Book of Sand

  Estos cuentos de que hablaré, son oriundos de las dos regiones del Turquestán. Fueron contados en el Norte, tierra de espaciada llanura, alrededor de las fogatas de bosta de camello que arden en los campamentos Kirghises; fueron contados en el Sur, tierra de arrozales y acequias, por cuenteras profesionales en los bazares, entre la atención redonda y gustadora de los oyentes; fueron traducidos, primero al ruso, por Ostrumof, y de allí al alemán, por el doctor Gustavo Jungbauer; fueron publicados en Jena el año 23, y, finalmente, después de esos conventilleos etnicogeográficos del destino, cayó un ejemplar a mi casa, fácilmente el único en la ciudad. Lo leí casi de un tirón, adjudicándole, sin duda, escenarios falsos: cosa que no me preocupa, porque es de cuentos fabulosos el libro, y cada versión nueva es un nuevo mito. Que un argentino hable (y aun escriba) sobre la versión alemana de la traducción rusa de unos cuentos imaginados en el Turquestán, ya es magia superior la de esos...

 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0gjkxgm   Ep1 1587. William Shakespeare leaves the small rural town of Stratford to pursue his dreams of becoming a playwright in the dangerous, growing metropolis of London. Public theatre is red-hot modernity, and Shakespeare begins his journey at the very bottom. Inspired by the live fast, die young world he inhabits, he writes the schlock horror hit Titus Andronicus and a teenage romance where all the young people die: Romeo and Juliet. Ep2 A 30-year-old Shakespeare is at the top of his game: he’s got a job at England’s best theatre company, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, and the money is rolling in. Determined to restore his family’s reputation, Shakespeare works harder than ever, producing hit after hit: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Henry IV and Julius Caesar.  But as his star rises, a series of tragedies strike. Shakespeare’s life, purpose and family are thrown into chaos, and he begins to question if his new life is worth...

  El Truco Cuarenta naipes quieren desplazar la vida. En las manos cruje el mazo nuevo o se traba el viejo: morondangas de cartón que se animarán, un as de espadas que será omnipotente como don Juan Manuel, caballitos panzones de donde copió los suyos Velázquez. El tallador baraja esas pinturitas. La cosa es fácil de decir y aun de hacer, pero lo mágico y desaforado del juego —del hecho de jugar— despunta en la acción. 40 es el número de los naipes y 1 por 2 por 3 por 4… por 40, el de maneras en que pueden salir. Es una cifra delicadamente puntual en su enormidad, con inmediato predecesor y único sucesor, pero no escrita nunca. Es una remota cifra de vértigo que parece disolver en su muchedumbre a los que barajan. Así, desde el principio, el central misterio del juego se ve adornado con un otro misterio, el de que haya números. Sobre la mesa, desmantelada para que resbalen las cartas, esperan los garbanzos en su montón, aritmetizados también. La trucada se arma; los ju...

 El truco  Cuarenta naipes han desplazado a la vida.  Pintados talismanes de cartón  nos hacen olvidar nuestros destinos  y una creación risueña  va poblando el tiempo robado  con floridas travesuras  de una mitología casera.   En los lindes de la mesa  la vida de los otros se detiene.  Adentro hay un extraño país:  las aventuras del envido y quiero,  la autoridad del as de espadas,  como don Juan Manuel, omnipotente,  y el siete de oros tintineando esperanza.    Una lentitud cimarrona  va demorando las palabras  y como las alternativas del juego  se repiten y se repiten,  los jugadores de esta noche  copian antiguas bazas:  hecho que resucita un poco, muy poco,  a las generaciones de los mayores  que legaron al tiempo de Buenos Aires  los mismo versos y las mismas diabluras.  Fervor de Buenos Aires (1923)   ========================= GPT Transl...

... there were several books written in the early 1700s that speculated on the biblical Apocalypse. However, the specifics of these books can be quite diverse, as they were influenced by the authors’ individual interpretations of biblical texts. One notable example is Isaac Newton’s observations on the prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John. In his book, published posthumously in 1733, Newton expressed his belief that the Apocalypse could be deciphered in the same way as the natural world and that its events, including the return of Christ, were things that could be predicted. Another example is William Whiston, an English theologian and mathematician who succeeded Newton as the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. Whiston wrote “A New Theory of the Earth” in 1696, in which he predicted the world would end in 2300 AD, based on his interpretation of the Bible.  ----------------- excerpt from The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly   Da...

   The title, " Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came ", which forms the last words of the poem, is a line from William Shakespeare's play King Lear (ca. 1607). In the play, Gloucester's son, Edgar, lends credence to his disguise as Tom o' Bedlam by talking nonsense, of which this is a part:     Child Rowland to the dark tower came.     His word was still "Fie, foh, and fum,     I smell the blood of a British man."[4]     — King Lear, act 3, scene 4, lines 195-197 A "Childe" in this context is the eldest son of a nobleman who has not yet attained knighthood, or who has not yet "won his spurs".[5] It has been proposed that Browning also took inspiration from the 11th-century epic poem The Song of Roland,[6] which features Roland, Charlemagne's loyal paladin, blowing his hunting horn (as Childe Roland also does at the end of the poem) to call for help before he dies. Robert Browning claimed that the poem came to him in a...

       The stories in books hate the stories contained in newspapers, David’s mother would say. Newspaper stories were like newly caught fish, worthy of attention only for as long as they remained fresh, which was not very long at all. They were like the street urchins hawking the evening editions, all shouty and insistent, while stories—real stories, proper made-up stories—were like stern but helpful librarians in a well-stocked library. Newspaper stories were as insubstantial as smoke, as long-lived as mayflies. They did not take root but were instead like weeds that crawled along the ground, stealing the sunlight from more deserving tales .                                                            The Book of Lost Things - John Connolly