Who goes there?

[Dave Monroe]

It’s Tam O’ Shanter in glorious Technicolour
Published Date: 12 July 2009


The Scottish Gallery hosted the launch this week of what is
undoubtedly the most beautiful book published so far to coincide with
the 250th anniversary of the birth of Burns: Birlinn’s edition of Tam
O’ Shanter, with a magnificent selection of Alexander Goudie’s
drawings and painting on that theme.

When seen all together, the images resemble nothing less than the
storyboards for an unmade animated film. With any luck, some bright
spark at Scottish Screen will take a look – a cartoon version of the
poem, made by young Scottish filmmakers and honouring a great Scottish
painter would be a proper legacy for the Homecoming year.

[...]

Poet pourri

On Thursday night, the Scottish Poetry Library was transformed into a
kind of bohemian salon, complete with a Celtic/Latin band, for the
relaunch of the poetry magazine Anon. In keeping with their
submissions policy (“We don’t care who you aren’t”) there was a nod to
the 60s series The Prisoner and iPods dotted around so you could hear
the poetry without being distracted by the poet. Editor Colin Fraser
told me that, as a concession to convention, they had also set up a
“chapel” for more typical readings and their reverential atmosphere.
Find out more at www.anonpoetry.co.uk

Who goes there?

It seemed fitting that, just before attending the anonymous launch, I
was deep in the new novel by Thomas Pynchon, the most notoriously
elusive author of his generation. Inherent Vice is the most accessible
Pynchon novel I’ve read – think of it as the equivalent in his oeuvre
to David Lynch’s The Straight Story – and certainly the funniest. Just
think; the old geezer sitting next to you at the Book Festival this
year might actually be America’s most profound living novelist.