Lilian Nattel's Blog, page 50
March 23, 2011
asian butterfly: photo
via flickr.com
I think Babelfish provides a slightly more comprehensible translation than Google does. Here it is:
"Okinawa hairstreak Nantou Chushan urban district photography This kind of hairstreak larva take the cuckooflower as the bait plant, therefore the distribution is very broad, in the Taiwan common flat land, the low elevation hilly ground may see, soot, small, when soaring belt blue color metallic luster, when therefore you take a walk in the park, saw the roadside commonplace small butterfly, possibly is he!"
And the original for anyone who can read it:
沖繩小灰蝶
南投竹山市區拍攝
這種小灰蝶幼蟲以酢醬草為食餌植物，所以分佈很廣，在台灣一般平地、低海拔丘陵地都可見到，灰灰的、小小的，飛翔時帶點藍色金屬光澤，所以當你在公園散步，看到路邊不起眼的小蝴蝶，可能就是他喔！
Filed under: Miscellany
E Nesbit's classic The Railway Children accused of 'plagiarism'
The three children…witness a landslide on to the tracks, and bravely save a train from crashing into it by waving warning flags made from the girls' red flannel petticoats…
But it has now emerged that the dramatic episode may not have been purely the result of Nesbit's imagination. Another children's book – published in 1896, nine years before The Railway Children appeared – includes an episode seemingly too similar for coincidence alone.
via guardian.co.uk
And what about the similarity to the song "Old Hiram's Goat?"
"Old Hiram's Goat
Was a feeling fine
Ate three red shirts
Right off of the line
Mrs Murphy the cook
She beat him black
and tied him to
the raidroad track
Singin' "Au Revoir"
But not Good-Bye
Cause that old goat
Wasn't doomed to die
He coughed and coughed
in Mortal Pain
Coughed up those shirts
And flagged the train"
Full story at link above.
Filed under: Miscellany
5-legged birds and rude graffiti in ancient rome
Cities in the Greco-Roman world were absolutely rife with graffiti. No subject was too large or too small for these people to share their thoughts about it in a public space — from imprecations to the gods to notations on the price of cheese. You found graffiti in temples and garrisons, living rooms and latrines. Everyone was at it.
via boston.com
See the above link for full story–it sounds like not alot has changed in 3000 years of graffiti despite the seriousness of archaeological analysis.
Filed under: Miscellany
March 22, 2011
March 21, 2011
My Good News!
As promised, here it is. I've accepted an offer from Random House Canada to publish my book–the one I've been working on for 6 years. I will be working with Anne Collins, who is one of the best editors in Canada, and for my book, the very best. I knew she was intelligent from her first email, but the meeting we had showed that she got everything I am trying to achieve with this novel. I'm so excited!
This has been a long process and there is still another revision to come. But with editorial input, I know this novel is going to move from where it is now to everything it can be.
Filed under: Literary, Personal Tagged: Canadian publisher
claiming your artistic license
Without measuring yourself against some arbitrary standard in your head, you look into your heart and soul ~ your DNA ~ and find all the evidence you need to say:
I'm a writer.
via gresik.ca
Free teleclass for artists and writers from Alison Gresik on Wednesday. Full details at the link above.
Filed under: Miscellany Tagged: online workshop for artists and writers
March 20, 2011
on motherhood and writing, the reflections of Margaret Drabble
I wasn't thinking about literary history when I wrote The Millstone. I was writing to exorcise fear, I was writing for luck, I was writing in hope. There are bits of the novel I regret, moments of unwitting snobbery and self-conscious smartness. But Rosamund was what she was, she was of her age, caught at the opening of an era that she didn't know how to enter – on the border between the one-night stand of the ignorant virgin and the one-night stand of Bridget Jones. The sexual ignorance of the young in those days was remarkable. So was the sexual ignorance of the old. My publisher's reader (a man, and middle aged) queried the plot, on the grounds that it was almost impossible to get pregnant during the first act of intercourse.
via guardian.co.uk
Filed under: Miscellany
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