Memorable Stories Research Articles

Girolamo Savonarola nella testimonianza di Massimo il Greco1

Abstract: Girolamo Savonarola in the eyes of Maximus the GreekThe article concerns the first Slavonic document composed in the Muscovite State about the life of Girolamo Savonarola (1452‐1498). The document, a literary account belonging to the first half of the sixteenth century, was written by Maximus the Greek, a Byzantine émigré who spent his youth in Italy. It is included in the Povest’ strašna i dostopamjatna i o soveršennom inočeskom žitel’stve (Terrible and Memorable Story and about the Perfect Monastic Lifestyle), where it represents the second narrative, which concerns Florence (the first narrative being about the Kingdom of France). The present article describes the content of the document and compares it with Italian (Latin and vernacular) sources. In doing so, the author’s aim is to verify its reliability – trying to establish which contents are due to the direct memory of the author and which to indirect sources – so as to define better the period of Maximus the Greek’s stay in Florence.

Life and Times of HRH by Herman Ronald Hochstadt

Reviewed by: Life and Times of HRH by Herman Ronald Hochstadt Kevin Blackburn Life and Times of HRH By Herman Ronald Hochstadt, Singapore: NUS Press, 2020, xvii + 192 pp, ISBN 978-981-3251-19-9. In April 1971, Lee Kuan Yew famously quipped that Singapore’s progress depended on the efforts of a talented elite governing Singapore whose number was so small that they could all fit into a jumbo jet—300 people. If all these people were on the same plane and it crashed, he joked, Singapore would fall apart. Lee never gave an indication of who would be on his doomed metaphorical jet, but it is likely that Herman Hochstadt, one of Lee’s trusted trouble shooters in the civil service, would have had a ticket. He was Lee Kuan Yew’s Press Secretary from 1962 to 1965 and thereafter held key positions at a string of Ministries, such as Foreign Affairs, Defence, Education, Communications, Finance, and Law. His amusing and frank accounts of how he worked with Lee Kuan Yew during his long career in the Singapore civil service make his autobiography valuable to readers interested in knowing more about Lee’s relationship with his civil service. Hochstadt has written a very Eurasian autobiography of his life, with a self-deprecating style of humour. The first few chapters give insights into Eurasian life during the colonial era and how complex identities could be. Among them is the memorable story of his father, Henry Hochstadt, waving his birth certificate in front of the Japanese Occupation administrator Mamoru Shinozaki to prove his racial identity. At the time of decolonization, the ‘Malayanization’ of the civil service saw the departure of many of the British colonial administrators who were being replaced with fresh local graduates from the University of Malaya, such as Hochstadt. He entered the civil service in 1959, around the same time as other graduates who would also go on to be crucial key figures in the Singapore civil service—Sarjit Singh and Ngiam Tong Dow. Hochstadt describes how initially he picked up the work of departing colonial civil servant Tony Colton, who gave him much assistance, and remained his good friend after Colton took up a managerial position at the Straits Times. Hochstadt recalls during his first decade of his days in the civil service not just the successes, but quite a number of events that did not go according to plan or were near mistakes. The autobiography gives a thorough account of Hochstadt’s early career in the civil service, but as he moves into the period when he held high office later in his career, readers hoping for a detailed account of policy making and implementation will be disappointed. Like many civil servants, he invokes the Official Secrets Act, which they all sign, as a reason not to give such thorough accounts. Instead, he offers a number of anecdotes, which are amusing and interesting. They do give insights into decision-making. [End Page 244] From reading Hochstadt’s autobiography, the reader gets a sense of how crucial the well-educated University of Malaya graduates were to maintaining and increasing the civil service’s efficiency and expertise, working with the political leaders to implement their policies in an era of early nation-building. Yet, the small Singapore civil service of the 1960s would be unrecognisable to the staff of its present-day counterpart with its 85,000 civil servants working in the large concrete and glass air-conditioned towers today. Kevin Blackburn Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Copyright © 2020 Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society

Keterampilan Menggunakan Metode Cerita dalam Pembelajaran Pendidikan Agama Islam di TPQ

The story has a tremendous impact on the formation of a child's character, especially if the story delivered can impress on the child. However, to convey interesting and memorable stories to children is not arbitrary. Skills using the story method are important to be mastered by the teacher to teach Islamic Education that is fun and memorable in the soul of the santri (students in Islamic school). There are several things that need to be considered in using story methods, including preparation, storytelling techniques and storytelling skills. Preparations that must be made before delivering the story include choosing the theme of the story, preparing teaching properties, and mastering the contents of the story. Then, the techniques that must be mastered by the teacher in conveying the story consist of opening story techniques, storytelling techniques with properties, techniques for dealing with disturbances in storytelling, and techniques for closing and evaluating stories. Storytelling skills that need to be mastered by teachers include movement, vocal and facial expressions as well as language and communication.

