The Missing Links
Ernest Hemingway‘s drinkable feast: Most tributes to Hemingway cite his vastly influential writing, but his globe-trotting adventurousness also made him a trailblazer when it came to cocktails. * Inglourious Basterds: World War II according to Tarantino (see also, the 10 most historically inaccurate movies) * Rashomon the movie, diagrammed in an attempt to figure it […]
The Eventual Fate of Dicky Perrot
Too many descriptions of life in poor neighbourhoods serve the same function of vicarious titillation and sanctimonious outrage. The terms have changed. Instead of the ‘residuum’, we now have the ‘underclass’. Instead of ‘craftsmen’ with coshes, we have hoodies with knives. The prejudices have likewise been smoothed. No modern author would recreate Ikey Solomons, the Fagin-like and heavily accented Jewish handler in stolen goods. But the underlying discourse, the parameters that define how as a society we think and talk about poor people living in poor places, has barely altered.
John Houghton examines Arthur Morrison’s The Child of the Jago of 1896 and its contemporary relevance.
Rip It Up & Start Again
As part of the Edinburgh Book Fringe, Word Power will be hosting a reading (this Saturday at 4 o’clock) by Jenni Fagan (who will be launching her new chapbook Urchin Belle) and the renowned writer, activist and troublemaker Kevin Williamson (In a Room Darkened, Rebel Inc.). They will be joined by 3:AM‘s Poetry Editor Darran […]