Listomania

A listicle

Sep 05, 2023

To begin with…

Is ‘listicle’ a bona fide word? I mean, icicle, bicycle, popsicle… But listicle? Well, it’s in the dictionary, of course. Since 2007, it seems. But I have a hard time taking it seriously. (Are there any words you are similarly wary of? Feel free to mention them in the comments and let’s share).

Anyway, today’s post is in the form of a list of reading or listening for you. And go ahead, call it a listicle if you wish.

I am planning to make a list like this from time to time and, as ever, your feedback is really valuable!

First, some recent literary history

Here is a really interesting look at the legacy of Milan Kundera who died recently. Personally, I kind of gave up on him after ‘The Joke’ & ‘Life is Elsewhere’ (I always thought the latter to be the most wonderful title. Interestingly, it works beautifully in Spanish too). I found him increasingly glib after that, to be honest.

Art

Following on from my Hockney post, I came across Capturing The Moment. There’s Hockney as well as Andy Warhol and many others at this exhibition at Tate Modern in the UK, in what seems a fascinating exploration of the dynamic between photography and painting.
Dada Issues - this is one of my favourite Substacks. Great comic invention.

The closing lines of Maggie Smith’s ‘Good Bones’

Poetry

I found this to be a brilliant, moving piece; it’s by and about Maggie Smith, who’s a really good poet, famous for the viral success of ‘Good Bones’. The article is taken from her new book, ‘You Could Make This Place Beautiful’ which is being published in the UK on 7 September.
This summer I was enthralled by “Bread and Circus”, Airea D. Matthews’ recently published collection. She has a wonderful, distinctive voice and her weaving together of politics, economics and personal history is very powerful.

Music

Who I’m listening to: Sofía Valdés, a really talented young singer-songwriter with an amazing musical history in her family.
Desert Island Discs: Even if, like you me, you’re a Haydn fan, you might not know, as I didn’t until recently, that he wrote a number of really good operas. There’s a great set of recordings of them (in 2 volumes), which you can explore here and here. All the operas contain some wonderful music, with my favourite probably being ‘L'isola disabitata’. There's also a great alternative recording of “Armida” here.

A Podcast

The Great Essays: Q & A | Past Present Future I don’t listen to a lot of podcasts but this one caught my ear. There’s an interesting discussion of the writer’s life as well as different types of political hypocrisy, among the many topics covered. It’s made me want to listen to the whole series, which begins here.

Finally, a job opportunity!

Did you know that Welsh is spoken in a few parts of Argentina? The use of Welsh in the country apparently dates back, to 1865. If you speak the language you probably already knew that, and here’s a possible job for you, one of the more interesting language teaching jobs going: https://wales.britishcouncil.org/en/programmes/education/welsh-language-project