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Adam Roberts
Adam Roberts

319 Followers

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Published in Adam’s Notebook

·8 hours ago

On the word ‘Houyhnhnm’

In the fourth part of Gulliver’s Travels, Gulliver makes his way to the land of the Houyhnhnms — intelligent equine creatures with the ability to talk. This is, in effect, Swift’s utopia: the closest the novel comes to showing a perfect society. It’s not without its satirical edge, for though…

Gullivers Travels

7 min read

On the name ‘Houyhnhnm’
On the name ‘Houyhnhnm’
Gullivers Travels

7 min read


Published in Adam’s Notebook

·2 days ago

Franz Kafka “An Imperial Message” (September 1919)

The Emperor —so they say — sent a message, dictated from his death bed no less, sent it to you alone, to you his feeble subject, to that miniature shadow hiding at the remotest distance from the imperial sun. He instructed the messenger to kneel down beside his bed so…

Kafka

3 min read

Franz Kafka “An Imperial Message” (September 1919)
Franz Kafka “An Imperial Message” (September 1919)
Kafka

3 min read


Published in Adam’s Notebook

·3 days ago

Questionmarkland: Poem

The hound has not barked, The night-time is blue: All questions are marked By the hook that goes through. All answers present Faux-certitude’s blot Of sinuous dissent And perduring full-stop. Such ‘inter-’ rogation Is mappishly seen: Yes-kingdom, No-nation, And a place inbetween.

Poem

1 min read

Questionmarkland: Poem
Questionmarkland: Poem
Poem

1 min read


Published in Adam’s Notebook

·6 days ago

Madalena de Nigueza and the Giants of Patagonia

Stories of a species of gigantic human living in Patagonia were common in the 17th and 18th century, and continued into the 19th. Since there were no such giants, the persistence of this testimony is itself striking. …

Giants

3 min read

Giants

3 min read


Published in Adam’s Notebook

·Mar 23

“Ben Jonson work from 1603 may *but doesn’t* contain ‘lost’ Shakespeare sonnet”

Today, in excitable Bardolitism: a ‘new’ Shakespeare sonnet. Really? No, not really. Here’s the sonnet: The sonnet To the Deserving Author When I respect thy argument, I see An image of those times: but when I view The wit, the workmanship, so rich, so true, The times themselves do seem retrieved to me. And as Sejanus…

Shakespeare

3 min read

“Ben Jonson work from 1603 may *but doesn’t* contain ‘lost’ Shakespeare sonnet”
“Ben Jonson work from 1603 may *but doesn’t* contain ‘lost’ Shakespeare sonnet”
Shakespeare

3 min read


Published in Adam’s Notebook

·Mar 22

Regarding the Toes of Caesar’s Horse

In the eighth book of his Natural History, Pliny lists a number of remarkable horses, including Alexander the Great’s Bucephalus (so-called because he was big and fierce as a bull: Alexander ‘was struck with its loveliness when only a boy, and bought it from the stud of Philonicus the Pharsalian…

Julius Caesar

9 min read

Regarding the Toes of Caesar’s Horse
Regarding the Toes of Caesar’s Horse
Julius Caesar

9 min read


Published in Adam’s Notebook

·Mar 21

Sword and Sorcery: Fritz Leiber

Asked to provide the introduction to a 1995 reprint anthology of Leiber’s Lanhkmar stories, Michael Moorcock recalled the commercial climate of ‘sword and sorcery’ Fantasy writing in the early 1960s, when he himself first began publishing. He credits Cele Goldsmith Lalli (1933–2002) — editor of Amazing Stories from 1959 to…

Fritz Leiber

12 min read

Sword and Sorcery: Fritz Leiber
Sword and Sorcery: Fritz Leiber
Fritz Leiber

12 min read


Published in Adam’s Notebook

·Mar 19

‘The Secret City-Watchman’s Ball’: thoughts on the name Ankh-Morpork

Why did Terry Pratchett light upon the name Ankh-Morpork for his Discworld capital city? I have a theory. I can’t prove it, but so little can be proven in this, our sublunary world, so I propose to rehearse my theory here. It’s hard to deny, to begin with, that Ankh-Morpork…

Ankh Morpork

3 min read

‘The Secret City-Watchman’s Ball’: thoughts on the name Ankh-Morpork
‘The Secret City-Watchman’s Ball’: thoughts on the name Ankh-Morpork
Ankh Morpork

3 min read


Published in Adam’s Notebook

·Mar 17

Ainulindalëan Thoughts

The ‘Ainulindalë’, the first section of The Silmarillion (1977), is Tolkien’s creation myth, his account of how ‘Arda’, his fantasy realm, came into being. My question today is: does it make sense? This is where we start: There was Eru, the One, who in Arda is called Ilúvatar; and he…

Tolkien

19 min read

Ainulindalëan Thoughts
Ainulindalëan Thoughts
Tolkien

19 min read


Published in Adam’s Notebook

·Mar 16

Zodiacal Alice

We know Carroll loved games, puns, diversions and cleverness of all kinds: the Alice books are shot through with these things, wordplay…

Lewis Carroll

5 min read

Zodiacal Alice
Zodiacal Alice
Lewis Carroll

5 min read

Adam Roberts

Adam Roberts

319 Followers

Writer and academic. London-adjacent.

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