'n Tyd toe méér mooi was

Vroue het nog altyd en sal seker altyd 'n obsessie hê met hul gewig. Daar was egter 'n tyd toe "mollig" nie 'n mooi woord vir "vet" was nie, maar 'n kompliment, en geen vrou "maer" genoem wou word nie.

'n Paar advertensies uit die 1930s - 1950s:

    

En toe, veronderstel ek, het sý gebeur ...

TWIGGY

Die moeilikste tema om oor te skryf: SEKS

Seks is 'n tema waarmee so baie skrywers kleitrap dat die Literary Review tydskrif elke jaar 'n toekenning gee vir SWAK SEKS in nie-erotiese literatuur. Die seremonie vind hierdie jaar op 6 Desember plaas en die twaalf blosende kandidate sluit in: Stephen King, Haruki Murakami, James Frey en Lee Child. 

Stephen King:

She was wearing jeans. The fabric whispered under my palm. She leaned back and her head bonked on the door. 'Ouch!' I said. 'Are you alright?' 

David Guterson:

In the shower, Ed stood with his hands at the back of his head, like someone just arrested, while she abused him with a bar of soap.

Haruki Murakami:

 

Her breasts seemed to be virtually uninfluenced by the force of gravity, the nipples turned beautifully upward, like a vine's new tendrils seeking sunlight.

Lee Child:

Faster, harder, faster, harder. The room began to shake. Just faintly at first, like a mild constant tremor, like the edge of a far distant earthquake. The French door trembled in its frame. A glass rattled on the bathroom shelf. The floor quivered. The hall door creaked and shuttered. My shoes hopped and moved. The bedhead hammered against the wall. The floor shook hard. The walls boomed. Coins in my abandoned pocket tinkled.

Wys jou ...

10 Kunswerke met kos

Guiseppe Arcimboldo

Autumn (1573)

Wayne Thiebaud

Pie Counter (1963)

Claes Oldenburg

Floor Cake (1962)

Will Cotton

Consuming Folly (2009)





Jennifer Rubell

Creation (2009)

Die kunswerk bestaan uit 1 ton ribbetjies met heuning wat van die plafon afdrup ...

Marina Abramovic

Untitled

'n Afgieting van die kunstenares se eie lippe in sjokolade, met bladgoud vir beklemtoning.

Cosimo Cavallaro

The Cheese Room (1999)

Willem Claezoon Heda

Breakfast Table With Blackberry Pie (1631)

Xavier Cha

Cornucopia (2006)

Terry Richardson

Portrait of Lindsey Wixon (Amerikaanse model) Eating Spaghetti

Afkeurbriewe

Daar is bitter min skrywers wat nie vertroud is met afkeurbriewe nie, selfs dié wat vandag as genies beskou word. 

  

Sylvia Plath (27 Okt. 1932 - 11 Feb. 1963)

"There certainly isn't enough genuine talent for us to take notice."

Rudyard Kipling (30 Des. 1865 - 18 Jan. 1936)

"I'm sorry Mr. Kipling, but you just don't know how to use the English language."

J.G. Ballard (15 Nov. 1930 - 19 April 2009)

"The author of this book is beyond psychiatric help."

Emily Dickinson (10 Des. 1830 - 15 Mei 1886)

"Your poems are quite as remarkable for defects as for beauties and are generally devoid of true poetical qualities."

Ernest Hemingway (21 Julie 1899 - 2 Julie 1961)

Vir Torrents of Spring: "It would be extremely rotten taste, to say nothing of being horribly cruel, should we want to publish it."

Tydreise in fiksie

Die idee van tydreise in fiksie is 'n tydreis op sy eie ...

A Christmas Carol (1843), Charles Dickens

Mens dink dalk nie aan Ebenezer Scrooge as 'n tydreisiger nie, maar dit is presies wat in A Christmas Carol met hom gebeur. Hy word deur spoke deur die tyd gelei en besoek sy verlede sowel as sy toekoms. 

