Elegy of Fortinbras, Zbigniew Herbert
Years ago, I read Zbigniew Herbert’s wonderful “Elegy of Fortinbras.” I studied “Hamlet” for the Leaving Cert. Brendan McWilliams somewhere wrote that he had a pet theory that the Shakespearean…
Category: time passes
Soviet Timelessness – from “Le Testament Francais”, Andrei Makhine.
From the novel also known as Dreams of My Russian Summers: I almost leaped up from my stool beside the television. For I understood so perfectly Charlotte’s reasons for being…
“become adept at letting things go” First Known When Lost: Milosz, Derek Mahon and Taigi on the passing time
From here at the wonderful blog First Known When Lost. As well as bringing to our attention much outstanding poetry that has the great merit of being unfashionable or forgotten, Stephen Pentz…
“a world that seeks only varieties of comfort and metaphysical appeasement.”
From the April 21 TLS, a review by Cynthia Haven of Andrezj Franaszek’s Czeslaw Miłosz biography and Miłosz’s own previously unpublished science fiction novel “The Mountains of Parnassus”: At one shattering…
Adam Kirsch on Emmanuel Carrère, faith, and Christianity’s ability to scandalise
From the April 21st TLS: The decline in churchgoing across Europe over the past two centuries has had the paradoxical result of restoring one of Christianity’s most notable features –…
First Known When Lost on Spring and mortality, with Herrick, Wallace Stevens, and Epictetus
Original here Spring beautifully — and gently — counsels us to be mindful of our mortality. This is sound advice. In fact, we are well-advised to consider our mortality on…
The Granddaughter Paradox published in Sci Phi Journal
My story The Granddaughter Paradox has been published in Sci Phi Journal, an online journal of science fiction with a philosophical twist (or philosophical fiction with a science fiction twist?) Reading the full…
Gola: The Life and Last Days of an Island Community
Recently I read this book, published in 1969 by Radio Telifis Eireann, on Gola Island. Gola is a mile from Magheragallon Strand in Gweedore, three miles from Bunbeg harbour. When…
Séamus Sweeney 