Where does your obvious fascination with all things Irish come from, I wonder? I think I recall you did work assignments in Ireland, long ago. I wish there were sufficient records of some Irish ancestry (which most Scottish people have) to allow me to get an Irish EU passport, now that the English are taking us Scots out of the EU against our voted will... still, independence is lately favoured by 58% of us so perhaps a tipping point has been reached (although whether or not that will be a favourable thing is something I have no idea about, like most things). Anyway, I digress, sorry. I had never heard of Máirtín Ó Cadhain, of course; but The Guinness is an old friend, obv...
Now, trying to answer your question would become a story as long as the story of the seal, and the story of the seal is pretty a long one. Thus, I shall leave it until we meet. What depends the time to come: I am not overly optimistic. And as for Scotland in the EU. I doubt Spain would agree to that. Fortunately,there are many good books to read on my shelves.
Re Spain & Scotland, I agree; but having once been deemed by the young me as never coming, the separation of Scotland from what was the United Kingdom, and is increasingly a Disunited Kingdom, does become ever more likely. We shall see (if we survive long enough).
You mean despite Spain's likely Veto the Scottish would vote for getting rid of England? Not that I'd not think this idea to be a charming one. Another good reason, anyway, to wish we shall survive (long enough) to see.
Yes I do mean that, as that is what the polls are now suggesting, with 58% in favour, although leaving the UK means leaving England, Wales and Northern Ireland, not just leaving England. It seems a far from unlikely eventuality now, but also far from certain.
Depends on what one deems to be "the proof". There is more to life than economics. There are also plenty of small nations of around 5 million people that do ok. My wife, more sceptical than I am about independence, responds to that thought by saying "Yes, but we've got Scottish people..." and she doesn't mean it in a good way, regarding her general fellow Scots as deficient in key respects relative to the average Dane, Norwegian, New Zealander, Singaporean or whatever. As for me, I do see something untenable about Scotland being forever wedded to a larger entity, especially England, that votes in the opposite way to Scotland in pretty much every issue, social, economic, domestic, international. I do sense a fault line widening into a chasm, regardless of whether that would be for better or worse. Come the next independence referendum, however, I probably won't even vote, being so untrusting of everything I might call an opinion, and will just leave it up to the younger people who will spend more time with the consequences. Interesting times. Long comment. Innis & Gunn time now...
While you are concentrating on Innis & Gunn I take the chance to kiss your baldness, in order to just let you know how much I do like these seven words: "There is more to life than economics". I do drink Radeberger and – believe it or not: I adulterated Jack Daniel`s with ice-cold Ginger Ale.
No Fournier, no Genet, but the others Andrew mentions, plus Aragon, Baudelaire, Breton, Celíne, Dejan, Diderot, Flaubert, Houellebecq, Hugo, Huysman, La Rochefoucault, Lautréamont, Molière, Morgiève, Onfray, Proust, Queffélec, Rabelais, Sand, Todt ... (although not in French).
I didn't persist through much of Genet, Simenon was a real favourite, especially the "psychological novellas", but of the long list of other names you offer I have read not un mot.
Simenon is special. I did not read many of his books but liked to watch both Rupert Davis and Jean Richard as "Maigret". Well, and, of course, "Le Chat" with Jean Gabin & Simone Signoret. And ;-) like you I managed to lose not too much time with reading Proust.
Probably also Rostand (Cyrano de Bergerac), Jules Verne, Maurois, Pascal et Le Petit Prince (Saint-Exupery...with an accent I'm missing on my computer.) Pas de Colette?
Where does your obvious fascination with all things Irish come from, I wonder? I think I recall you did work assignments in Ireland, long ago. I wish there were sufficient records of some Irish ancestry (which most Scottish people have) to allow me to get an Irish EU passport, now that the English are taking us Scots out of the EU against our voted will... still, independence is lately favoured by 58% of us so perhaps a tipping point has been reached (although whether or not that will be a favourable thing is something I have no idea about, like most things). Anyway, I digress, sorry. I had never heard of Máirtín Ó Cadhain, of course; but The Guinness is an old friend, obv...
