After reading THE LOTTERY (1)

There is a lot written about this shortstory and I have selected two pieces/links from the web as a follow-up for those of you who would like to go a little bit more into the story itself and the authoress.


The first one is The Power of Symbols by Dr Randy Laist. He discusses the symbolism in Shirley Jackson's story.

The second link provides more information on the authoress and her story SHIRLEY JACKSON  You will be able to read about the background to The Lottery and Jackson's "response to questions about the 'meaning' of the story".


On a coming third post I will write about the way my advanced students and me will tackle this story from a language perspective. The use of verb tenses, adjectives and adverbs, and how the different paragraphs are laid out to walk the reader out of their comfort zone which previously set them in by both the title and the peaceful summer day-scenario. I can still recall the disturbance and unease Mrs Hutchinson's last words provoked in myself. Last but not least, when you read the story a second time, those stones the children are gathering playfully at the beginning become deadly premonitory.

My favourite shortstory: THE LOTTERY by Shirley Jackson

Ever since I did North American Contemporary Shortstory in my 4th year at university I have kept The Lottery as my favourite one. There are quite a few more I like but somehow this one got itself "the place" in my own top reading-list and even if others have come along and have also marked the path of my reading, what makes The Lottery so special to me is the disturbing unease I was left with when I finished its reading. Since I am trying not to give away the story itself, I will stop using adjectives to describe my opinion and suggest that you should read and listen to the story yourself -provided that you haven't read it yet!


If you google The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, you get 644,000 hits. After some browsing, I have chosen the links below to lead you into the story itself, both in text and audio, and also a film version uploaded on YouTube which, I must say, would never have been my choice. In my opinion some written stories should never be transferred into pictures for it is the reader's own vision that makes them so unique. This is what I also felt when I read Frankestein; the horror Mary Shelley wanted to convey when wording the creature's appearance would never match any visual image created on the screen.


This first link will direct you to the text courtesy of Classic Short Stories

Reading The Lottery

This second link features one of The New Yorker fiction podcasts, in which A. M. Homes reads the story and discusses it with The New Yorker's fiction editor Deborah Treisman:

Listening to The Lottery: Luck of the Draw 

Lastly, here are two YouTube links on which you can watch a film version of the story:

SMALL TALK: WEDNESDAY

WEDNESDAY...MIÉRCOLES...MERCREDI...ONSDAG...HUMP DAY

Once I read a curious column titled ¨Miércoles¨ in the newspaper El País; now and then it comes to my mind, especially when I get my students to practise the pronunciation of the days of the week. Yes, I admit Miércoles has no sound connotation with Wednesday, but this is a tricky word for Spanish speakers to pronounce with ease.

In his column (I do remember it was a male writer but unfortunately I can't recall his name), the author aimed to restore some credibility to a day that falls in the middle of our weekdays and which seems to be generally overlooked by most of us; or at least, we tend to skip over it in our discourse when making any remarks regarding our weekly life.

This is roughly the essence of his column: we tend to talk gloomily about Monday when Sunday is nearing to its end; once we have managed to walk onto Tuesday we seem to be relieved that Monday has gone by without much distress and, unconciously, we move forward onto Thursday as we start visualizing the weekend, ¨thank god, it's Thursday, one more day before the weekend is here¨....Friday's knowledge that we will soon shake off our working constraints brightens the day up despite a likely feeling of exhaustion; Saturday and Sunday are back and we're in command of our lives again!

So, what about Wednesday?! Nothing much to be said about Wednesday!!!

I wanted to find some music related to Wednesday, ...even if the lyrics don't match my post Simon&Garfunkel are always worth listening to.

Have a good Sunday :O)!

The well-worn "brotes verdes" phrase in Spanish politics

I don't know about you but I'm getting sick and tired of the latest linguistic coinage in the Spanish discourse of politicians, political analysts and journalists in general these days. The well-worn phrase: brotes verdes can be heard or read almost anywhere, to the extent that it's becoming a cliché or a source of mockery depending on who words the phrase.

I've just googled the Spanish phrase now and I've been given 1,560,000 results, so the figure just speaks by itself.

