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The King's English: Transit of Hardship

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Notes from the Life of an Alert Reader. Sunday, May 17, 2009. Many suffered disasters of various kinds, but among the unluckiest of these observers was a Frenchman named Guillaume Le Gentil:. Le Gentil set off from France a year ahead of time to observe the transit from India, but various setbacks left him still at sea on the day of the transit - just about the worst place to be since steady measurements were impossible on a pitching ship. Posted by Benjamin Chambers. Things dont happen for a reason.

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The King's English: John McPhee on the Ambivalent Glories of Using a D9 Cat

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Notes from the Life of an Alert Reader. Sunday, May 31, 2009. John McPhee on the Ambivalent Glories of Using a D9 Cat. From John McPhee's Coming into the Country. Ed and Stanley Gelvin are Alaskans who are panning for gold circa 1974:. They had a little Ranger - a diminutive tractor, like a Cub Cadet - which they had used to like purpose when they built a cabin on the Charley River years before. Ed cut the Ranger in half. They flew it to the mountains, and he welded it back together. The supreme Cat, twe...

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The King's English: Robert B. Parker on the Big "Aha"

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Notes from the Life of an Alert Reader. Wednesday, May 13, 2009. Robert B. Parker on the Big "Aha". In the following section, the first-person narrator is Spenser, a private detective, who is interviewing the madam of a high-end prostitution ring. He never said, but he was quite odd [.]". I said, "Aha.". Yeah, like Aha I see a connection, or Aha I have discovered a clue. It's detective talk.". Very well, if you promise not to keep saying Aha.". Robert B. Parker, Mortal Stakes. Posted by Benjamin Chambers.

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The King's English: Anthony Powell on Time and Space

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Notes from the Life of an Alert Reader. Wednesday, July 15, 2009. Anthony Powell on Time and Space. Surely we have long agreed the two elements are identical? Said Maclintick. 'This is going over old ground - perhaps I should say old hours.'. You must differentiate for everyday purposes, don't you? Urged Barnby. 'I don't wonder seduction seems a problem, if you get Time and Space confused.'. Anthony Powell, Casanova's Chinese Restaurant,. P 34 (Image from painting for bookjacket. Arts and Letters Daily.

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The King's English: X-Posts on New Yorker Fiction

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Notes from the Life of an Alert Reader. Sunday, May 31, 2009. X-Posts on New Yorker Fiction. I've posted reviews on Emdashes. Of a fair amount of recent fiction from The New Yorker. That I've been forgetting to cross-post here. So tonight, I'm making up for it. Here's reviews of:. From January 24, 1994. Yoko Ogawa's " A Cafeteria in the Evening and a Pool in the Rain. Three recent New Yorker. By Gail Hareven (trans. Yaacov Jeffrey Green), Martínez (trans. Alberto Manguel), and Chris Adrian.

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The King's English: A.J. Liebling on Proust's Appetite

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Notes from the Life of an Alert Reader. Saturday, February 28, 2009. AJ Liebling on Proust's Appetite. From A.J. Liebling's Between Meals. Also of interest: in Paris circa 1955, Liebling writes that he "received a note from Mirande by tube next morning ." Anyone know what "by tube" means in this context? Posted by Benjamin Chambers. The pneumatic mail system. See Truffaut's "Stolen Kisses". Jake - thanks for the info! Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom). Arts and Letters Daily.

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The King's English: Leslie Thomas' Last Detective and Napoleon's Unmentionable

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Notes from the Life of an Alert Reader. Wednesday, May 13, 2009. Leslie Thomas' Last Detective and Napoleon's Unmentionable. In the following excerpt, "Dangerous" Davies, a police detective, interviews a doctor with an interesting collection:. That,' agreed Davies vaguely, 'would be worth having.'. From Leslie Thomas' Dangerous in Love: a Dangerous Davies Novel. Posted by Benjamin Chambers. Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom). In which Benjamin Chambers, the founding editor of The King's English. Shares t...

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The King's English: Anthony Powell on Books

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Notes from the Life of an Alert Reader. Wednesday, July 08, 2009. Anthony Powell on Books. He spoke without a vestige of interest. I was impressed for the ten thousandth time by the fact that literature illuminates life only for those to whom books are a necessity. Books are unconvertible assets, to be passed on only to those who possess them already.". Anthony Powell, The Valley of Bones,. Posted by Benjamin Chambers. Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom). Arts and Letters Daily. Anthony Powell on Books.

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The King's English: Mervyn Peake on Comprehension

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Notes from the Life of an Alert Reader. Sunday, March 01, 2009. Mervyn Peake on Comprehension. Who can say how long the eye of the vulture or the lynx requires to grasp the totality of a landscape, or whether in a comprehensive instant the seemingly inexhaustible profusion of detail falls upon their eyes in an ordered and intelligible series of distances and shapes, where the last detail is perceived in relation to the corporate mass? From Chapter 20 of Mervyn Peake's Titus Groan. Arts and Letters Daily.