R.J. Dent's Blog, page 10

Pratik Magazine: Charles Baudelaire’s 200th Birthday Celebration Issue

Pratik: A Magazine of Contemporary Writing celebrates the 200th Birthday of French poet, Charles Baudelaire by publishing the work of ten poets inspired by Baudelaire’s seminal collection, Les Fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil).

The ten poets are:  R J Dent,  Linda Morales Caballero,  Fred Johnston, José Manuel Cardona, Nina Kossman, Peter O’Neill, Hélène Cardona, Yan Kouton, John Fitzgerald, Daniel Wade…

The current (Spring 2021) issue of Pratik, Issue XVII No. 1 is now available at:

https://pratikmagazine.blogspot.com/2021/07/highlights-of-pratiks-spring-2021-xv1.html?fbclid=IwAR1UMuRjjq0_Xgfu4K8d3RZh-vm2r264EcLfpJ1Vlwqo1DmCauoE4fUuCYI

April 8th 2021: Zoom Literary Festival – Charles Baudelaire’s 200th birthday celebration

R J Dent is one of the participants in Alliance Francaise’s Zoom Literary Festival on 8th April 2021. The festival, hosted by Peter O’Neill, is an all-day event to mark and celebrate the 200th birthday of Charles Baudelaire, author of The Flowers of Evil (Les Fleurs du mal), a poetic masterpiece and a landmark in French literature.

R J Dent will be reading his own translations of several Baudelaire poems, as well as discussing the process of translation with host, Peter O’Neill. The readings and the discussion begin at 10am.

The link for details of events, times, participants and login information is here:

http://www.alliance-francaise.ie/baudelaire/?fbclid=IwAR0m5qAmvabQeUGmgEEL8RYkjq7gH7ULp67UAnu2k4EZNkLnY5Ti-45LkyM

Further information about R J Dent’s books, stories, essays, poems, events, reading, etc, can be found at: http://www.rjdent.com/

R J Dent’s social media links and urls

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Celebrating 200 years since Charles Baudelaire’s birth…

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On April 5th 2021, R J Dent will be joining Peter O’Neill (via zoom) in a celebration of Charles Baudelaire’s poetry.

The event is to celebrate two hundred years since the birth of Baudelaire.

R J Dent and Peter O’Neill will be discussing Baudelaire’s poems in English, and they will be reading their own translations of Baudelaire’s poems, particularly poems from Baudelaire’s seminal collection, The Flowers of Evil (Les Fleurs du mal).

A promo book trailer for Georges Bataille’s The Dead Man translated into English by R J Dent

Georges Bataille’s The Dead Man, translated by R J Dent

A review by Amanda Hodgson

This translation of Georges Bataille’s The Dead Man was a review copy sent to me by the translator. I joked about the synopsis sounding like my time at university. Three short pages in made a joke of that statement. Known then for ‘Taking Things Too Far’, I didn’t go to a strange pub naked under my coat and give myself a quick feel before entering, fucking strangers and pissing on one of them. I did some of those things in a non-linear order. These are parallels which I inevitably draw, because I have my memories which are easier to write about than comparing this translation to the original work in French. I don’t read French.

Marie is maddened with grief. The titular dead man is her lover Edouard. The first chapter is boldly entitled in shouty caps: MARIE IS ALONE WITH EDOUARD, WHO HAS DIED. Similar capitalized titles include MARIE DRINKS FROM A BOTTLE and MARIE CLIMBS UPON A CHAIR.

I initially found this book too much; too much for this person with a limit of Anais NIn for erotica. I found the book prurient, pretentious and gross. What changed? I don’t know. The cool assuredness of RJ Dent’s English version of Bataille’s prose does much to provide a bridge from the unadorned scatology to the beautiful, with sentences such as:

“She was suspended in an incomprehensible emptiness. Despite this, she remained committed to the light, to the foliage, to the birds filling the wood.”

Toward the novella’s denouement, Marie is described as “simultaneously tired, full of hatred, and indifferent.” That was most of my twenties. There was some hope though, some light, some knowing the creaturely natural joys: “Despite the agitated mood she was in, Marie knew she had a connection with the sun.”

