Birthdays & Anniversaries

[Cleanthess]

December 7th Birthdays

Today is the 124th. anniversary of the birth of that original talent Joyce Cary.

I smile when people tell me how James Joyce's The dead is the greatest story about premonitions of death ever. Guess what. It's not even the best story about premonitions of death by a guy named Joyce. Please refer to the extraordinary Glory of the Moon by Joyce Cary, and I guarantee that you'll never forget that there is a glo-ory of the sun, and a glo-ory of the stars, and a glo-o-ry of the moon.

Cary also wrote that extraordinary novel The Horse's Mouth with all of its Blake poetry and unforgettable protagonist. I cannot recommend enough that novel and short story combo. But don't take my word for it. Read The Glory of the Moon, it's only 3 pages long, and decide for yourself.

http://www.old.li.suu.edu/library/circulation/Gubler/flhd3600rgAGloryOfTheMoonOnline08.pdf

Today also marks the 103rd anniversary of the birth of Nikola Vaptsarov, Bulgarian poet and revolutionary, factory worker, bravest of men. He truly was a man among men, I'm greatly proud to be of the same species as he was. Just before his execution on the afternoon of 23 July, 1942 when he was only 32 years old he wrote this unforgettable poem:

On Parting

To my wife

Sometimes I’ll come when you’re asleep,
An unexpected visitor.
Don’t leave me outside in the street,
Don’t bar the door!

I’ll enter quietly, softly sit
And gaze upon you in the dark.
Then, when my eyes have gazed their fill,
I’ll kiss you and depart.

* * *

The fight is hard and pitiless.
The fight is epic, as they say.
I fell. Another takes my place –
Why single out a name?

After the firing squad – the worms.
Thus does the simple logic go.
But in the storm, we’ll be with you,
My people, for we loved you so.

2 p.m. – 23 July, 1942

 

[Stevie B]

Re: December 7th. Birthdays

I'm a big fan of Cary's novel Mister Johnson and its blend of comedy and tragedy. I'm not sure why I've never returned to his work, but I'll have to keep an eye out for a copy of The Horse's Mouth. Have you ever read Herself Surprised, the first book in The Horse's Mouth​ triptych?

 

[Cleanthess]

Re: December 7th. Birthdays

Stevie, years ago after I had just finished reading The Horse's Mouth I started to read Herself Surprised, but it was not exactly the same, and I dropped it after a couple of chapters. Perhaps I'll try again at some point in the future.

 

[Cleanthess]

Today we commemorate the 100 birthday of the great Greek poet Nikos Gatsos (I posted some of his poetry on the Greek Poetry thread).

It also happens to be the 99th birthday of American poet Delmore Schwartz, his short story In dreams begin responsibilities was shamelessly imitated by a younger avatar of yours truly. Delmore was also the inspiration for the antagonist character of Saul Bellow's Humboldt's Gift (I still laugh when I remember him yelling to a woman, trying to persuade her, 'Don't go, I have a big cock').

Today also marks the 45th. birthday of voice actress Kotono Mitsuishi. She's been Snow Fairy Sugar's Ginger, Evangelion's Christian girl Misato Katsuragi, Crayon Shin-Chan's Ageo-Sensei, Excel Saga's Excel (the original manic girl), Orochuban Ebichu's Ebichu the Hamster, Noir's Mirelle and Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei's Kotonon (the fat fake idol). All roles that I'm sure I'll still remember with delight when time erases most of my memories.

On a sadder note, today is the anniversary of the deaths of musical and lyrical giants Antonio Carlos Jobim and John Lennon. And of the ur-Stendhal Benjamin Constant, author of that unique masterpiece of psychological fiction Adolphe.

Today is Bodhi day in Japan. It commemorates the enlightenment (bodhi) of Buddha. That great moment when the possibility of liberation became available to the inhabitants of this planet. To properly honor all the past, present and future Buddhas (Lord Maitreya come!) let me quote the Heart Sutra:

When the Bodhisattva of Compassion was practicing the profound perfection of wisdom, he illuminated the five corners of the mind and saw that they were all empty, and destroyed forever all suffering and affliction.