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889), Mark Twain

In hierdie boek kry die hoofkarakter, Hank Morgan, 'n man van Hartfort, Connecticut 'n hou oor die kop met 'n koevoet en toe hy weer tot sy sinne kom, bevind hy hom in Camelot. Dit is een van die eerste romane wat die idee gebruik van 'n karakter uit die toekoms wat sy kennis van die wêreld en tegnologie aan 'n beskawing uit die verlede oordra.

The Time Machine (1895), H.G. Wells

H.G. Wells was nie die eerste outeur wat met die idee van 'n tydmasjien om deur tyd mee te reis vorendag gekom het nie. Enrique Gaspar y Rimbau het dit eerste gebruik in El Anacronopete (1887). Die rede hoekom mens dink Wells het dit eerste gebruik, is dat hy dit só gebruik dat dit mense se verbeelding aangegryp het. In sy tydmasjien kon die karakters doelgerig deur tyd reis, m.a.w. hulle kon kies na watter tyd toe hulle wou gaan en dit is wat hierdie boek so (letterlik) tydloos maak.

By His Bootstraps (1941), Robert A. Heinlein

Hierdie kortverhaal het in die Oktober 1941 uitgawe van 'n wetenskapfiksie tydskrif Astounding Science Fiction verskyn. Die hoofkarakter, Bob, ontmoet 'n man genaamd Joe. Joe beweer hy is van die toekoms en dat hy 'n "tydhek" gebruik het om na die jaar 1941 toe te reis. Bob gaan deur die tydhek en dit vat hom dertig duisend jaar in die toekoms in. 

Slaughterhouse Five (1972), Kurt Vonnegut

'n Satiriese verhaal oor die Tweede Wêreldoorlog, waarin Billy Pilgrim, 'n Amerikaanse soldaat, "loskom" van tyd. Dit lei daartoe dat hy gebeure in sy lewe in die verkeerde volgorde en soms meer as een keer beleef. 



Outlander (1991), Diana Gabaldon

'n Reeks wetenskapfiksie-romanses waarin die heldin, Claire, van die jaar 1945 na die agtiende eeu toe reis, deur middel van geheimsinnige staande klippe - soort van 'n Stonehenge - op 'n heuwel in Skotland. Sy verpleeg 'n jong man in die verlede en raak verlief op hom.  

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999), J.K. Rowling

Om eerlik te wees, kan ek hierdie stories nie meer aankyk nie, maar die idee van tydreise speel 'n groot rol in die storielyn van hierdie vervolg van Harry Potter. Hermoine kry 'n "tyd draaier" waarmee sy tyd kan herhaal. Op dié manier kan sy ekstra dosisse skoolwerk inneem. Die woord nerd het by my opgekom terwyl ek dit gelees het ... Op die ou einde gebruik sy, Harry en Ron natuurlik die tyd draaier om 'n onskuldige man te red.

The Time Traveler's Wife (2003), Audrey Niffenegger

In hierdie storie het die hoofkarakter, Henry DeTamble, 'n genetiese afwyking genaamd "Chrono Displacement" wat maak dat hy deur tyd kan reis. Hy het egter geen beheer oor na watter tyd toe hy reis of hoe lank hy daar sal bly nie. 

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe (2010), Charles Yu

In hierdie boek is die protagonis die outeur self, Charles Yu. Hy is 'n masjinis wat in sy eie tydmasjien bly. Yu slaan soort van bollemakiesie deur tyd nadat hy sy toekomstige self doodskiet. Hy probeer sy selfopgelegde Noodlot met nog meer tydreise ontsnap. Dit gaan daaroor dat mens jouself netsowel kan skiet, want jy gaan in elk geval sterf. Vir hom gaan mens se hele lewe daaroor dat jy gedurig terugdiens, wegdeins en die oomblik van jou dood probeer ontwyk terwyl jy weet dit moet kom - een of ander tyd. Nie 'n boek om te lees as jy tot depressie neig nie.

11/22/63 (2011), Stephen King



'n Onderwyser, Jake Epping, se vriend, Al, het 'n "poort" in die stoorkamer van sy restaurant wat na die jaar 1958 toe lei. Hy stuur Jake soontoe om die moord op president John F. Kennedy te probeer verhinder.