I was chatting via twitter with Juanma Roca (please click on http://www.elreinodelahumildad.com/ if you want to know more about him and his latest book) and asked him if he knew the original English phrase, as I had already tried the literal translation from Spanish and it didn't match. I did my own research on the Internet and, bingo!!!

The English phrase is green shoots and it was Ben Bernake who used this term some time at the beginning of April. I got this info via Paul Krugman as he has a post in his blog dated, April, 16th commenting on B. Bernake's words at the time. Click on: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/17/opinion/17krugman.html?_r=1 if you are interested in reading more about it. You can also further your interest by clicking on:
http://www.slate.com/id/2215911/

Furthermore, you will be able to listen to the direct source here:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2009/03/bernanke_sees_green_shoots.html

Since I wondered if it was really B Bernake who firstly coined the phrase "green shoots", I went on with my net research and AskOxford.com supplies the precise information on http://www.askoxford.com/quotations/393?view=uk

business
The green shoots of economic spring are appearing once again. Norman Lamont 1942- : speech at Conservative Party Conference, 9 October 1991; often quoted 'the green shoots of recovery'

So it was politician Norman Lamont who coined the phrase in 1942:

Asked at his first appearance as chancellor at the Treasury Select Committee whether he agreed with his predecessor's view on the depth and duration of the recession and not wishing to contradict Major, Lamont replied that "there are reasons why one could believe that it will be relatively short-lived and relatively shallow."[11] In October 1991, based on CBI and Institute of Directors business surveys, said "what we are seeing is the return of that vital ingredient - confidence. The green shoots of economic spring are appearing once again."[12] Early in 1992 one of the Sunday newspapers ran a "Green Shoots Index" of signs of recovery, only to have to drop it when few such signs could be found. However Gavyn Davies, then chief economist at Goldman Sachs, wrote in a newspaper article at the time of Lamont's removal from the Treasury that the "green shoots" speech had turned out to be "remarkably prescient. From that moment onwards, output stopped declining, and within a few months, it started to rise.[13] Estimates of Gross Domestic Product show the trough of the recession occurring in the fourth quarter of 1991, with sustained growth resuming in the third quarter of 1992, when GDP grew 0.4% compared to the second quarter.[14]

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Lamont

Free online library

Just added this magnificent website that offers free books online (essays, fiction, non-fiction, poetry, short-stories, plays); simply a jewel!!!

http://www.readprint.com/

My recommendation to get started is Chejov's short-story The Lady With The Dog http://www.readprint.com/work-386/The-Lady-With-The-Dog-Anton-Chekhov

And Fitzgerald's short novel The Great Gatsby http://www.readprint.com/work-679/The-Great-Gatsby-F-Scott-Fitzgerald

Why?

Apart from the fact that they are very good pieces of writing, they are not too long, so if you are a learner of English and not so used to reading unabridged versions, you will feel quite encouraged to tackle the reading without feeling put off because of its length.

I guess reading online is still not at all appealing if you're a classic reader who likes to feel the book in their hands, but you can set yourself to the task by reading a chapter periodically while having www.wordreference.com open online to check vocabulary.

Judge Sonia Sotomayor's Speech

President Obama has nominated the first Hispanic woman for the Supreme Court: Sonia Sotomayor. You can read and listen* to her speech by clicking on the link below:

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1900940,00.html

For those native Spanish speakers who find the text difficult to understand because of the vocabulary, I suggest that you read about it in this article in Spanish: http://www.adn.es/sociedad/20090526/NWS-2752-Sotomayor-Supremo-Obama-Sonia-designa.html and then get back to the full text in English.

A very moving speech full of gratitude to all those that have supported her along these years so as to be who she is. I would like to quote these special words to her mother: "I stand on the shoulders of countless people, yet there is one extraordinary person who is my life aspiration. That person is my mother, Celina Sotomayor. [...] I have often said that I am all I am because of her, and I am only half the woman she is. "

In her speech Sonia Sotomayor portrays herself as a humble and hard-working person who is full aware that any decision she takes has a "real world consequence", be it in the private or the public sector, be it related to either a whole community or the individual, and this makes her a full woman in the extensive sense (if I may say this).

