More reading matter.
Apr. 17th, 2004 08:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zotzFirstly, the text of the title story from the collection "My Friend Mr Leakey", by the renowned biologist J B S Haldane
Incidentally, where it says "What it said was:" there's obviously a line missing. If you ask me nicely, I'll even tell you what that line was. Aren't I good to you?
Tragically, My Friend Mr Leakey's been out of print since (I think) 1971. I have a copy that must have been mine or my sister's since not long after that. It was only sometime in the nineties that I realised who it was by. Obviously I'd never heard of Haldane when I first read it, and by the time I'd heard of him I'd moved away from my parents' place and hadn't seen the book in years. In fact, when my friend Neal told me I absolutely refused to believe him.
The other suggestion is Wallace Shawn's The Fever. (The link is to a page discussing The Fever. Follow the Lannan Foundation link from that page. Scroll down on their page to Shawn, and click on "reading" - on the subsequent page the book icon will bring up the text. The loudspeaker icon, of course, connects to a realaudio stream). I think think was originally pointed out to me by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
deliberateblank some years ago. Wallace Shawn, of course, is an actor and playwright. I always identify him as having played Fizzini the Sicilian in The Princess Bride, but of course he's done a lot more work that that.
The Fever is an angry monologue attacking the exploitation of the world's poor by the rich, by an ill man who holidays in poorer countries around the world. It's an extraordinary piece of writing, and I've not been able to see Shawn the same way since reading it. I haven't listened to him reading it yet, but I'm looking forward to it very much.
Incidentally, where it says "What it said was:" there's obviously a line missing. If you ask me nicely, I'll even tell you what that line was. Aren't I good to you?
Tragically, My Friend Mr Leakey's been out of print since (I think) 1971. I have a copy that must have been mine or my sister's since not long after that. It was only sometime in the nineties that I realised who it was by. Obviously I'd never heard of Haldane when I first read it, and by the time I'd heard of him I'd moved away from my parents' place and hadn't seen the book in years. In fact, when my friend Neal told me I absolutely refused to believe him.
The other suggestion is Wallace Shawn's The Fever. (The link is to a page discussing The Fever. Follow the Lannan Foundation link from that page. Scroll down on their page to Shawn, and click on "reading" - on the subsequent page the book icon will bring up the text. The loudspeaker icon, of course, connects to a realaudio stream). I think think was originally pointed out to me by
deliberateblank some years ago. Wallace Shawn, of course, is an actor and playwright. I always identify him as having played Fizzini the Sicilian in The Princess Bride, but of course he's done a lot more work that that.The Fever is an angry monologue attacking the exploitation of the world's poor by the rich, by an ill man who holidays in poorer countries around the world. It's an extraordinary piece of writing, and I've not been able to see Shawn the same way since reading it. I haven't listened to him reading it yet, but I'm looking forward to it very much.
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no subject
Date: 2004-04-17 02:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-17 03:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-18 04:06 am (UTC)I've also read the other text now. Powerful stuff. I don't really know what else to say. Thanks for posting it.
no subject
Date: 2004-04-17 03:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-17 03:42 pm (UTC)