May 1, 2013
Rereading the Riot Act And On — Book Launch
Happy Workers Day to all ! I am delighted to be launching our artists book tonight 8pm at UNIT/PITT 15 E Pender from the Rereading the Riot Act project I curated with UNIT/PITT, an artist run centre based in Vancouver.
The book is part research diary/ part scrapbook /part pasteup and it collates a bunch of material related to and in response to the reading of the Riot Act to the relief camp workers at Victory Square by Mayor Gerry McGeer on April 23, 1935.
Here is a link to the launch details and information about the paste up book.
September 12, 2012
Little My
Little My (Swedish: Lilla My – literally: “little mu”) is a character in the Moomin series of books by Tove Jansson. She first appears in the fourth book, The Exploits of Moominpappa (1950). She is a small, determined and fiercely independent Mymble. When she wants something done, she does it straight away. She is very aggressive, mischievous to a fault and totally disrespectful, but can be a good friend when she wants to. She has a brash personality. She is the Mymble’s Daughter’s younger sister. She is eventually adopted by the Moomin family.
The name Little My originated from the twelfth letter of the Greek alphabet: μ (Mu) – transliterated as my and pronounced [my] in Swedish. In the metric system, lowercase mu μ, meaning “one-millionth”, represents the prefix “micro-“, from the Greek μικρός (mikrós), meaning “small”.
The popularity of the character has led to the personal name My being borne by more than 7600 women and girls in Sweden.
Personality
Little My is a very abrasive person, and she almost always succeeds in persuading her listener or discussion partner. She’s a nonconventional debater, as she does not put much emphasis on logic and reason, instead she uses the emotions of herself and others to convince them of her argument. She has four ways she mostly uses to win. She makes a personal attack on the person she is having the discussion with or about, she state her own nonducumented conclusions she exaggerate the argument of her opponents to ridicule them, and she uses nonverbal effects to show the inferiority of her opponent.
September 11, 2012
Snuffkin
Snufkin (original Swedish and Norwegian: Snusmumriken, Finnish: Nuuskamuikkunen, Spanish: Manrico, Estonian: Nuuskmõmmik, Danish: Mumrikken, Polish: Włóczykij) is a character in the Moomin series of books authored by Swedish-speaking Finn Tove Jansson, appearing in six of the nine books. He is the best friend of the series’ protagonist, Moomintroll, and lives a nomadic lifestyle, only staying in Moominvalley in the spring and summer, but leaving for warmer climates down south every winter. He is the son of the elder Mymble and the Joxter, and is half-brother to the Mymble’s daughter and Little My.
Snufkin wears old green clothes and a wide brimmed hat he has had since birth. He lives in a tent, smokes a pipe and plays the harmonica. Snufkin also has a great dislike for authority figures such as the Park Keeper, and the many regulation signs and fences he erects. At one point he sabotages the Park Keeper by planting Hattifatteners in his garden, causing them to grow and drive him out. He has a great hatred for all symbols of private property, even losing his temper with the Hemulen after the latter attempts to put up a sign declaring “Moominvalley”.
Snufkin prefers freely-growing foliage to fenced-in lawns. Snufkin keeps as few worldly possessions as possible, seeing them as a burden, and being happier keeping the memory of a thing than the thing itself. This aspect of his personality is contrasted in the character of Sniff.
Tove Jansson based the character of Snufkin on her friend and one-time fiancé, Atos Wirtanen.
November 1, 2006
In the meantime
The promised and much appreciated Pamuk essay is still missing in action, but have come upon some other nuggets to get your eyes around in the meantime. First http://www.nybooks.com/articles/18991 is Pamuk’s “Pen Arthur Miller Freedom to Write lecture” which amongst other things mentions Pinter and Istanbul traffic.
<p> Also, http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/07/28/opinion/edpamuk.php this piece has a wonderful part:
In the 1970s, when my mother asked, “Who are you writing for?” her mournful and compassionate tone told me she was really asking, “How are you planning to support yourself?”
okay so, this part about the mother I fathom, (“roger Mrs Pamuk”) I’m a mother and mother’s often say unhelpful things to their offspring. Today my first born reminded me “it’s not fair you get to chose pillows.” He has a point. It’s taken thirty-five years and numerous disappointments, but the height of my privilege includes choosing a pillow.
The next bit however…
When friends asked me who I wrote for, they were mockingly suggesting that no one would ever want to read a book by someone like me
Jaysus, well not sure if he’s still running with that gang but they may not be getting the invite to come over for the Nobel prize tea-party. Most incredibly, how did the man manage to persist in writing his books. Bad and all as it is, one expects one’s family to take a dim view on most pursuits sauf say gardening or jobs with pensions but your friends, amigos. Lordacious indeed. Given most writers spend life indoors one can only hope the mockingly suggestive encounters were minimized by the 10 hours a day at the desk which you’ll be able to read about once I locate the link to that blessed article I rambled about earlier.