A HIghbrow Desideratum

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we were unable to distinguish our colorful wings from the flowers we sipped from, and like them unfolded our petals forever?

Terrance Lindall: "Adam Inspired by Eve and Rosie Dawn"

A characteristically colorful and charming drawing from Terrance Lindall.

When Adam thus to Eve: Fair Consort, th' hour  
Of night, and all things now retir'd to rest
Mind us of like repose, since God hath set
Labour and rest, as day and night to men
Successive, and the timely dew of sleep
Now falling with soft slumbrous weight inclines   
Our eye-lids; other Creatures all day long
Rove idle unimploid, and less need rest;
Man hath his daily work of body or mind
Appointed, which declares his Dignitie,
And the regard of Heav'n on all his waies;   
While other Animals unactive range,
And of thir doings God takes no account.
To morrow ere fresh Morning streak the East
With first approach of light, we must be ris'n,
And at our pleasant labour, to reform     
Yon flourie Arbors, yonder Allies green,
Our walk at noon, with branches overgrown,
That mock our scant manuring, and require
More hands then ours to lop thir wanton growth:
Those Blossoms also, and those dropping Gumms,    
That lie bestrowne unsightly and unsmooth,
Ask riddance, if we mean to tread with ease;
Mean while, as Nature wills, Night bids us rest.

                 -- Milton, Paradise Lost, IV: 610- 633

Meet-A-Myth Week at Il Tassita

This week Dario Rivarossa presents lively drawings of mythological figures.  Please click HERE to view the latest images.

Poseidon and Platecarpus: The Clash of the Sea Kings

Jorge Luis Borges' "The Library of Babel" is now on-line

 Please click HERE to explore the project.

Tessa B. Dick Interview Tonight

 
Tessa B. Dick is featured tonight on The Outer Edge with Mike Mott and Tim Swartz. Midnight Eastern. 9:00 p.m. Pacific. Please click HERE for more information and the live stream.

Infographic: A World of Languages

There are at least 7,102 living languages in the world. Twenty-three of these languages are spoken by at least 50 million people. Altogether, these 23 languages are spoken by 4.1 billion people. Total global population is over 7 billion. One point five billion people are learning English, and English is spoken by people in 110 different countries.

Please click HERE to view a larger version (and links to more infographics).

Emanations 5 Progress Report

 I've finished placing the fiction, poetry and essays into the draft file for Emanations 5. To facilitate communication with contributors, I will put together the table of contents and post it here, soon.

Image by Tom Beddard

cohesion, succession, continuum

Going to Ost by Robert Meadley

Robert Meadley is a gifted writer of philosophical adventure stories that wonderfully evoke a mysterious and ironic atmosphere. I have been engaged in a lively correspondence with Robert for some time, and his missives, like his stories, are as owl-wise as they are clever. I am happy to announce a selection of his short fiction will appear in the forthcoming Emantions: 2 + 2 = 5, the latest International Authors anthology of fiction, poetry and essays. And there is more:

Michael Butterworth Books is about to publish Robert Meadley's new novel Going to Ost. Here is the material from the back cover:

Life for the wagering protagonist of Meadley’s novel is inherentl hazardous. A certain nonchalance and a hunter’s instinct to wait watchfully guides old soldier and campaigner Bukh Tabrolf Terongh, Warden of Kethoolmar and Master of Ost as he makes his way from the remote outpost of Empire where he has made his fortune to his birthplace in Ost, and a surreal homecoming.

In a journey across a seldom-bright landscape of shadows and rain, vast lakes, crumbling towers, vertiginous mountain passes, towns once fashionable but now blighted by the fickle builders of Empire, the reader encounters a rare mix of characters who give account of themselves.

Their stories are combined with reflections on the narrator’s eventful past. In their telling they are sometimes a joke on both reader and protagonist alike as Meadley weaves us a fine course replete with masterly humour and narrative control through his picaresque. That is the charm of this book.

Going to Ost is an erudite idiosyncratic distillation of author Robert Meadley’s sources and obsessions: Herman Hesse, music hall, histories of myth and war, the Norse Goddess Hel, Chinese landscapes, board games, scholars and clergymen, Odysseus, obscure autobiographical narratives, depictions of nature, hunting game.

 “Meadley has an unusual, erudite and devious intelligence… Going to Os has a narrative which grips you from the moment it starts.”                                                                                                               --Michael Moorcock

A flyer is circulating announcing the launch party, which will take place at & Model, 9 East Parade, Leeds, UK,  6:00-8:00, June 11, 2015.  +44 (0) 7717 836 886, info@andmodel.com

According to the flyer, Michael Moorcock has written the introduction appearing in Robert Meadley's new book.

Saga of the Martian Anunnaki