Author Archives: Houyhnhnm

Bronze exhibition at the Royal Academy

Posted on October 29, 2012 by Houyhnhnm

A huge collection of bronzes from all over the world and all over history, with a room dedicated to explaining, with models and videos, how these amazing objects are created. “Cire perdue” (“lost wax”) is the commonest, and oldest: wax … Continue reading →

Posted in Exhibition | Tagged , | Leave a comment

“The Poet of the Iliad” by H.T. Wade-Gery

Posted on October 28, 2012 by Houyhnhnm

An eye-opening book; why did no one put this my way when I was studying Homer properly (or perhaps they did)? Probably because there was a reaction against detailed historical reconstruction, seen as sterile and unliterary. Yet Wade-Gery’s lectures are … Continue reading →

Posted in Reading | Tagged , | Leave a comment

“Z for Zachariah” by Robert C. O’Brien

Posted on October 26, 2012 by Houyhnhnm

[Spoiler alert] A girl alone after nuclear war, running her family farm; a man walks in from the dead zone, in a unique suit and equipment that sustains life in radioactive environments. She romantically imagines marriage and a family; he … Continue reading →

Posted in Novel | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The Social Network

Posted on October 25, 2012 by Houyhnhnm

Miserable film – what twats. Why didn’t the Winklevosses or Savarin just walk away and have an ordinary life? And Harvard – what an obnoxious place. And the students – both sexes – how horrible are they, and how horrible … Continue reading →

Posted in Film | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

“What is a Classic?” T.S. Eliot

Posted on October 24, 2012 by Houyhnhnm

Lecture to the Virgil Society in 1944, in its second year. Starts long-Eliotly, with lots of Latin-based words and the kind of categorising I always imagine is rife in the German philosophers I haven’t read, but when he gets on … Continue reading →

Posted in Reading | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

“The Long, The Short And The Tall”, by Willis Hall

Posted on October 23, 2012 by Houyhnhnm

About “the dignity of man”, according to Willis Hall. Yes – that’s what it’s about. And how war makes stark the choice between dignity and survival. Lots of Iliad: the bickering of men at war about warrior status and women; … Continue reading →

Posted in Reading | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The Divine Comedy

Posted on October 21, 2012 by Houyhnhnm

Wow. Took ages, particularly ploughing through Paradiso: they’re right that evil is more interesting. But it was a surprise. Mainly the strangely modern beginnings to most cantos, easy conversations on the lines of “you know when a candle…” or “you … Continue reading →

Posted in Reading, Translation | Tagged , | Leave a comment

“Lolita” by Vladimir Nabokov

Posted on July 1, 2012 by Houyhnhnm

A masterpiece: sometimes, just sometimes, the wonderfully secure narrator’s false shields crack, and the respective pain of pervert and victim is revealed. But so lightly done. Beautifully expressed self-delusion.

Posted in Novel | Leave a comment

Baby-farming and abortion

Posted on June 16, 2012 by Houyhnhnm

This article, by Dorothy L. Haller, describes how “baby farmers” in Victorian England exploited extreme prejudice against unmarried mothers by taking in unwanted babies for payment, but then letting them die slowly by feeding them watered down milk (he longer … Continue reading →

Posted in Reading | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

“The Dispossessed” by Ursula le Guin

Posted on June 13, 2012 by Houyhnhnm

There’s a book on the politics of The Dispossessed which, if I get round to reading it, might help me think and write about that aspect of this novel. In (that and) other respects it’s a very good book indeed, … Continue reading →

Posted in Novel | Tagged , , | Leave a comment