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Max Cairnduff

@maxcairnduff.bsky.social

Repairer of Reputations.

2516 Posts686 Follower954 Folgt
Max Cairnduff@maxcairnduff.bsky.social · yesterday

The thing I find weird about the whole Bluesky bubble discourse is the idea that because I’m here at all it follows I’m here for political debate. Do these people have no other interests or passions?

Max Cairnduff@maxcairnduff.bsky.social · yesterday

“All the food looked succulent and appetising, but it tasted of absolutely nothing. Macaroni and cheese? A disgusting sham.” This quote from a Margarita Garcia Robayo’s novel Fish Soup about the US wasn’t true of everywhere in the US I went, but it was true for an awful lot of it.

Max Cairnduff@maxcairnduff.bsky.social · 5d ago

The thing about #WiTMonth, why I keep doing it each year, is it prompts me to return to some old favourites but also to try some authors who are new to me. I’m reading a ‘new’ Eileen Chang, I have one of my favourite authors Claudia Piñeiro lined up, but also several authors I’ve not tried yet.

Rob Tyers@thexclaim6.bsky.social · 6d ago

JG Ballard on Graham Greene “His fiction is generated by his experience of the world outside England. He couldn't be further apart from someone like Kingsley Amis or Anthony Powell, whose fiction is entirely generated by the closed world not just of England but of a very small part of” #booksky

PRINGLE: I think it was Graham Greene who compared The Crystal World with Heart of Darkness. Was there any influence there? BALLARD: I don't know whether I'd read Heart of Darkness at the time I wrote The Crystal World. I honestly don't think I was influenced by Conrad. I don't mind being influenced - after all, we're all influenced to some extent - but if you're talking about conscious imitation: certainly not. PRINGLE: Were you influenced by Graham Greene - because he was influenced by Conrad? BALLARD: Probably, yes. There's something about Greene's handling of solitary characters, externalizing the character's mind in terms of the situation in which he finds himself, the particular landscape. He does this so brilliantly. He can have a solitary figure standing by a jetty in the Far East, looking at some sanpans, and he brings in a few things like the local police chief scratching his neck and so on, and within a paragraph one has a marvellous evocation of the psychology of the hero, and of what the hero and of what the book is about. Yes, I probably was influenced by Greene, but I never consciously imitated him. PRINGLE: Were you attracted to Greene because of your Far East background? BALLARD: What I liked about Greene, and still do, is that although he's snared by the English literary 'thing', he's very much a twentieth century man, and his fiction is generated by his experience of the world outside England. He couldn't be further apart from someone like Kingsley Amis or Anthony Powell, whose fiction is entirely generated by the closed world not just of England but of a very small part of England. In Greene's fiction one can breathe the smells, see the sights and hear the sounds of the whole world. Not having spent my childhood and adolescence in England, I received a very big shock when I got here in 1946 and found it was a closed little island, containing a whole lot of lesser islands - the world of English professional life. Professional middle-class life of …
Robin Baker@robinalexbaker.bsky.social · last wk.

1/5. Rocco and His Brothers (Luchino Visconti, 1960) is among the films I have watched most often in a cinema. But yesterday, I saw something that I hadn’t noticed before. The family’s name in the film is Parondi. Rocco (Alain Delon) becomes a successful boxer and we see his hame everywhere.

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Vicky MacKenzie@vickymackenzie.bsky.social · last wk.

In that spirit - hey, please sign up for my guided book group, I'm running out of money for bills and food and that! victoriamackenzie.net/teaching/

Teaching

Experienced creative writing tutor offering mentoring and editing services. Also available for readings, Q&A sessions, workshops and residential courses.

victoriamackenzie.net

Lev Parikian@levparikian.bsky.social · last wk.

Companies: stop sending “hey dude, we haven’t seen you for a while, we missed you, are you ok?” emails when you actually mean “WE NEED YOU TO BUY MORE STUFF FROM US URGENTLY RIGHT NOW PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING WE NEED YOUR CASH”

Max Cairnduff@maxcairnduff.bsky.social · last wk.

The Guardian is increasingly doing this weird thing where it’s not paywalled but there’s so many payment prompts it’s a pain to actually read stories. I suspect a straightforward paywall would be less irritating.

Max Cairnduff@maxcairnduff.bsky.social · 2w ago

Saw The Odyssey. 35mm print looked gorgeous. It’s not for me a five star film but it is very enjoyable and definitely epic. Worth seeing on a big screen. Complaints about Americanisms and accents strike me as absurd btw. They’re not Achaeans, British accents would be no more accurate…

Max Cairnduff@maxcairnduff.bsky.social · 2w ago

Absolute barnstormer tonight at the #proms from John Wilson and the London Sinfonia - Walton Cello Concerto and Respighi’s Roman Festivals, Fountains of Rome and Pines of Rome. Absolutely stellar performances all round. Epic.

Sam Sacks@ssacks.bsky.social · 2w ago

Nice interview with the And Other Books founder and senior editor--Stefan and Tara Tobler, respectively--who have published the past two International Booker Prize winners thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-l...

Inside And Other Stories: The Sheffield-based small press taking translated fiction to a global stage | The Booker Prizes

We speak to the team at And Other Stories – the small press with big ambition – about their two consecutive International Booker Prize wins, their commitment to championing adventurous authors, and th...

thebookerprizes.com

David Benedict@eggsbened.bsky.social · 2w ago

What can you get in Central London for £8? Cinema ticket? No. Coffee & sandwich? Just about. Tonight you could have heard 105 musicians of the BBC Philharmonic playing Betsy Jolas, Sibelius & Strauss at the BBC Proms. Some of world’s finest players are there every night until Sept 12. For £8. Go!

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Max Cairnduff@maxcairnduff.bsky.social · 3w ago

It’s been a year so far with a lot of petty illnesses, which I hope I’m past now. Some very good serious reads but a lot more of the lighter or genre reads (some of which also very good - loved Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Shroud for example and Cahokia Jazz was excellent too). Onwards and upwards!

Max Cairnduff@maxcairnduff.bsky.social · 3w ago

Great piece by @jessicakiang.bsky.social that captures Cinema Ritrovato. I managed about three films a day and the heat was brutal, plus the often not that comfortable seats took a toll, but a brilliant festival.

Pamela Hutchinson@pamhutch.bsky.social · 3w ago

"It represents a kind of movie afterlife, which is one reason attendees often refer to it as 'cinephile heaven.' Even in years when it’s hotter than hell." @jessicakiang.bsky.social for @filmcomment.com.web.brid.gy www.filmcomment.com/article/il-c...

weird medieval guys@weirdmedieval.bsky.social · 4w ago

did you know that the English words druid, trust, truth, betroth, and truce all share a root word with “tree”? this reflects the longstanding spiritual and symbolic significance of trees in many European cultures

a hand drawn diagram of a tree showing the many words that come from the root word of ‘tree’