8 Ongelooflike duur boeke

1) The Tales of Beedle the Bard, J.K. Rowling

$3,980,000

Die handgeskrewe en -geïllustreerde weergawe van 'n boek deur J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter) wat in 2008 in sagteband uitgegee is. Die outrise het 6 eksemplare vir haar uitgewers en vriende persent gegee, maar toe dit by 'n openbare verkoping deur Amazon onder die hammer gekom het, het dit vir 'n hoër bedrag as enige ander moderne manukrip verkoop. 

2) Die Gutenberg Bybel

$25,000,000

Al was hy nie die eerste een om teks te druk nie, het Johannes Gutenberg se sukses daarmee om veelvuldige afskrifte van gedrukte teks te maak tot die massaproduksie van boeke gelei. Daar bestaan tans 21 afskrifte van die Gutenberg Bybel. Die laaste keer wat een verkoop is, was in 1978.

 

3) Birds of America, John James Audubon

$11,000,000

'n Boek van lewensgroot "portrette" van uitgestorwe watervoëls. 

 

4) First Folio, William Shakespeare

$5,100,000

Hoewel werke soos The Two Noble Kinsmen, ganse paragrawe uit Hamlet en die twee "lost plays" weggelaat is uit hierdie eerste versamelde werke van Shakespeare, is dit een van die mees waardevolle boeke op aarde. Toe dit aanvanklik uitgegee is, het dit net een pond gekos. 

 

 

5) Action Comics Nr. 1

$1,500,000

Superman se 1938 debuut - die storie van hoe hy op die aarde beland het.

 

6) Tamerlane, Edgar Allan Poe

$662,500

Lyk miskien nie indrukwekkend nie ... en is dit ook nie. Party boeke neem toe in waarde a.g.v. rariteit, idiosinkrasie of omdat dit 'n swak werk deur 'n beroemde skrywer is. Dit is hoe sake staan met hierdie boek. Die lesers en resensente het dit gehaat, maar dit het nietemin toegeneem in waarde omdat die outeursreël aan die binnekant in plaas van die outeur se naam, om een of ander rede lui: "By a Bostonian".

7) 'n Boek van "kosmologie" deur Ptolemeus

$4,000,000

Die rede hoekom hierdie boek so waardevol is, is respek vir die tegnologie wat dit in 1477 moontlik gemaak het om die kaarte te ets. En natuurlik omdat Ptolemeus (beroemde Griekse geograaf/wiskundige) die een is wat dit reggekry het. Slegs twee afskrifte is tans in private hande.

 

 

8) Leonardo da Vince se "kodeks"

$44,000,000

Da Vince se nota's, idees en teorieë is die mees waardevolle boek van alle tye. 



Montserrat Caballe in "Norma"

Montserrat Caballe

Sy het van oomblikke soos dié gesê:

You no longer feel you are on stage making music, but in a different dimension, inside, at one with music, and no longer aware of the act of singing or conscious of yourself and your body. The body is a concrete thing, made up of physical matter. But when you are in this stage of fusion with music you are totally unaware of it. You feel light, weightless, and afterwards, boom, you feel so heavy again.

Wanneer ek na hierdie video kyk, glo ek haar. En ek hou van haar skoene.

Miniatuur Brontë manuskrip

Charlotte Brontë

Charlotte Brontë het as kind haar stories in die vorm van piepklein tydskrifte - omtrent so groot soos 'n kredietkaart - geskryf. Die een hierbo is 'n storie van 4,000 woorde wat sy in 1830 geskryf het, toe sy 14 jaar oud was. Die storie bevat tonele wat sterk ooreenkom met tonele in Jane Eyre, die roman wat haar 17 jaar later beroemd gemaak het. 

Die waarde van die manuskrip word vandag op £300,000 geskat. Wens ek kon dit bekostig.

10 Uitvindsels wat wetenskapfiksie-outeurs voorspel het

 1) Die iPad. Op die mark sedert 2010.

