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Faux Amis? Or, the art of the nonvel

Friday, October 9, 2020

Inside Story: a novel / How to Write By Martin Amis Jonathan Cape £20 . It is traditionally ‘not done’ to review books in terms of what they’re not. And yet: this book is not a novel. It says it is on the front cover; but it isn’t. And Martin Amis makes it clear it’s […]

Filed in Journalism, review | Also tagged 9/11, Amazon, autobiography, Brexit, Christopher Hitchens, Clive James, death, Donald Trump, Elizabeth Jane Howard, food, Germany, James Fenton, Jonathan Cape, Kingsley Amis, Martin Amis, Mystic Meg, Nabokov, nonvels, Philip Larkin, pilates, publishing, Robert Conquest, rugby, Salman Rushdie, Saul Bellow, sex, Solzhenitsyn, terrorism, the Gulag, the Holocaust, The New Yorker, The Oldie | Comments (0)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, March 26, 2018

. High top boots for dogs are now being sold in the shops of New York. — The Nelson Evening Mail, January 23 1907 . The first pedestrian has been killed by a self-driving car. Starbucks employees do not capitalise their As. The sound of the bagpipe fattens the sheep and lambs of all Arabia. […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged (il)literacy, academia, Adam Smyth, age, America, Arabia, babies, bagpipes, Canada, cars, Chile, composition, death, dermatology, dogs, Donald Trump, Easter Island, education, entertainment, fauna, geography, housewares, Justin Trudeau, Mahler, Moldiv, Mount Everest, music, Nelson Evening Mail, New York, Poetry, politics, shopping, Starbucks, Truth, walking | Comments (0)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, March 19, 2018

. The German army has the healthiest troops in the world. — The Nelson Evening Mail, July 13 1908 . In January 2001 a BBC documentary crew filmed the everyday goings on in a typical workplace. The skin of fantas melons smells of BO. There’s 25% off Rovic floors. Philip Hensher will read any old crap. […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged army, BBC, bees, Britain, China, chips, computers, construction, Devon, eyes, fruit, Germany, health, Journalism, London, Mesopotamia, Nelson Evening Mail, North Devon Journal, Philip Hensher, pronunciation, rivers, Russians, sand, smells, Tibet, work | Comments (0)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, November 13, 2017

. Throughout Denmark there is not one person over 10 years of age who cannot read or write. — The Nelson Evening Mail, September 4 1906 . There is a whale whose voice is too low to communicate with other whales. Seatbelts do not statistically improve your chances of surviving a car accident. London’s Mithraic temple is […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged accidents, advertising, Aeneas, anatomy, archaeology, Aung San Suu Kyi, Basque, Bell's, Bloomberg, cars, Christmas, cliché, Daniel O'Donnell, Dante, Denmark, drink, education, Euclid, Facebook, finance, humans, John Lewis, law, limbo, London, maths, Missouri, Mithras, music, Myanmar, Nelson Evening Mail, Nicholas Lezard, Nobel Peace Prize, nomenclature, philosophy, Poetry, politics, religion, sex, singing, the West, traditions, whales, whisky, women | Comments (0)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, October 23, 2017

. All over China temples have been turned into schools with surprising alacrity. — The Nelson Evening Mail, July 26 1906 . The owl of Minerva flies only at dusk. Though rare, there have been exactly 201 documented cases of spontaneous combustion. J Sainbury plc is cutting 2000 Human Resources employees. The collective noun for brown […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged actors, anatomy, birds, China, Crete, death, Donald Trump, education, Everton, fire, fish, French, George W Bush, Journalism, men, music, Nelson Evening Mail, nouns, October, Paul Celan, poets, religion, Renault, Sainsbury's, sea-faring, translation, vans, work, writing | Comments (0)

An honest pisstake

Friday, September 8, 2017

Pissing Figures: 1280–2014 by Jean-Claude Lebensztejn (transl. Jeff Nagy) David Zwirner Books, 168pp, £11.95 . From a Cimabue cherub to Szydlowski/-lowska’s Lenin, simply everyone is pissing. In pen and ink, paint on canvas, plaster, wood, stone, polymer, block prints, engraving, chamber pots, aquatints, dishware, film, manuscripts, inlay, public statuary, trick-photography, and in a Japanese video […]

Filed in Journalism, review | Also tagged Abraham Bosse, Andrew Lincoln, art, Bartosz Szydlowski, books, Christ, Cimabue, Cupid, David Zwirner Books, history, Japan, Jean-Claude Lebensztejn, Jeff Nagy, Jeffrey Lebowski, Lenin, Malgorzata Szydlowska, Mars, Michelangelo, Paula Radcliffe, sex, Snow White, The Amorist, the French, Titian, urine | Comments (0)

Other ways of seeing

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

An A-W of (alternative) artistic terminology Arte Povera – affordable art Brücke, die – German successors to the Fauvists (later disbanded amid accusations of Fauvoritism) colour – the new ‘black’ deconstruction – critic’s hatchet-job Edvard Munch – AaaaaaaaAAAAARRRGHH!! Freud – act of ripping people off Gauguin – one employed in knocking out Tahitian pearl […]

Filed in Fictions | Also tagged art, colour, die Brucke, Edvard Munch, Fauvists, France, Freud, Germany, Italy, Jasper Johns, Land Art, Neo-Expressionism, Paul Gauguin, Pompidou, Ryman, Tahiti, Tjapaltjarri | Comments (0)

Criticism, summarised

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Some people liked Stravinsky for being Stravinsky. Others did not. What can you do.

Filed in Non-fictions | Also tagged micro-non-fiction, music, Stravinsky | Comments (0)