The Malaysian Insider :: Books
The Malaysian Insider :: Books |
| Website for Welsh poet Dylan Thomas’ centenary Posted: 27 Jul 2013 05:08 PM PDT October 27 will mark the start of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas's centenary year, with events and landmarks tracked by a new website called the Dylan Thomas 100. The celebrated writer, who lived between 1914 and 1953, was met with acclaim for his debut collection "18 Poems" and one of his last works, the play "Under Milk Wood," which built on earlier work "Quite Early One Morning." A celebrity in his own time and a literary icon after his early death in New York at age 39, he was known just as much for his brilliance as for his unpredictable public behaviour. Thomas's granddaughter, Hannah Ellis, launched the website, saying "it will be a great opportunity to work together to ensure Dylan Thomas 100 is a huge success ... Please search, share, follow, like, comment and, most of all, enjoy." An annual Dylan Thomas Festival usually runs for two weeks starting on October 27, with his birthplace of Swansea acting as host for many of the events. In 2013, the Festival marks the beginning of a year-long celebration, whose nationwide events are to be tracked by the Dylan Thomas 100 site and include literary tours, theatrical productions, exhibitions, and musical performances. Many of them take place along the South and Central Welsh coasts, especially in and near his Laugharne home, but others have sprung up in London, Cornwall, Sussex, and New York. – AFP/Relaxnews, July 28, 2013 |
| Rowling responds to fans Q&A Posted: 27 Jul 2013 04:33 PM PDT Characters in "The Casual Vacancy" struggle to change themselves, with hypocrisy and dishonesty identified by Rowling as major themes. But what did Rowling hope to achieve by showing us the uglier side of human motivation, asked Goodreads member Anne Gunden. "I wanted to show how humans can have ugly feelings that they might prefer not to acknowledge," she wrote. "To judge someone else, to declare them substandard, to conclude that their misfortunes are due to inherent character flaws, can be a way of boosting our own self-esteem." "Yet none of that has to stop us doing wonderful things; perfection is not necessary to make a real and lasting difference... If we make decisions in small matters in the awareness that our actions can have a huge impact on others, we will begin to make a difference." Meanwhile, Robert Galbraith's website has been updated to reflect the widely publicised fact that the pseudonym hid Rowling's identity as the author of a well reviewed mystery thriller, albeit one whose desirability shot up once her identity was discovered. The pen name was an amalgam of her favourite male forename -- "mercifully, I hadn't used it for any of the characters in the Potter series or The Casual Vacancy" -- and a childhood wish for a different name altogether. And "The Cuckoo's Calling" refers to a poem by Christina Rossetti, entitled "A Dirge." "I was yearning to go back to the beginning of a writing career in this new genre, to work without hype or expectation and to receive totally unvarnished feedback," she explained. That she got, as two TV production companies contacted "Robert Galbraith" with regard to adapting the novel for the small screen. - AFP/Relaxnews, July 28, 2013. |
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