Last but not least, let me extract her last words as her own definition of an individual: "...I am an ordinary person who has been blessed with extraordinary opportunities and experiences."

*The listening starts from paragraph 9 (I chose to be a lawyer...)

A poem attributed to Neruda gets circulated in cyberspace

Yesterday I got via email a lovely and inspiring poem stating Pablo Neruda's authorship. I browsed on the Internet to find the English version as I thought it would make a nice inspiring entry for May, 1st -a festivity in many countries as well as in Spain. This is the link to the poem, both in English and Spanish, that I found:

http://www.susans.org/forums/index.php?topic=57457.0;wap2

Well, just now when browsing for more information about it I have come across an article titled Fake Pablo Neruda's Poem Spreads on Internet in the Latin American Herald Tribune. It has been published today and states that three poems which are kept circulating on the Internet are falsely attributed to Neruda as their genuine author; and one of these poems happens to be It's forbidden (Queda prohibido) as you can read at the top of the poem.

Delving into the whole affair I browsed Neruda's official website, Fundación Pablo Neruda, and it backs what's being said in the above article. The author is Alfredo Cuervo Barrero and he has registered its authorship in the registry office Propiedad Intelectual de Vizcaya, numbered BI-13-03. He says that this is an amputated version of the original one. The news also says that there are 20,000 attributions of this poem on the Internet.

Yet, I personally think it's a beautiful piece of writing, and I want to give full voice and praise to the genuine author of the lines.

ps. I intend to contact him for permission to translate his poem and post it in my blog.

News featured in main Spanish newspapers

Just a reminder!!!

If you want to read about what's been featured in the main Spanish newspapers, don't forget to click on the site Typically SPANISH.com (also found in my Useful links list.

Allow me to direct you :O)

http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_21162.shtml

Swine flu case confirmed in Spain

My 17-year-old son (well, almost!, his birthday is tomorrow ;O) spent the whole afternoon/evening yesterday browsing on the Internet for more news on this flu outbreak. He even contacted an old school Mexican friend, who's now living in Mexico, and was glad to know that he was doing fine. I am happy to know, too!

If you want to read more:

http://www.emgonline.co.uk/news.php?news=4818

The art of reading & publishing in Roman times doesn't sound that far from ours -so to speak!

Just read this interesting article on writing and publishing in Roman times, and as the author states, the essence of writing, publishing and retailing doesn't seem to have changed that much. The similarities are really striking, so I have cut and pasted some excerpts that have especially caught my attention below the link.

The author of the article is Mary Beard, professor of classics at the University of Cambridge and classics editor of The Times Literary Supplement. Her latest book is “The Fires of Vesuvius.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/19/books/review/Beard-t.html?pagewanted=all

“My book is thumbed by our soldiers posted overseas, and even in Britain people quote my words. What’s the point? I don’t make a penny from it.” This is not the complaint of some young American author who has suddenly discovered that his contract pays him nothing for foreign sales. These are the words of the Roman poet Martial, first-century satirist and defender of authors’ rights.
...
The books they read were not “books” in our sense but, at least up to the second century, “book rolls” — long strips of papyrus, rolled up on two wooden rods at either end. To read the work in question, you unrolled the papyrus from the left-hand rod, onto the right, leaving a “page” stretched between the two. It was considered the height of bad manners to leave the text on the right- hand rod when you had finished reading, so that the next reader had to rewind back to the beginning to find the title page. Bad manners — but a common fault, no doubt. Some scribes helpfully repeated the title of the book at the very end, with just this problem in mind.
...
All the same, there’s a lot in the Roman literary world that seems quite familiar two millenniums later: money-­making booksellers, exploited and impoverished authors, celebrity book launches and career-making prizes.
...
For those who did go in [bookstores], there was usually a place to sit and read. With slaves on hand to summon up refreshments, it would have been not unlike the coffee shop in a modern Borders. For collectors, there were occasionally secondhand treasures to be picked up, at a price.
...
They may not have made much money during their lifetimes, but I can imagine them smiling with satisfaction in the Elysian Fields as they work out what their 2,000 years of royalties might have added up to.

