Lit Review | 11 | Guantánamo Diary

Guantánamo Diary

A Guantanamo Bay prisoner has released a book after 6 years of legal disputes surrounding its publication, and 2,500 redactions. ‘Guantanamo Diary’ reveals the author’s experiences during his 13 years of detention.

 

A Timeframe For Writers

For those of you still plugging away at that book, the Guardian has given an indicator of when you need to publish your first masterpiece. Jack Kerouac published On the Road when he was 26. Sickening.

 

Henry James And Oscar Wilde

According to this article, Henry James, author of ‘Portrait of a Lady‘, was utterly appalled by Oscar Wilde when they met in Washington in 1882. Wilde, who was just 27, had graduated from Oxford and had not yet produced his finest work. Despite this, his public appearances had made him extremely popular amongst his peers and he was commonly known as an outgoing and outrageous society man. This was unsettling for James, who as this particular article suggests was a reserved, intellectual type who found Wilde’s ‘self-puffery and preening’ abhorrent.

With this in mind, I’m not sure Henry James would be entirely pleased to hear the news of a recent Kickstarter campaign which secured funding for Justin O’Hearne, a PhD student from the University of British Columbia, to purchase two gay erotic novels entitled Teleny and Des Grieux, both of which are connected to Oscar Wilde. O’Hearne hopes to review and assess these editions in order to provoke a more in-depth academic discussion about them.

 

Vogue

Vogue has carefully selected 10 outfits from memorable characters in children’s literature. You can find the fashionable delights of literary favourites such as Madeline, Babar and Paddington Bear. I’m choosing to ignore the preposterous fact that the outfits appear to be aimed specifically at children.

 

Best Bars For Literature Lovers

Literature and alcohol. The perfect combination. If I had a gin for every time I read a book whilst drinking a gin… well, then I would have a lot of gin. Anyway, here is a list of bars frequented by famous writers in history, where they met likeminded folk with whom to socialise and more than likely drank gin.

 

Creative Libraries For Kids

Check out these wonderful creative spaces from around the world which have been custom-built to inspire children and to get them excited about books. It’s a shame that the article hasn’t mentioned the Fighting Words studio which celebrates its 6^th year this week. Fighting Words, founded by Roddy Doyle, runs creative writing workshops for primary and secondary schools in Dublin’s north inner city.

 

Mr Murakami’s Place

Last week, Haruki Murakami decided to launch a space where he will answer questions from curious fans. “Murakami-san no Tokoro” (Mr. Murakami’s Place) has only been open for a few days but the writer has already responded to 50 questions from his eager pen pals. Murakami also gave some practical advice to one fan who asked whether he might perhaps know where her cat had disappeared to, replying: “Cats tend to disappear. Take good care of them while they are around.” So wise.

 

Ladybird Celebrates 100 Years

Here are some hilarious spins on classic Ladybird designs to celebrate 100 years of the children’s publishing company. The images feature Goldilocks forgetting herself and trying non-organic porridge (the horror) and Oliver Twist asking for more truffle oil.