If one wants to get Jungian, which I do, always, we have the figure of the Count as Marie’s animus. The Count enrages Marie and she insists he come with her to the conclusion at her home, in a room with the corpse of Edouard. His laconic, composed behaviour contrasts with Marie’s wildness, her desperation. The book ends outside in nature, with a peaceful image: a stillness after and between the very violence of nature itself: “A heavy splash momentarily disturbed the stillness and silence of the water. The sun shone.”

Georges Bataille’s The Dead Man, translated into English by R J Dent is available from Ragged Lion Press:

https://www.raggedlionpress.co.uk/product-page/the-dead-man-georges-bataille-translated-by-r-j-dent

R J Dent is a poet, novelist, essayist and translator. He has published eleven books, including translations of Baudelaire’s Flowers of Evil, Lautreamont’s Songs of Maldoror and Alcaeus’ Poems & Fragments.

Details of his books and other publications are available at: www.rjdent.com

Amanda Hodgson is a UK-based writer. She has published short stories and articles in a variety of magazines and journals. Her books include Feed The Need, Microlives, and Holy Water and are available here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=amanda+hodgson+books&rh=n%3A341689031&fbclid=IwAR31-T1eblzUMeVKQaexypx-d_7I66SZIzX4dynK6r5U4FdisbQriqG4pTo&sprefix=+amanda+hodgson&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_2_14

Voodoo Excess – Rolling with the Stones by Jeremy Reed

 

 

Voodoo Excess

(Rolling with the Stones)

by Jeremy Reed

with an introduction by R J Dent

 

Voodoo Excess, Jeremy Reed’s latest collection, is a history of the Rolling Stones in verse, prose and prose-poetry.

In Voodoo Excess, Jeremy Reed chronicles the Stones’ progress from the early days at the Crawdaddy Club in 1962 to the fiftieth anniversary in 2012; he explicates Mick Jagger’s dance steps and his accent; he examines the Rolling Stones’ logo; and the different ways Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood angle their cigarettes; he describes the emotional impact of the Stones’ Hyde Park performance; he details the Redlands bust and the anti-establishment stance and attitude of the band; and he looks unflinchingly at the violence of Altamont and the inevitable death of the summer of love.

Voodoo Excess is far more than a Rolling Stones biography and it is far more than a collection of Rolling Stones-themed poems and prose-poems – what Jeremy Reed has achieved with Voodoo Excess is to provide an incredibly in-depth, up-close and intimate chronicle of the life and times of a group of musicians who have – for fifty years – collectively and individually continued to define the term ‘rock and roll rebels’.

 

Product details:

Title: Voodoo Excess

Author: Jeremy Reed

Format: Paperback

Pages: 224 pages

Publisher: Enitharmon Press

Published: 12 June 2015

ISBN-10: 1907587500

ISBN-13: 978-1907587504

 

Contents

INTRODUCTION: The Rolling Stones and Jeremy Reed (by R J Dent)

PART 1 – THE GREATEST ROCK AND ROLL BAND IN THE WORLD

PART 2 – THE BRIAN JONES YEARS: 1962–1969

PART 3 – THE MICK TAYLOR YEARS: 1969–74

PART 4 – MEMORABILIA/BONUS MATERIAL

PART 5 – THE RONNIE WOOD YEARS: 1975–

 

Voodoo Excess is available at:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Voodoo-Excess-Jeremy-Reed/dp/1907587500

and at:

http://www.amazon.com/Voodoo-Excess-Jeremy-Reed/dp/1907587500

and at:

https://www.waterstones.com/book/voodoo-excess/jeremy-reed/9781907587504

 

Follow Jeremy Reed’s work on http://www.jeremyreed.co.uk/

Follow R J Dent’s work on:

website: http://www.rjdent.com/

blog: https://rjdent.wordpress.com/

twitter: https://twitter.com/RJDent

facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rjdentwriter

youtube:  https://www.youtube.com/user/rjdent69

Sade: Sex and Death – The Divine Marquis and the Surrealists (translated by R J Dent)

SADE: SEX and DEATH
The Divine Marquis and the Surrealists
Edited by Candice Black
Translated into English by R J Dent
 
“SADE IS SURREALIST IN SADISM”
André Breton, Surrealist Manifesto (1924)
 