Listening&reading to a news review thanx to English Club.com

http://www.englishclub.com/listening/news.htm

I like this proposal of reviewing past news at the same time as you practise your listening & reading skills and, consequently, learn more vocabulary. The pieces of news are not very long and the pre-listening vocabulary is certainly a help. There are some comprehension questions to follow for each story, which you can tackle and contrast with the Answer Check given at the end.

The explanatory steps on how to proceed are undoubtedly useful. You can decide to do them all in one go, or one at a time along the week or the month.

I do encourage you to do them, anyhow.

An adding feature is the Guide for teachers; so if you're a teacher don't miss it.

Listen & read Obama's interview by Financial Times

Click on the following link and you can listen to Obama being interviewed by Financial Times:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5ee69cb2-1c8d-11de-977c-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1
Lionel Barber, Chrystia Freeland and Edward Luce of the Financial Times interviewed President Obama in Washington on March 27 2009. This is the transcript of the interview.

It's a 20-minute interview but worth your while. I suggest following these steps as a listening&reading task:

1. Read through the text and note down any words you don't know, then find the meaning by using an online dictionary, e.g. http://www.wordreference.com/
2. Listen to the interview without reading the text; I'm sure you will be able to follow a lot.
3. Listen and read at the same time.

Tour of Hercules Lighthouse- A Coruña

http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_20546.shtml

Learn vocabulary while reading....the story will surely make u smile :O)

Teenager paints 60ft phallus on roof of family home
A teenager got away with painting a 60ft phallus on the roof of his parents' home for a year before his parents found out.

Click on the link below to read the story and look at pic!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5041848/Teenager-paints-60ft-phallus-on-roof-of-family-home.html

VOCABULARY
Phrasal verbs:

get away with >> not being punished for something wrong you've done
find out >> know about it
own up >> admit, confess
scrub something off >> clean thoroughly

Phrases:
have a joke >> tease, pull someone's leg, say something funny
take the prank >> accept the joke
April's Fool Day >> a day in the calendar "traditionally suitable" for playing jokes or tricks
on a gap year >> usually an academic year taken as a break from education before a student starts university

More words:
spot >> notice
enable >> make possible
zoom in >> camera getting closer
daub >> spread a thick substance on a surface
white spirit >> a colourless liquid used to remove paint

Podcasts to practise listening (& reading) skills

http://www.manythings.org/e/podcasts.html

This website offers you a variety of podcasts to download or simply to listen to by clicking the play button. This is the list:

Learn a Song Podcast

Listen and Repeat Podcast

Jokes in English

Selected MP3 Files for EFL/ESL Students

VOA's Special English Programs in a Podcast RSS Feed

Links to Other People's ESL Podcasts
20 Newest ESL Podcasts
ESL : Listening : Podcasts

Día de San José & Bank Holiday in most of Spain

Hope you're enjoying this festivity day in Madrid, and the best to those that have managed a trip away from the hustle & bustle of city life. Sorry about the long delays on main roads to those who got caught in them:

http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_20537.shtml

Staying in Madrid & enjoying the lovely spring temperatures; easy day ahead, going out for a stroll and just lazing around the house ;O))

>>>>><<<<<

For a summary of what's been published today in the nationally-read newspapers just click on the following link:

http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_20542.shtml

>>>>><<<<<

ps. Please take care on the road :o)

"dashing"

I was reading this article http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1885451,00.html ,
mostly interested in the fact that these days' controversy concerning the Fine Arts medal awarded to F. Rivera this year should be featured in the Time magazine, when a single word "dashing" just made me scroll up the text to check whether the author was a man or a woman.

Somehow, I sensed it "had" to be a woman. Had the writer been a man, I just don't feel he would've used the word "dashing" to describe Rivera's brother's looks.

This is the entry in the Compact Oxford English Dictionary:

dashing
• adjective excitingly attractive and stylish.
— DERIVATIVES dashingly adverb.

Want to read about Spain but in English?

Just added a new item in the section Useful Links called typically Spanish.com with lots of information about Spain. For a review of what's being said in Spanish newspapers lately click on the following link:

http://tinyurl.com/ck96ha