Archive for June, 2007

O’Connor v. plotting

Flannery O’Connor urged Betty Hester to forego plot in favor of characters that come alive: “Nothing you write will lack meaning because the meaning is in you.”

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Translation revised and corrected — by an ass

Over the past year I’ve been intermittently struggling through the Dryden translation of Plutarch’s Lives. I settled on this version after noticing it was the one in Twain’s library, but I should have looked more closely. The book was an article of loathing and ridicule for Twain, who amended the title page (at right) to read “Translated From the Greek . . .

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Blindness on screen

Mark Ruffalo and Julianne Moore have been cast in the film adaptation of Saramago’s Blindness. (Thanks, LM.)

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Adichie triumphs

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s excellent Half of a Yellow Sun has won this year’s Orange Prize.

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