2020年10月8日 星期四

chapbook, fragile, fragile state, picaresque, feet of clay, gorgon, a torture box

"Life is but a day;
A fragile dew-drop on its perilous way
From a tree’s summit."
—John Keats,

2020年元月底,因中國疫情,寫過約10篇 "華麗與脆弱的中國"。


一场反送中风波已经将香港的地位送到摇摇欲坠的边缘,再加上今天的武汉病毒无遮无挡的直入香港境内,香港政府已被彭博通讯社一篇评论形容为“失败国家”(failed state)。所谓失败国家,是指一个政府对公众服务的提供、或贪污横行、或人民自由活动受到限制以及经济直线下滑等局面,已呈现失效。现在“失败国家”的英文已从failed state改为脆弱国家(fragile state)。


China‘s emblematic Terracotta Warriors are at the centre of a bitter row, with patriots and scholars dismissing as impossible theories they could have been inspired by Greek sculpture.

Feet of clay: 'foreign forces' row over China's Terracotta Warriors | Hong Kong Free Press


Silent and enigmatic, China‘s emblematic Terracotta Warriors are at the…



HONGKONGFP.COM|作者:AFP NEWS AGENCY



Till Eulenspiegel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Till_Eulenspiegel

Till Eulenspiegel is a trickster figure originating in Middle Low German folklore. He appeared in chapbooks telling episodes that outlined his picaresque career ...


D.H. Lawrence described Herman Melville's life thus: “A mother: a gorgon. A home: a torture box. A wife: a thing with clay feet. Life: a sort of disgrace.” The author of "Moby Dick", "Typee" and “Omoo” died on September 28th 1891



When people buy a book, they want to read the author, not a centaur or a Chapman brothers figure - the work, and not the product of something I once described as "the strange bi-authorship of translation".

TOP STORY

The tale is a lesson in the fragility of reputations on Wall Street and elsewhere, especially in the Internet age.


AS my fine professor of economics at Columbia, C. Lowell Harriss (who just celebrated his 96th birthday) used to tell us, economics is the study of the allocation of scarce goods and services. What could be scarcer or more precious than love? It is rare, hard to come by and often fragile.




For all of Kerr's apparent agonizing over whether or not he should
have written the book, it is neither novel in its basic thesis nor in
its profoundly pessimistic overtones. The idea that the post-War
Japanese economic 'miracle' was founded on feet of clay and the
debunking of associated extravagant claims of social wellbeing are by
no means new. For example, Frank Gibney advanced these ideas as far
back as 1979 in his Japan: The Fragile Superpower. Moreover, numerous
recentcommentators, such as Gavan McCormack (1996) in The Emptiness of
Japanese Affluence, have presented a similar picture.T


Title: Japan's Feet of Clay · Author: Utley, Freda, 1898-1978. Note: New York: W. W. Norton, 1937.

Link:PDF at fredautley.com
Stable link here:http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupid?key=olbp37866


Subject:Japan -- Economic conditions -- 1918-1945
Subject:Japan -- Social conditions


Japan's Feet of Clay

JAPAN'S FEET OF CLAY (Japanese Economic Histor)
著者: Freda UtleyJanet Hunter
出版社: ROUTLEDGE CHAPMAN HALL
サイズ: Hardcover
ページ数: 393
発行年: 2000年
言語: English








picaresque 

Pronunciation: /ˌpɪkəˈrɛsk/ 

ADJECTIVE


Relating to an episodic style of fiction dealing with the adventures of a rough anddishonest but appealing hero:a picaresque adventure novel(as plural noun the picaresquecanonical forms of European literature such as the picaresque
Origin


Early 19th century: from French, from Spanish picaresco, from pícaro 'rogue'.


