Diamonds have long been regarded as the most precious of all of the precious gemstones. For this reason, diamonds often symbolise perfection, purity, and rarity; however, because of the durability of diamond – it is famously capable of cutting glass – diamonds also sometimes symbolise imperviousness and indestructibility. The word adamant, used of someone who
Literature
April 30, 2021, 10:00am Any writer will tell you that rejection is as much a part of the game as procrastination, self-loathing, or em dashes. Of course, if you’re anything like me, you might secretly suspect that the lauded writers who insist on Twitter that they deal with rejection constantly are just pandering to us
April 30, 2021, 12:08pm As the India’s horrific COVID surge intensifies, a group of authors from around the world (led by the narrative nonfiction writer Sonia Faleiro) have come together to support the essential work of Mission Oxygen India, an organization dedicated to helping hospitals across the country get immediate access to direly-needed oxygen concentrators.
Memorably filmed by Tim Burton in a 1999 adaptation that changed a number of details of Irving’s original story, ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’ is, along with ‘Rip Van Winkle’ (which we have analysed here), Irving’s best-known work. First published in 1820, the story is variously regarded as a Gothic tale and a modern folk
April 30, 2021, 12:16pm The emoticon was invented on September 19, 1982, by Dr. Scott Fahlman, a professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University, in Pittsburgh. He and his colleagues were looking for a solution to misunderstandings of tone on an “electronic bulletin board.” Specifically, they needed a symbol to indicate that something was
TODAY: In 1908, Giovanni Guareschi, Italian journalist, humorist, and cartoonist, is born. If you’ve ever wanted to attend a rave deep in Chernobyl’s exclusion zone, now’s your chance. | Lit Hub Photography “The atmosphere was mostly awkward silences, slight terror at having their poems chosen for discussion, and equal terror at having them ignored.” When
In this week’s Dispatches from The Secret Library, Dr Oliver Tearle explores the origins of a famous quotation from T. S. Eliot ‘Talent borrows; genius steals.’ This four-word slogan has often been attributed to Oscar Wilde, although it wasn’t one of Wilde’s quips. But then Wilde is, like Mark Twain and Winston Churchill, one of
April 30, 2021, 1:21pm Annie Dillard, one of our best writers, is also one of our best teachers. We know because her students—and her readers—keep telling us. In Alexander Chee’s How to Write An Autobiographical Novel, Dillard appears as a generous, galvanizing teacher urging her students to envision their books on the shelves of bookstores.
TODAY: In 1888, John Crowe Ransom, poet, critic, and founder of the Kenyon Review, is born. “To see his name behind one you hadn’t heard of was to be vouched for in the most essential way.” Lauren Cerand remembers Giancarlo DiTrapano. | Lit Hub Leidy Klotz probes the cultural origins of our need to add,
‘Politics vs Literature: An Examination of Gulliver’s Travels’ is a 1946 essay by George Orwell (1903-50). In the essay, Orwell explores Swift’s depiction and view of humanity in Gulliver’s Travels (1726), a novel we have analysed here. You can read ‘Politics vs Literature’ in full here, but below we offer a short summary, and analysis,
April 29, 2021, 12:28pm Literature can speak to us. In this case, literally: Danish electronics company Bang & Olufsen has designed a new wireless speaker that resembles a book. The sleek ten-inch tall speaker fits neatly into a bookshelf and is nine hundred dollars. Finally, libraries can be noisy! It may seem like a novelty
TODAY: In 1996, Rent opens on Broadway. A hundred days into Joe Biden’s presidency, Rebecca Solnit looks back to the last presidency: “It was a disorder from which we were forever trying to emerge into order, like people clawing a slimy bank, only to slump back into the ooze.” | Lit Hub Politics “I
‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf’ is one of the most famous fables attributed to the classical writer Aesop: it gave us the popular idiom to cry wolf, meaning to raise a false alarm. But although the moral meaning of the fable is fairly clear, the story’s effectiveness as a moral fable is less obvious, as
April 28, 2021, 3:13pm Today, the UK’s Women’s Prize for Fiction announced the shortlist for this year’s prize, which seeks to recognize the best fiction written by women every year, to the tune of £30,000, and a bronze figurine known as the “Bessie.” This year, the finalists were selected by a judging panel composed of
TODAY: In 1953, Roberto Bolaño is born. “The atmosphere was mostly awkward silences, slight terror at having their poems chosen for discussion, and equal terror at having them ignored.” When Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton met in (a very relatable) workshop. | Lit Hub Tobias Carroll looks to Ian Sinclair, whose idea of “walking with
Agamemnon is the first play in the Oresteia, the only trilogy of Greek tragedies that has survived intact from classical times. The trilogy is also Aeschylus’ masterpiece: more so than any of his other surviving plays, the Oresteia moves Greek drama into new directions. Indeed, we might go so far as to say that, with
April 27, 2021, 2:20pm As more and more people get vaccinated, I’m both excited for indoor spaces to open back up and grateful for the public outdoor spaces that made this year much more joyful—so I’m obviously obsessed with this forest library that strikes a balance between indoor and outdoor. “Scholar’s Library,” designed by New
As a student of Elissa Washuta’s at Ohio State, I had the distinct pleasure of following the threads of her then-collection-in-progress, White Magic, through her latest preoccupations and ideas about craft. During her office hours, she’d offer me a La Croix and then lean back from her desk to show me the constellation of notecards