ReplyDeleteNow, trying to answer your question would become a story as long as the story of the seal, and the story of the seal is pretty a long one. Thus, I shall leave it until we meet.
DeleteWhat depends the time to come: I am not overly optimistic. And as for Scotland in the EU. I doubt Spain would agree to that.
Fortunately,there are many good books to read on my shelves.
Re Spain & Scotland, I agree; but having once been deemed by the young me as never coming, the separation of Scotland from what was the United Kingdom, and is increasingly a Disunited Kingdom, does become ever more likely. We shall see (if we survive long enough).
DeleteYou mean despite Spain's likely Veto the Scottish would vote for getting rid of England?
DeleteNot that I'd not think this idea to be a charming one.
Another good reason, anyway, to wish we shall survive (long enough) to see.
Yes I do mean that, as that is what the polls are now suggesting, with 58% in favour, although leaving the UK means leaving England, Wales and Northern Ireland, not just leaving England. It seems a far from unlikely eventuality now, but also far from certain.
DeleteSee https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/record-public-support-scottish-independence
DeleteThanks for the link.
DeleteInteresting, not surprising, though.
The proof would be in the pudding, eh?
Depends on what one deems to be "the proof". There is more to life than economics. There are also plenty of small nations of around 5 million people that do ok. My wife, more sceptical than I am about independence, responds to that thought by saying "Yes, but we've got Scottish people..." and she doesn't mean it in a good way, regarding her general fellow Scots as deficient in key respects relative to the average Dane, Norwegian, New Zealander, Singaporean or whatever. As for me, I do see something untenable about Scotland being forever wedded to a larger entity, especially England, that votes in the opposite way to Scotland in pretty much every issue, social, economic, domestic, international. I do sense a fault line widening into a chasm, regardless of whether that would be for better or worse. Come the next independence referendum, however, I probably won't even vote, being so untrusting of everything I might call an opinion, and will just leave it up to the younger people who will spend more time with the consequences. Interesting times. Long comment. Innis & Gunn time now...
DeleteWhile you are concentrating on Innis & Gunn I take the chance to kiss your baldness, in order to just let you know how much I do like these seven words: "There is more to life than economics".
DeleteI do drink Radeberger and – believe it or not: I adulterated Jack Daniel`s with ice-cold Ginger Ale.
Jack D, & Ginger... Hmmm, sounds horrible, but...?
Delete... I survived.
DeleteSo many books, so little time.
ReplyDeleteQuite. The more important is to choose the good books.
DeleteIn all those many good books, on your shelves, do you have a few French writers? Just curious!
ReplyDeleteSurely he does Claude, even I have read Balzac, Simenon, Sartre, Camus, Voltaire, Dumas, de Maupassant, Fournier, Genet... (although not in French)
DeleteNo Fournier, no Genet, but the others Andrew mentions, plus Aragon, Baudelaire, Breton, Celíne, Dejan, Diderot, Flaubert, Houellebecq, Hugo, Huysman, La Rochefoucault, Lautréamont, Molière, Morgiève, Onfray, Proust, Queffélec, Rabelais, Sand, Todt ... (although not in French).
DeleteI didn't persist through much of Genet, Simenon was a real favourite, especially the "psychological novellas", but of the long list of other names you offer I have read not un mot.
DeleteAh, on reflection, I did once lose a little time searching les mots de Proust, but soon decided not to go in search of more...
DeleteSimenon is special. I did not read many of his books but liked to watch both Rupert Davis and Jean Richard as "Maigret". Well, and, of course, "Le Chat" with Jean Gabin & Simone Signoret.
ReplyDeleteAnd ;-) like you I managed to lose not too much time with reading Proust.
Probably also Rostand (Cyrano de Bergerac), Jules Verne, Maurois, Pascal et Le Petit Prince (Saint-Exupery...with an accent I'm missing on my computer.) Pas de Colette?
ReplyDeleteRostand, Verne, Saint-Exupéry, Colette: yes.
ReplyDeleteMaurois:no. However: Dominique Manotti.