“Śāriputra, he said, form is not different from emptiness, and emptiness is not different from form. Form itself is emptiness, and emptiness itself is form. Feelings, Sensations, Will, and Consciousness are also such as this. Śāriputra, all dharmas are empty: they are neither created nor destroyed, neither defiled nor pure, and they neither increase nor diminish. This is because in emptiness there is no form, sensation, feelings, will, or consciousness. There are no eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, or thoughts. There are no forms, sounds, scents, tastes, touch, or dharmas. There is no field of vision and there is no realm of thoughts. There is no ignorance nor elimination of ignorance, no old age and death, nor elimination of old age and death. There is no suffering, its accumulation, its elimination, or a path out of suffering. There is no understanding of reality and no achievement of Nirvana.

“Because there is nothing to achieve, bodhisattvas rely on the perfection of wisdom mantra, and their minds have no troubles. Since there are no troubles, they have no fears. Because they are detached from backwards dream-thinking, their final result is liberation. Because all Buddhas of the past, present, and future rely on the perfection of wisdom, they attain instantaneous freedom. Therefore, know that the perfection of wisdom is a great spiritual mantra, a great brilliant mantra, an unsurpassed mantra, and an unequaled mantra. The perfection of wisdom Mantra is spoken because it can truly remove all afflictions. The mantra is spoken thus:

gate gate pāragate pārasaṃgate bodhi svāhā / gone gone gone beyond gone fully beyond bodhi amen.


It is also the 2077 anniversary of the birth of the greatest of Western Lyric poets: Horace. Here goes that unparalleled masterpiece Intermissa Venus, in James Mitchell translation, taken from his excellent plainfeather.blogspot.com :

Odes IV.1

Venus, you're inciting me to fight wars
that I've long since broken off?
Please, please, I beg you,
I'm not the same man I was
when good Cinara reigned.

Savage mother of cupidinous
joys, stop trying to butter me up.
After five decades I'm quite impervious now
to your seductive commands. Go look
elsewhere, go answer the eager prayers
of the young people who call out to you.

And if you're really looking for a good time,
why not steer your purple-winged swans
to the house of Paulus Maximus? He's
just the right one for you.

He's a decent, well-bred lad
and let us all hit on him:
he really knows what he's doing,
and he'll wave your banners far and wide.

Whenever his rivals show up with
expensive presents, he just laughs all the more.
He'll make a marble statue of you and place it
under a wooden roof made of citrus trees
near the Alban Lake.

At your command you'll be delighted
there with ample frankincense for your enjoyment,
and Berecyntian lyres and flutes, and songs
played with shepherd's pipes.

Twice daily boys and young virgins
will celebrate your divinity there,
with their fair-skinned feet
they'll shake the earth in triple measure
like the Salian priests.

But in my case, neither men nor women,
nor hopes that mutual love might return,
nor drinking contests, nor killing time
while wreathed in flowers --
none of this does anything for me.

But then why, Ligurine,
do tears run down my face,
why among these eloquent words
does my tongue fall awkwardly
silent?

At nights, when I'm sleeping,
sometimes I hold you fast,
at other times I follow after you
as you glide across the grassy Field of Mars,
follow you across the waters,
where you fly above, heartless and unfeeling.

 

[Stevie B]

Re: December 8th. Anniversaries

Delmore Schwartz was also featured briefly in the novel Starting Out in the Evening​, one of my favorite reads in recent years. The film is pretty good, too.

 

[Cleanthess]

December 9th. Anniversaries

Two great poets were born on a day like today: in 1544 one of my all time favorite writers Teofilo Folengo aka Merlin Coccaius, author of that Macaronic Latin masterpiece the Baldus (I posted a little sample of that wonderfully funny book somewhere else on the WLF). In 1608 it was the day when John Milton was born. He would write the greatest epic poem of the English language, Paradise Lost. When I was a teenager learning English, I fell in love with that magnificent poem and the beauty of its verses.