The Gorgons were three monsters in Greek mythology, daughters of Echidna and Typhon, the mother and father of all monsters respectively. Their names were Stheno, Euryale, and the most famous of them, Medusa.

feet of clay 不安定, 弱点.

feet of clay

A failing or weakness in a person's character, as in The media are always looking for a popular idol's feet of clay.
This expression comes from the Bible (Daniel 2:31-33), where the prophet interprets Nebuchadnezzar's dream of a statue with a head of gold and feet of iron clay. [c. 1600]]

fragile
adjective
easily damaged, broken or harmed:
Be careful with that vase - it's very fragile.
The assassination could do serious damage to the fragile peace agreement that was signed last month.
I felt rather fragile (= weak) for a few days after the operation.
HUMOROUS No breakfast for me, thanks - I'm feeling rather fragile (= ill, upset or tired) after last night's party.

fragility
noun [U]
The collapse of the bank is an ominous reminder of the fragility of the world's banking system.
frag・ile
━━ a. こわれやすい; はかない; (体が)弱い; (酔って)気分が悪い; かすかな.
fragile sndrome 【医】ぜい弱X症候群.
fra・gil・i・ty━━ n.







chapbook 

Pronunciation: /ˈtʃapbʊk/ 

NOUN

1historical A small pamphlet containing talesballads, or tracts, sold by pedlars.
1.1North American A small paper-covered booklet, typically containing poems or fiction.



Origin

Early 19th century: from chapman book.

chapman 

Pronunciation: /ˈtʃapmən/ 


NOUN (plural chapmen)


archaic
Origin

Old English cēapman, from cēap 'bargaining, trade' (see cheap) man.



"chapbook" October By Louise Glück 2004



Louise Glück

Glück c. 1977
Born Louise Elisabeth Glück
April 22, 1943 (age 77)
New York City, U.S.
Occupation

Poet
essayist
professor
Education

Sarah Lawrence College
Columbia University
Period 1968–present
Notable works The Triumph of Achilles (1985)
The Wild Iris (1992)









The third annual edition of Sarabande’s Quarternote Chapbook Series.

"Identifying with the season of autumn, the dark of it, the barren, irreversible future of it, and the beauty of it, which is not seen as redemptive, the voice of Louise Glück is starker, more direct, more emotionally charged than it has ever been. October is a masterpiece."—Mark Strand

Louise Glück is the author of nine books of poetry. Her many honors include a National Book Critics Circle Award, a Bobbitt National Poetry Prize, a Pulitzer Prize, the first annual New Yorker Magazine’s Readers Award, an Ambassador’s Award, a William Carlos Williams Award, a Lannan Literary Award, a PEN/Martha Albrand Award for Nonfiction and a Bollingen Prize for Poetry.



Robbins, Michael. "The Constant Gardener: On Louise Glück". Los Angeles Review of Books. Archived from the original on August 7, 2020. Retrieved April 7, 2020.


Chapbooks[edit]

  • The Garden. Antaeus Editions, 1976.
  • October. Sarabande Books, 2004. ISBN 1-932511-00-8

In 2004, in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Glück published a book-length poem entitled October. Divided into six parts, the poem draws on ancient Greek myth to explore aspects of trauma and suffering.[38] That same year, she was named the Rosenkranz Writer in Residence at Yale University.[39]


The term "chapbook" is also in use for present-day publications, commonly short, inexpensive booklets.[6]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapbook



 チャップ・ブック(Chapbook)は、主に17世紀から19世紀にかけてイギリスで発行されたポケットサイズの本。低価格で、内容は大衆向けの文学や実用的なものなど様々であり、19世紀の書物収集家によって名付けられた。

16~24ページ程度で、内容は伝承的な物語や詩、童話、政治的、宗教的なもの、料理、恋愛、旅行、占いなどのハウツー、ユーモア、など多彩であり、版画による挿絵も付いていた。 価格は1ペニー前後で、古くは「ペニー・ヒストリー(Penny history)」とも呼ばれていたが[1]Chapbookという名は、行商人(Chapmen)が売り歩いたことによるとも、古英語で商売を意味するceapがなまったという説もある[2][3]。現代でも、40ページ以内でなどの出版物もこの名で呼ぶことがある。




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