Ghosts of Princes in Islington
Former Rich Kids members Glen Matlock and Midge Ure have joined forces to organise a celebratory benefit concert in London. This very special evening will reunite all four original Rich Kids: guitarist Steve New, drummer Rusty Egan, bassist Glen Matlock and singer Midge Ure. The event will take place at the O2 Academy, Islington on […]
The Great Silence
Abel Gance’s film J’Accuse summed up the horror and pointlessness of the first world war. During the filming, a French general asked Gance who or what he was accusing. Gance’s reply: ‘I am accusing War. I am accusing Man. I am accusing universal stupidity.’ The final scene shows dead soldiers reanimating from the smoking battleground and turning on the watching civilians: j’accuse. In a piece of terrifying verisimilitude, Gance filmed this scene while the war was still going on, using actual soldiers on leave from Verdun. At the time Gance estimated that eighty per cent of them would not come back. Now they were there, on celluloid, confronting the audience of the London Philharmonic from that hell where youth and laughter go.
Max Dunbar reviews Juliet Nicolson‘s The Great Silence.
ampere’s and
Today’s quick lit [& alt.cult] links from around the web: Some reactions to Rick Moody‘s micro-serialised Twitter fiction & Cormac McCarthy auctions his Olivetti & T.S. Eliot reading ‘The Love Song Of J Alfred Prufrock’ & Dominic The Wire West reads from Nabokov‘s The Original of Laura & How to become the most famous author […]
Countering the Myth: Why Self-Publishing Works
Many, many self-published books are bad. There will never be doubt about this. There should also never be doubt that this doesn’t matter. Most bands you’ll see at your local club probably suck badly as well. Most blogs suck. But somehow it’s all of self-publishing that becomes the representative of those people who don’t know what they’re doing. All you need to know about self-publishing is this: it gives people an avenue to publish who might have had the door shut in their face otherwise. And if there’s even the possibility that a book is worth attention, then self-publishing has enduring value. It matters not at all that there are many bad self-published books. All that matters is that everyone has a voice and writers aren’t being shut out due to the horrid criteria that the book can’t make enough money.
By Henry Baum.