To be symmetrical let me point out that two great novelists died on this date: forum favorite Clarice Lispector abandoned this life on 1977. In 1916 it was Natsume Sōseki who departed from this world. Soseki was the greatest Japanese fiction writer since Ihara Saikaku. His most popular works, Botchan, Kokoro and I'm a Cat are routinely read by highschoolers all over Japan, while his other many masterpieces are highly valued by readers from around the world.

Today we also commemorate the 433th birthday of Saint Martin de Porres, the mulatto Peruvian saint. Ricardo Palma on his Tradiciones Peruanas (Peruvian Traditions) wrote about how the head monk at Martin de Porres monastery had to forbid him from doing any more miracles without prior approval from his superiors, to protect Martin from becoming vain because of his miraculous powers. One day Martin was walking down the street when he saw a carpenter falling from a scaffold head-first. Martin was conflicted, he could not save the carpenter, but he didn't want to let him fall to his death either. So Martin ordered the falling carpenter to stop in mid-air while he went to the monastery to get permission to perform the miracle needed to save the carpenter. So the carpenter hung in mid-air for a couple of hours. When Martin asked permission from the head monk and explained what he had done, the head monk was not pleased, but what was he to do with a problem like Martin? He granted the belated permission to save the carpenter.

 

[Cleanthess]

December 10th. Anniversaries

Today marks the 182th anniversary of Emily Dickinson's birth. She is widely considered one of the greatest American poets, with a personal and original style that has become widely influential. For example, consider my own favorite from her poems:

"Nature" is what we see—
The Hill—the Afternoon—
Squirrel—Eclipse—the Bumble bee—
Nay—Nature is Heaven—
Nature is what we hear—
The Bobolink—the Sea—
Thunder—the Cricket—
Nay—Nature is Harmony—
Nature is what we know—
Yet have no art to say—
So impotent Our Wisdom is
To her Simplicity.

It is also the 92nd. anniversary of forum favorite Clarice Lispector's birth.

On the sad side today is also the date of the death of Italian Nobel Prize winner Luigi Pirandello on 1936. At a point in time when theater seemed exhausted and beyond innovation, he moved world drama forward with his small revolutions of the dramatic art (like Six Characters on Search of an Author). He also wrote many great short stories (I'm on the middle of reading his Short Stories for a Year, which include many amazing things) and the great novel The late Mattia Pascal, of which I'll post more later. For now let me just point out that Mattia Pascal is like what we'd get if Machado de Assis and Anatole France's novelistic styles had an Italian, post-modernist baby.

Algernon Blackwood, English genre fiction writer died on a day like today on 1951. He wrote what is arguably the greatest horror story of the English language: The Willows.

On the events side, many great moments of Western Civilization happened on this date (mostly from Wikipedia):
1520 – Martin Luther burns his copy of the papal bull Exsurge Domine outside Wittenberg's Elster Gate. This event marks the beginning of modernity like no other single event.
1684 – Isaac Newton's derivation of Kepler's laws from his theory of gravity, contained in the paper De motu corporum in gyrum, is read to the Royal Society by Edmund Halley. This is possible the greatest moment in modern science, a framework of inquiry and method that started with Francis Bacon and Galileo.
1884 – Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is published for the first time. Huckleberry Finn is arguably the Great American Novel.
1901 – The first Nobel Prizes are awarded; this event will lead in time to many yearly threads of discussion at that beacon of modern sanity, the World Literature Forum.
1909 – Selma Lagerlöf becomes the first female writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. I've posted about her short stories somewhere else in the WLF.
1919 : Prix Goncourt awarded to Marcel Proust for A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleur.

