Dennis Duncan

@djbduncan.bsky.social

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I reviewed the Franciszka Themerson exhibition at the Tate www.apollo-magazine.com/franciszka-t...

The puckish figures of Franciszka Themerson | Apollo Magazinewww.apollo-magazine.com The Polish-born artist’s paintings and drawings may have an air of the doodle, but her work is thrillingly inventive, writes Dennis Duncan

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This is how a page from a medieval #manuscript looks when its original text had been scraped off by someone, overwritten with a new text, and then later, a 19th-century scholar discovered the #palimpsest and tried to make the undertext's ink visible again by painting the page with chemical reagents.

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‘Writing a novel, for Queneau, should be no different from writing a poem: it requires obedience to formal strictures that have been determined in advance.’ @djbduncan.bsky.social on a new translation of Raymond Queneau’s 1947 novel 𝘓𝘰𝘪𝘯 𝘥𝘦 𝘙𝘦𝘶𝘪𝘭: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Dennis Duncan · How to Speak Zazie: Translating Raymond Queneauwww.lrb.co.uk Queneau recognised a gulf between literary French and the contemporary spoken language: ‘I came to realise that modern...

Finally!!

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The Society of Indexers National Indexing Day #IndexDay workshop panel: Paula Clarke Bain @baindex.org, @tanyaizzard.bsky.social, Rachel Gee and Ruth Ellis, along with our honorary members Sam Leith @questingvole.bsky.social and @djbduncan.bsky.social.

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On #IndexDay, here's a piece from the TLS archive on the book index as political weapon - by @djbduncan.bsky.social sky.social @thetls.bsky.social www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/hog...

Hoggs that Sh–te Soap, p. 66 | TLSwww.the-tls.co.uk A couple of years ago, Boris Johnson published his biography of Winston Churchill. Naturally for a work of this sort, The Churchill Factor contains an index, a good one, compiled...

INDICE! Brazilian author copies just arrived in the post 🤩🇧🇷

Something about Julius Caesar walking into a video shop and saying “I’m looking for XXX movies”… #HalfFinishedJokes

There was a young man from Stroud Green Who could fart to the music of Queen. His sister, named Carla, Could fart lieder by Mahler, And his dog could fart “Come on Eileen”.

I reviewed Anthony Grafton’s new book “Magus” for the Guardian www.theguardian.com/books/2024/j...

Magus by Anthony Grafton review – spellboundwww.theguardian.com A serious yet accessible history of learned magic, from Ficino to Faustus

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#onmydesktoday: a book about the print culture in 16th and 17th centuries focusing on the idea of the ‘gap’. That’s a step towards a cultural history of absence. For #bookhistory and other fields that investigate into silence, space and emptiness. Bonus point for the “empty” book cover, #skystorians

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Zebydeb

Index, A History of the, by @djbduncan.bsky.social Fun take on book history. Takes you into all sorts of topics like alphabetical order in different cultures, and how people used books when they were scrolls. Also the tricky time when books had indexes but not page numbers!

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New proposal to destroy hard copies of key historical documents (unless they relate to 'notable individuals' such as 'Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens and Diana, Princess of Wales'. Please read, reality check & respond. Consultation ends 23 Feb 2024 www.gov.uk/government/n...

Easier access to historic wills under new government planswww.gov.uk Genealogists, historians and amateur family archivists will be better able to access historic wills under proposals published today (15 December 2023).

I reviewed @rummage.bsky.social’s excellent "Penning Poison" for the Washington Post. Sadly the phrase "foxy ass piss country whore" didn't make it past the editors. www.washingtonpost.com/books/2023/1...

Review | Think trolls are bad? Look at the history of poison pen letters.www.washingtonpost.com “Penning Poison” chronicles the fascinating history of the anonymous letter.

This December I will be mostly reading Raymond Queneau.

Korean INDEX!

Raymond Queneau and André Breton at the French première of the Beatles’ “Help!”, 23 Sept 1965.

Bibliographers! You MUST read this amazing piece by @josephhone.bsky.social in this month's Lit Review about the thief and book forger Thomas Wise. literaryreview.co.uk/he-steals-th...

Joseph Hone - He Steals Them, of Course!literaryreview.co.uk Joseph Hone: He Steals Them, of Course!

Best index of 2023 airmail.news/issues/2023-...

“JACK IDLE Master of the Universe & Time Traveller landed here 29 July 2946”

The question on everyone’s lips

First folio: still relevant

The earliest public appearance of Tom Phillips’s “A Humument” (ICA Bulletin, May 1967)

“After Raphael” by Tom Phillips - better known as the painting in the cover of Eno’s “Another Green World” - is up for auction: www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auctio...

Woke up with this phrase in my head: [strong American accent] “It’s a masterclass in being an ass… and you’re the teacher!” I really want to use it before I forget it. Can’t remember anything else from the dream.

Happy publication day to @njdames.bsky.social and congratulations on a remarkable and profound work of scholarship.

Charity shop find: a nice old copy of The Times going for a fiver. 24 June 1910, the day the King of Bulgaria arrived in Paris and the Lake Como murderer was apprehended in New York. #ephemera

A few years ago, inspired by Graham Rawle, I started taking a photo every time I saw a single playing card lying on the pavement. Now I've seen enough to arrange them into poker hands: straights, flushes, full houses. Here's a nice run from 5 through to Jack.

My author copies of the Japanese edition of INDEX just turned up, complete with spines on the right and text that runs down the page! 😮😍