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… he accumulates things with the same ardor and curiosity [with which] a boy stuffs his pockets. He borrows from the sea and from the scrap heap; he takes snapshots, makes mental notes, and records impressions on tablecloths and newspapers—why one particular thing and not another, he may not know at the time, but he is omnivorous. He has a taste for children’s wall scrawling as appreciative as that for prehistoric cave painting.
—Paul Rand
“A prayer for the wild at heart, kept in cages.”
Tennessee Williams
When you, all battered as if
By batteries of baseball bats
Walk empty streets on an October night
Their names don’t matter anymore
But neither does yours, buddy.
Hello. My translation of the poetic component of Olesia Khomenko’s work has been displayed at Pinchuk Art Centre. Thanks to everyone who’s made it happen!
A couple of weeks ago, the final installment of the Harry Potter film series premiered in theaters worldwide. The whole Harry Potter franchise (both books and films) is often considered to be one of the most successful to date, becoming a landmark of a whole generation, and, doubtlessly, for many more to come.
But after all is said and done, it’s worth looking back to see how it all started. Before becoming one of the world’s most acclaimed writers, Rowling lost her job, her family and was living off state-provided welfare benefits. To most, this would seem a hopeless position to be in. Yet instead of giving up or trying to piece everything back together, Rowling found that after losing everything, she finally had the chance to pursue the work of her life. Here is how she described it:
Failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy to finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one area where I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realized, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter, and a big idea. And so rock bottom became a solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.
J. K. Rowling, Harvard commencement address, 2008.
This, for the thousandth time, proves the idea that often, failure is the root of success. Who could have said and shown this better than one of the iconic writers of our time?
listen to songs of the streetligts
cut out the circles of highlights
the streets salute you, Your Highness
the streets are all yours tonight
and though today has been long
and though today has been hard
the streets salute you, Your Highness
the city will give you its heart
who knows what the darkness may bring
who knows what surprises await
but the streets salute you, Your Highness
so join them, do not hesitate
now is the time to bare your ol’ feet
and dance to no music on cooling concrete
you feel so alone and yet so complete
the streets are all yours tonight
tomorrow it all will end
who knows if it ends good or bad
but right now, cheer up, don’t be sad
and wander the streets once again
and though at dawn it all will be gone
tonight you’ll have company though all alone
cause every street will sing to your tone
so cheer the hell up tonight
All right, dear readers! Quiz time!
Today, I’ve stumbled upon a curious test of English vocabulary (http://testyourvocab.com). You can take it right now, it lasts no more than 5 minutes.
The vocabulary of an adult native speaker of English falls within a range of 20,000 to 37,000. Shakespeare used about 31,534 words, and a modern American teenager won’t usually bother to use more than 10,000. As for non-native speakers, here is an approximation from the test website itself:
However, based on our own limited initial testing, we can give you a vague idea of foreign language acquisition for Brazilians enrolled in private English courses (generally meeting for around 3 hours a week):
- 1,500–3,000 words: a couple of years of English courses
- 4,000–6,000 words: intermediate English (4–6 years)
- 8,000–10,000 words: advanced English (8 years) for a particularly good student
Anything much beyond 10,000 words generally only comes from living abroad in an English-speaking country for a significant period of time, or else spending tremendous amounts of one’s own time exposed to English media (books, sitcoms, movies, etc.).
So, how did you do?
“One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. Which road do I take? she asked. Where do you want to go? was his response. I don’t know, Alice answered. Then, said the cat, it doesn’t matter.”
About a month ago, I had a chance to see Never Let Me Go. I thought it would be just another romance story, a no-brainer to relax to during a long train ride. Boy, was I wrong. Suddenly, NLMG appeared to be one of the saddest yet most powerful and insightful works in a long while, along with such titles as The Road, etc.
The film was based on a novel of the same name by Kazuo Ishiguro (bingo, another awesome author to add to my absolutely-must-read-when-I-finally-get-free-time list), telling us about a [dys]topian world where most human diseases were defeated and longevity greatly increased – thanks to clones raised to donate vital organs. Needless to say, the story is told from a clone’s perspective. Continue Reading…
My friend Oleksandr Mykhed (website coming soon) is more than just a guide at Pinchuk Art Centre. He has an unparalleled taste for modern art and literature and an intention to bring them closer together, and the public closer to them both. For more than a year, he’s been one of the central figures behind the so-called Literature Nights at the Centre. Here’s a brief report from the fourth event, held on June 24th.