March 2013 – Page 3 – Stuck in a Book

Ok, I lied last week. I said I’d sneak my OxfordWords highlights in after the book, link, and blog post – but this week I can’t resist devoting the post to two pieces over there which I think are really fantastic. And one of them is partly by me, so I’m being a little bit egotistical…

1.) Baby Names Generator – go and find out what your baby should be called! My colleague Rachel wrote great copy for it, but I mostly love it for the adorable pictures of babies…

2.) Dr. Seuss meet Dr. Murray – my colleague Malie and I wrote a poem about an imaginary meeting between a young Dr. Seuss and Dr. Murray, the famous Editor of the OED. And a brilliant cartoonist called John Taylor drew Dr. Murray in his Scriptorium, in the style of Dr. Seuss. It makes me so happy…

Have a great weekend, everyone! I’ll be at the Bodleian tomorrow, but hoping to get some reading done in the evening. I only finished three books in MarchFebruary, y’all…

Happy March, everyone! I hope my March reading is substantially more than my February reading…

I enjoyed and valued your responses to my post On Not Knowing Art last week, and stored away your suggestions happily. I also fell more and more in love with two of the paintings I’d chosen – the Francis Cadell, which many of you seemed to know, and Korhinta (1931) by Vilmos Aba-Novak, which none of you did – or, if you did, you kept quiet! Here it is again…

(image source)

I can’t stop looking at it. The colours, the energy, the clever presentation of figures… and the funfair. I’ve realised that I am fascinated by the ways in which funfairs are depicted. I don’t know exactly what it is about them that appeals – again, the colours, the energy, and the sense of the insane and unusual brought into close connection with the everyday – but I can’t get enough. So I thought I’d explore some more depictions of funfairs in art. The only ones I knew before were the Stanley Spencer, who is one of my favourite artists, and the Mark Gertler. I would include literary examples, but I can’t think of any (can you?) – only the odd circus or two. (Click on the links to take you to image sources.)