Uittreksel uit 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Arthur C. Clarke:

'When he tired of official reports and memoranda and minutes, he would plug in his foolscap-size newspad into the ship’s information circuit and scan the latest reports from Earth. One by one he would conjure up the world’s major electronic papers…Switching to the display unit’s short-term memory, he would hold the front page while he quickly searched the headlines and noted the items that interested him. Each had its own two-digit reference; when he punched that, the postage-stamp-size rectangle would expand until it neatly filled the screen and he could read it with comfort. When he had finished, he would flash back to the complete page and select a new subject for detailed examination…'

2) Oorlogtenks. Vir die eerste maal in 1916 tydens die geveg van die Somme gebruik.

Uittreksel uit The Land Ironclads (1903), H.G. Wells:

‘Whit, whit, whit,’ sang something in the air…Bang came shrapnel, bursting close at hand as it seemed, and our two men were lying flat in a dip in the ground, and the light and everything had gone again, leaving a vast note of interrogation upon the night.
The war correspondent came within bawling range. ‘What the deuce was it? Shooting our men down!’
‘Black,’ said the artist, ‘and like a fort. Not two hundred yards from the first trench.’ He sought for comparisons in his mind. ‘Something between a big blockhouse and a giant’s dish-cover,’ he said.
‘And they were running!’ said the war correspondent.
‘You’d run if a thing like that, with a search-light to help it, turned up like a prowling nightmare in the middle of the night.’
In that flickering pallor it had the effect of a large and clumsy black insect, an insect the size of an iron-clad cruiser, crawling obliquely to the first line of trenches and firing shots out of portholes in its side. And on its carcass the bullets must have been battering with more than the passionate violence of hail on a roof of tin.
Then in the twinkling of an eye the curtain of the dark had fallen again and the monster had vanished, but the crescendo of musketry marked its approach to the trenches.'

3) "Virtual reality"-speletjies. Habitat, 'n speletjie wat in 1987 deur Lucas Film Games vir die Commodore 64 rekenaar ontwikkel is, word beskou as die eerste "virtual reality"-rekenaarspeletjie.

Uittreksel uit The City and the Stars (1956), Arthur C. Clarke:

'Of all the thousands of forms of recreation in the city, these were the most popular. When you entered a saga, you were not merely a passive observer…You were an active participant and possessed—or seemed to possess—free will. The events and scenes which were the raw material of your adventures might have been prepared beforehand by forgotten artists, but there was enough flexibility to allow for wide variation. You could go into these phantom worlds with your friends, seeking the excitement that did not exist in Diaspar—and as long as the dream lasted there was no way in which it could be distinguished from reality.'

4) Die atoombom. Little Boy is op 6 August 1945 op Hiroshima, en Fat Man op 9 Augustus op Nagasaki laat val.  

Uittreksel uit The World Set Free (1914), H.G. Wells:

'The problem which was already being mooted by such scientific men as Ramsay, Rutherford, and Soddy, in the very beginning of the twentieth century, the problem of inducing radio-activity in the heavier elements and so tapping the internal energy of atoms, was solved by a wonderful combination of induction, intuition, and luck by Holsten so soon as the year 1933. From the first detection of radio-activity to its first subjugation to human purpose measured little more than a quarter of a century. For twenty years after that, indeed, minor difficulties prevented any striking practical application of his success, but the essential thing was done, this new boundary in the march of human progress was crossed, in that year. He set up atomic disintegration in a minute particle of bismuth; it exploded with great violence into a heavy gas of extreme radio-activity, which disintegrated in its turn in the course of seven days, and it was only after another year’s work that he was able to show practically that the last result of this rapid release of energy was gold. But the thing was done—at the cost of a blistered chest and an injured finger, and from the moment when the invisible speck of bismuth flashed into riving and rending energy, Holsten knew that he had opened a way for mankind, however narrow and dark it might still be, to worlds of limitless power.'

5) Kantoorhokkies - in gebruik sedert die 1960s.