The Marquis de Sade (1740–1814), best known for his violent, erotic novels, such as 120 Days of Sodom and Justine, was also one of the key inspirational figures identified by André Breton in his Surrealist Manifestos. De Sade’s importance to the Surrealists and their close affiliates is reflected in the sheer volume of art and writing dedicated to, or inspired by, his life, philosophy, and writings. Sade documents this body of Surrealist work, including many key texts and bizarre and erotic images never before assembled in one volume.  Included in Sade: Sex and Death are more than fifty rarely seen transgressive illustrations by some of the most famous names associated with Surrealism, including Dalí, Hans Bellmer, Magritte, André Masson, and Man Ray. The book also features analytical texts by writers of the period such as Bataille, Breton, Bunuel, Eluard, and Klossowski.
 
Also included is the first-ever English translation (by R J Dent) of ‘The Divine Marquis’ by Guillaume Apollinaire, which was the first modernist appraisal of Sade and remains one of the best concise biographies of its subject, and “Sade and the Roman Noir” by scholar Maurice Heine, in which Heine posits Sade as inventor of the gothic novel. Putting the works in context is an extensive history by Candice Black that details the relationship between the Surrealists and Sade.
 
The Marquis de Sade was one of the key figures identified by André Breton in his Surrealist Manifestos as inspirational to the whole Surrealist movement. Sade’s importance to the Surrealists and their close affiliates is reflected in the sheer volume of their art and writing dedicated to, or inspired by, his life, philosophy and work.
 
Sade: Sex and Death documents this body of work, and features many key texts as well as a host of bizarre and erotic Surrealist images never before assembled in one volume.
 
Including texts, paintings, photography and drawings by: Guillaume Apollinaire, Georges Bataille, Hans Bellmer, André Breton, Luis Buñuel, Salvador Dalí, Robert Desnos , Paul Eluard, Max Ernst, Leonor Fini, Maurice Heine, Valentine Hugo, Pierre Klossowski, Felix Labisse, René Magritte, André Masson, Roberto Matta, Man Ray, Toyen, Clovis Trouille and others.
 
SADE, SEX AND DEATH
CONTENTS
Sade and Surrealism: An Illustrated History – Candice Black
The Divine Marquis (Trans. R J Dent) – Guillaume Apollinaire
The Use Value of De Sade (Trans. Allan Stoekl) – Georges Bataille     
De Sade and the Gothic Novel (Trans. R J Dent) – Maurice Heine
A Destructive Philosophy – Pierre Klossowski
Notes on the Sadistic Imagination (Trans. R J Dent) – Andre Masson        
Sade: A Revolutionary Intelligence (Trans. R J Dent)  Paul Eluard
 
SOLAR EROTIK ARCHIVE
ISBN-13: 978-0-9820464-9-4
Available from:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sade-Divine-Marquis-Surrealists-Archive/dp/0982046499
http://www.amazon.com/Sade-Divine-Marquis-Surrealists-Archive/dp/0982046499
http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/S/bo11334062.html
http://www.solarbooks.org/solar-titles/sadesexanddeath.html

website: http://www.rjdent.com/

blog: https://rjdent.wordpress.com/

twitter: https://twitter.com/RJDent

facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rjdentwriter

youtube:  https://www.youtube.com/user/rjdent69

Poetry Slam at Bookbuster (6pm-8pm) on Thursday 16th April 2015

 

R J Dent will be attending the Sheer Poetry reading event at Bookbuster bookshop, Queen’s Road, Hastings on Thursday 16th April. The event features readings and poetry perormances by a number of renowned poets.

R J Dent��will be reading from a selection of his English translations of major poets, including poems by Baudelaire, Alcaeus, Rollinat, Rimbaud, Ibycus and Sappho����

Follow R J Dent���s work on:

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blog:��https://rjdent.wordpress.com/

twitter:��http://twitter.com/#!/RJDent

facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rjdentwriter

youtube:��http://www.youtube.com/user/rjdent69?feature=mhum#p/a/u/0/CmnYHWJqQK4

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R J Dent’s author profile in the Hastings Independent

R J Dent’s author profile in the Hastings Independent.

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/R.-J.-Dent/e/B0034Q3RD4/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_2