 

[Liam]

Re: December 10th. Anniversaries

Cleanthess, is it OK if I combine your different Anniversaries threads together and call it simply Birthdays & Anniversaries? You can then just update the thread with a new entry on whatever day that interests you. Because if you continue, we will have 365 different threads just on anniversaries--insane!

 

[Daniel del Real]

Re: December 10th. Anniversaries

I agree, let's group that together in one single thread.

 

[Cleanthess]

Re: December 10th. Anniversaries

Yes, please go ahead and combine them. By the end of next year it will probably be the longest thread here at the WLF

 

[Liam]

Thanks, Dan, for merging it all together.

 

[Cleanthess]

On this date, December 11:

King Kamehameha V of Hawaii was born and died, in 1830 and 1872, respectively. His name was made famous by Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball's Son Goku.

On 1910, Noel Rosa, Brazilian songwriter, was born. In his short 27 years of life he left a permanent mark on the Brazilian popular music canon. His songs are continuously re-recorded in new versions to this day.

On 1922, Grace Paley, American writer was born. Her two books of short stories, Enormous Changes at the Last Minute and Later The Same Day are masterful, innovative collections of fiction. Characters reoccur between stories and you can see tranches of the characters evolving lives in the interplay between the stories. One particularly touching plot-line involves, IIRC, one girl who used to defend the weaker kids from bullies, a lover of justice. In a different, later story, that girl character has grown into a young woman who, disgusted by the criminal policies of her country's government, has gone into hiding as a violent political activist. This particular plot-line so disgusted a conservative literary reviewer at The New York Times, that he did a hatchet job on his review, massacring the book.

On 1957 Peter Bagge, American cartoonist was born. He is the genius behind Buddy does Jersey and Buddy does Seattle, essential reading, arguably the funniest fiction works by an American writer since the late '80s. His work, published originally on Hate magazine is the culmination of the masterful and very influential line of American narration in comic-book form that started with Robert Crumb and Mad magazine.

On 1982 the quintessential pop group ABBA calls it quits after 10 years of musical career. One of the two female singers from the group later claimed that she was so damaged by her experiences with ABBA, that she could not even listen to music for years after the breakup.

 

[Cleanthess]

Today, December 12th. marks the 191th. anniversary of the birth of the patron saint of modern writers, Gustave Flaubert, all around literary genius (who later would be accused ironically of being the idiot of the family by Sartre).

This date on 1905 saw the birth of Vasily Grossman, Russian writer whose masterwork Life and Fate I cannot recommend enough. Comparisons of that novel to War and Peace are not too unfair.

Today also marks the death anniversary on 1889 of Robert Browning, English poet and master of the dramatic monologue. His Shakespeare-inspired Caliban upon Setebos remains my favorite poem of the English Language.

One hundred and ten years later, on 1999 Joseph Heller, American novelist finally managed to scape from the catch-22 of life. His novels, Catch-22 and Something Happened are among the towering achievements of 20th. Century American fiction.

On 1987, on this date, Enrique Jorrin took his final vow. He was a Cuban violin player, band leader and composer who created the Cha-cha-cha to replace the mambo danceable part of the Danzon Nuevo Ritmo. Ah the late 50s and early 60s, Mambo, Cha-cha-cha, Twist, Rock-n-Roll, Bossa-Nova, etc. what a golden age.

Finally, pour mieux epater le bourgeois, I'll provide a small sampling of a few favorites from among the many, many roles of birthday-girl and Japanese voice actress deluxe, Houko Kuwashima (b. 1975). I mean, top voice actresses in Japan are almost as busy as Adult Film starlets in America .