Uittreksel uit The Machine Stops (1909), E.M. Forster:

Imagine, if you can, a small room, hexagonal in shape, like the cell of a bee. It is lighted neither by window nor by lamp, yet it is filled with a soft radiance. There are no apertures for ventilation, yet the air is fresh. There are no musical instruments, and yet, at the moment that my meditation opens, this room is throbbing with melodious sounds. An armchair is in the centre, by its side a reading-desk — that is all the furniture. And in the armchair there sits a swaddled lump of flesh — a woman, about five feet high, with a face as white as a fungus. It is to her that the little room belongs.
An electric bell rang.
The woman touched a switch and the music was silent.
'I suppose I must see who it is', she thought, and set her chair in motion. The chair, like the music, was worked by machinery and it rolled her to the other side of the room where the bell still rang importunately.
'Who is it?' she called. Her voice was irritable, for she had been interrupted often since the music began. She knew several thousand people, in certain directions human intercourse had advanced enormously.
But when she listened into the receiver, her white face wrinkled into smiles, and she said:
'Very well. Let us talk, I will isolate myself. I do not expect anything important will happen for the next five minutes — for I can give you fully five minutes, Kuno. Then I must deliver my lecture on "Music during the Australian Period."'

6) In-die-oor oorfone - in gebruik sedert die vroeë 2000s.

Uittreksel uit Fahrenheit 451 (1950), Ray Bradbury:

And in her ears the little seashells, the thimble radios tamped tight, and an electronic ocean of sound, of music and talk and music and talk coming in, coming in on the shore of her unsleeping mind.

7) Skype - in gebruik sedert 2003.

Uittreksel uit h 124C 41+ (1964), Hugo Gernsback: 

Stepping to the Telephot on the side of the wall, he pressed a group of buttons and in a few minutes the faceplate of the Telephot became luminous, revealing the face of a clean-shaven man about thirty, a pleasant but serious face.
As soon as he recognized the face of Ralph in his own Telephot, he smiled and said, 'Hello, Ralph.'
'Hello, Edward. I wanted to ask you if you could come over to the laboratory tomorrow morning. I have something unusually interesting to show you. Look!'
He stepped to one side of his instrument so that his friend could see the apparatus on the table about ten feet from the Telephot faceplate.

8) Automatiese deure - in gebruik sedert 1960, uitgevind deur Dee Horton en Lew Hewitt. 

Uittreksel uit When the Sleeper Wakes (1899), H.G. Wells:

The two men addressed turned obediently, after one reluctant glance at Graham, and instead of going through the archway as he expected, walked straight to the dead wall of the apartment opposite the archway. And then came a strange thing; a long strip of this apparently solid wall rolled up with a snap, hung over the two retreating men and fell again, and immediately Graham was alone with the new comer and the purple-robed man with the flaxen beard.

9) Die duikboot. Die eerste heeltemal funksionele duikboot, die U-27 is in 1936 te water gelaat. 

Uitreksel uit 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1869), Jules Verne:

For some time past vessels had been met by “an enormous thing,” a long object, spindle-shaped, occasionally phosphorescent, and infinitely larger and more rapid in its movements than a whale.
The facts relating to this apparition (entered in various log-books) agreed in most respects as to the shape of the object or creature in question, the untiring rapidity of its movements, its surprising power of locomotion, and the peculiar life with which it seemed endowed. If it was a whale, it surpassed in size all those hitherto classified in science. Taking into consideration the mean of observations made at divers times — rejecting the timid estimate of those who assigned to this object a length of two hundred feet, equally with the exaggerated opinions which set it down as a mile in width and three in length — we might fairly conclude that this mysterious

10) Radar - sedert 1933 in gebruik.

Uittreksel uit Ralph 124C 41+ (1911), Hugo Gernsback:

A pulsating polarized ether wave, if directed on a metal object can be reflected in the same manner as a light ray is reflected from a bright surface… By manipulating the entire apparatus like a searchlight, waves would be sent over a large area. Sooner or later these waves would strike a space flyer. A small part of these waves would strike the metal body of the flyer, and these rays would be reflected back to the sending apparatus. Here they would fall on the Actinoscope, which records only the reflected waves, not direct ones.
…From the intensity and elapsed time of the reflected impulses, the distance between the earth and the flyer can then be accurately estimated.