who liked company; a poet of isolation who sought a mass audience; a rebel who sought to fit in. Although a family man to the core, he frequently felt alienated from his wife and children and withdrew into reveries. While preferring to stay at home, he traveled more than any poet of his generation to give lectures and readings, even though he remained terrified of public speaking to the end…”
Via MedicMike
Have some poetry:
T.S. Eliot (1888-1965) was born in St. Louis, Missouri. He settled in London in 1915 and became a British citizen in 1927. Encouraged by Ezra Pound, he began publishing his work in 1915 and soon established himself as an important voice of the modern world. In 1948 Eliot was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature. His works include “Murder in the Cathedral,” “The Waste Land,” and “Four Quartets.”
Listen to this eloquent rendition of “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” in which Eliot conveys the frustration and irony of this notable poem. Taken from the HarperAudio release “T.S. Eliot Reads.”
Woud it have been worth while,
To have bitten off the matter with a smile,
To have squeezed the universe into a ball
To roll it toward some overwhelming question,
To say: “ I am Lazarus, come from the dead,
Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all”–
Via MedicMike. A hard charging and ballsy MoFo.
Cory Doctorow posted this on BoingBoing today. This strikes me as good read.
Live Without a Net is Lou Anders’ new anthology of science fiction stories about technological worlds that lack the Internet. When I was invited to the anthology, I balked. I’d just sold a story on this theme and I couldn’t imagine writing another without getting all reactionary and soppy about the horrors of being a net.addict.
But the better stories in this book prove me wrong. The standouts, like Paul Di Fillipo’s Clouds and Cold Fires, Charlie Stross’s Rogue Farm, Rudy Rucker’s Frek in the Grullo Woods (an outtake from his brilliant forthcoming novel Frek and the Magic Elixir), and John Meaney’s The Swastika Bomb are anything but predictable and trite. Rather, they’re wildly imaginative, thoughtful, and thought-provoking looks at a subject that is nearly unthinkable: a future free from the Internet
(via boingboing.)
I can write in cafe’s now with no trouble. So it’s like I’m invisible:
The author, whose latest book “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” the fifth in the series, came out last Saturday, is credited with introducing millions of children around the world to the joys of reading.
Rowling looked amazed by the frenetic cheers that greeted her appearance on the stage. “This is the nearest I shall ever get to being a Beatle,” she said, referring to her favorite pop group.
Well done JKR. She deserves it she’s one of the good ones.
The Potter reading thing kinda snuck up on me:
At the event, hosted by actor Stephen Fry, Rowling will read from “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” – which is to be published June 21 – before taking questions about junior wizard H. Potter from members of the audience and through the Internet.
British Telecom is sponsoring the webcast and Microsoft is hosting the online event at www.msn.co.uk/harrypotter.
I saw the thing this morning. Was very cool seeing Rowling read from her book. The interview and such wasn’t as amusing but it was informative.
Never thought I’d be looking forward to a Harry Potter book release but there it is.
I thank/curse my friends for getting me hooked on the Potter-verse.
Muggle.net has a countdown and a slightly anal retentive list of mistakes found in the books.
This site has nice links to Harry Potter wallpapers.
LAWoman73 gets part of the blame for hooking me on the magickal world and full blame for finding the list of mistakes.
LONDON (Reuters) – Author JK Rowling was so upset about killing off one of the main characters in her latest Harry Potter saga that she burst into tears.
But the creator of the teenage wizard said it was vital to be strong because if “you are writing children’s books, you need to be a ruthless killer.”
The identity of the character who meets his or her end in “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” has been kept a closely guarded secret and Rowling hopes it will stay that way until the book is published on Saturday.
Via 7d
For a long bit this book was insanely hard to find. Now there’s a resurgence:
Daddy’s been away for a month, taking care of Grandma, and Tyree is so eager to see him that he wants to stay up, in his hiding place, to surprise Daddy when he comes. Mama, busy doing her homework, has a face-saving solution: he can sit in the big chair until he sees the morning’s first light, then hide. A pillow and blanket help Ty drift off; realizing that Mama has “won,” he sleeps happily till Daddy comes and carries him to bed.
Also a book for the nephew.
Been living under a rock the last 4 years? Then here is a who’s who list of the potter-verse:
HARRY POTTER
Orphan. Wizard. An unerring knack for getting caught up in whatever trouble there is to be found. The son of Lily and James Potter, Harry was sent to live with his aunt and uncle after his parents were murdered by the evil wizard Lord Voldemort. Voldemort tried to kill Harry as well, but failed, leaving him with a lightning bolt-shaped scar on his forehead to go with his green eyes and black hair. At Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, which he has attended since he was 11, Harry is a member of Gryffindor house, where he plays on the Quidditch team. In the four years he has been at Hogwarts, Harry has come close to death on more than one occasion, usually because of some plot hatched by Lord Voldemort.RON WEASLEY
Ron is one of Harry’s best friends at Hogwarts, and also a Gryffindor. Tall, with red hair and freckles, his talent for wizard chess helped defeat one of Voldemort’s early plots. He is sometimes envious of Harry’s fame, and is embarrassed by his family’s lack of wealth. He and Harry stopped speaking for a while after Harry was entered into a magical competition in Book 4, but they made up after Ron realized that Harry was in danger. Ron is deathly afraid of spiders, ever since his older brother turned his teddy bear into one when Ron was a toddler.HERMIONE GRANGER
This Gryffindor, Harry’s other best friend, is by far the smartest student of her year. With bushy hair and formerly large teeth (she had them shrunk in Book 4), Hermione can sometimes be a know-it-all but is always a good friend to Harry. She’s despised by some — especially Hogwarts student Draco Malfoy, who dislikes Hermione because her parents are Muggles (nonmagical). In her third year at Hogwarts, she signed up for so many classes that she was given a magical device that allowed her to turn back time so she could be in more than one place at a time. A romance between Hermione and Ron might be developing.
Newsmine