In that heartrendingly beautiful anime Aria, Houko Kuwashima voiced redhead slacker gondolier wannabe Atora Monteverdi.
On the very funny series about school life Azumanga Daioh, she voiced tomboy Kagura.
On Rumiko Takahashi's exploration of lives-in-search-of-redemption on a pagan world infested by demons: InuYasha, she voiced the brave female warrior Sango.
On that mindfrick of an anime, Kaiba, she was Kaiba;
On a later series, from the same team that gave us Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura: Kobato, she voiced the kind Landlady Chitose Mihara.
On that Film-Noir cartoon, Noir she voiced teen killer Kirika Yuumura.
On the light and frothy series Kidou Senkan Nadesico. A cartoon about a war between Earth and some monstrous aliens' settlement, which turns out to be just a human colony that earth rulers want to commit genocide against, and the decision by the all-female battleship Nadesico to go rogue and fight against Earth; Mrs. Kowashima voiced the genius battleship captain and kid TV show bunny cos-player Yurika Misumaru.
Finally she is currently impersonating student council vice president Runa Minase on Seitokai no Ichizon Lv.2.

 

[Cleanthess]

Today, December 13th marks the 215th anniversary of the birth of Heinrich Heine, one of the greatest poets of the German language. His verse and prose are a delight and a model. He was also a proto-Oscar Wilde, a master of the short, funny, memorable sentence. 'Wherever they burn books, they'll end up burning human beings'. 'I do not know if she was chaste, but she was ugly, so she was already half-way there'. 'Women are both the apple and the serpent'.

Today also marks the centenary of Brazilian musician Luiz Gonzaga's birth. Gonzaga was the King of Baio and Forro. He composed the immortal and ubiquitous Asa Branca.

On the sad end of the ledger, today marks the passing of

Maimonides, Spanish rabbi and philosopher, on 1204. Maimonides wrote that most useful of books: 'A guide for the perplexed';
Nichita Stanescu, Romanian poet, on 1983. I've posted some of Stanescu's excellent poetry on his thread;
L. P. Hartley, English writer, on 1972. The opening lines of his novel The Go-Between, have become part of our common shared sprache: 'The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.'

 

[Cleanthess]

On December 14th, History witnessed:
The birth of Nostradamus on 1503. Nostradamus was a French doctor, druggist, and astrologer. His prophecies have been superseded by the much more accurate and timely predictions of the Mayan Calendar.

The birth of Paul Eluard on 1895. Eluard was the quintessential surrealist French poet. I still remember reading Capitale de la douleur while living in Japan and being astonished by his lyrical voice.

On the sad side of the coin, this date saw:

The death on 1591 of Saint John of the Cross, Spanish friar and poet and great pal of Saint Theresa, who once called him 'half of a monk' because of John's little height. He introduced the vogue for dark moments of the soul with his Dark Night of the Soul, which has been followed with 'Dark Days of the Soul', 'The Soul's Dark Years' and even The Dark Tea-time of the Soul.

The death on 2001 of W. G. Sebald, German writer and WLF favorite. I sadly report that I still don't get his novels, but his poetry (after reading the explanation of the poems by readers more perceptive and astute than yours truly) I do like.

 

[Cleanthess]

Mexican writer Sergio Pitol turns 80, many happy returns!:

http://ivanthays.com.pe/post/45699657096

 

[Cleanthess]

Today, March the 30th marks Goya, Verlaine, Van Gogh and Megumi Hayashibara's birthday.

On the sad side of the coin, today's the anniversary of the death of Arthur Machen and Pietro Antonio Locatelli.

 

[Cleanthess]

What are my bedside books?

The Golden Ass
Arabian Nights
Montaigne
Teofilo Folengo's Baldus
Pu Song Ling's tales
Boswell's Life of Johnson
Gibbon's Decline and Fall
Gogol's tales
Kipling's tales
Henry James' tales
Kafka's tales
Borges.

James Boswell died on a date like today's, May 19th, in 1795, at the age of 55, as that excellent blog Anecdotal Evidence reminds us.

 

[Bartleby]

Today is Jorge Luis Borges's and Ali Smith's and A S Byatt's birthday.
Also mine, though I'm nobody

 

[Sisyphus]

Today is Jorge Luis Borges's and Ali Smith's and A S Byatt's birthday.
Also mine, though I'm nobody

Happy Birthday!