Introduction: But Sometime Between—Living Archives and the Power of Black Agency

Introduction: But Sometime Between—Living Archives and the Power of Black Agency

Theme of Life and Death in Katherine Anne Porter’s “Holiday”

Katherine Anne Porter contributed memorable stories to American literature for over half a century. A Southerner and a contemporary of Fitzgerald and Hemingway the amount of her published writings are very small though her reputation is considerable. The Saturday Review has positioned her in the legacy of Hawthorne, Flaubert, and James as an artist and story-teller. Her fiction has been marked for its elegance, beauty, brilliance and accuracy. Most of the critics acknowledge about the supremacy of Porter’s literary style. They adore the effectiveness of her sarcasm, the precision of her language, and the economy of her structure.

Feast of Excess: A Cultural History of the New SensibilityThe Beauty of a Social Problem: Photography, Autonomy, Economy

Feast of Excess: A Cultural History of the New SensibilityThe Beauty of a Social Problem: Photography, Autonomy, Economy

AL-MAW’IZAH AL-HASANAH (Telaah atas Metode Dakwah Dalam al-Qur’an Dan al-Sunnah)

Abstract: During its development, al-Qur’an has become a central point in the life of every Muslim. As guidance for all mankind (hudan li al-na > s } , as the rule of law, and the rule of life, al-Qur’an has become a reference in any Muslim behaviors. For a Muslim, al-Qur'an is not only a text to be read and understood, but the text also offers solutions to solve problems. One of the important themes in al-Qur'an is methods of missionary endeavor by al-maw'iz } ah al-h } asanah. The method that conducted by the Prophet in preaching rhetoric is al-maw'iz } ah al-h } asanah. Through this paper, the writer wanted to explain methods of al-maw'iz } ah al-h } asanah that contained in the Qur'an, and whatever its contained in the al-maw'iz } ah al-h } asanah hence al-Quran makes one of missionary endeavor methods. The concept of al-maw'iz } ah al-h } asanah in al-Qur’an repeated 20 times but its concept are not calculated at al-Sunnah. Al-maw'iz } ah al-h } asanah means advice kindness, goodness educating, guiding goodness. And the Prophet developed three methods of preaching throughout his life with wisdom methods, method of al-maw'iz } ah al-h } asanah and method muja > dalah. Furthermore, the forms of al-maw'iz } ah al-h } asanah are: 1) clear and gentle statements 2 ) polite and reachable 3 } memorable stories 4 ) Praise and reflection 5 ) motivated and treated. Through those forms, endeavors become acceptable and not boring. Keywords : Muja>dalah, Qawl Layyin, Sasaran Dakwah dan Metode Dakwah

“Remembrance of things past”: Gordon Tullock, the man and the bioeconomist

My tribute paper on Gordon Tullock (1922–2014) provides some memorable stories of Tullock as a person and as a founder of bioeconomics. I include my speech, “Toast and roast: Gordon Tullock,” delivered on the occasion of Tullock’s 80th birthday; also the same “Toast and roast....,” written in the form of a poem, “Ode to Gordon Tullock.” I also discuss Tullock’s contributions to bioeconomics. In a concluding section, I recall a couple of my poignant memories of Gordon Tullock.

The Murderer’s Ape by Jakob Wegelius

Reviewed by: The Murderer’s Ape by Jakob Wegelius April Spisak The Murderer’s Ape; by Wegelius, Jakob tr. by Peter Graves. Delacorte, 2016 [608p] Trade ed. ISBN 978-1-101-93175-2 $17.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-1-101-93177-6 $10.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 6-9 The narrator of this Swedish import, Sally Jones, is a gorilla who never spends a day wishing she were anything else. That said, she is closely bonded with humans (Sally Jones can understand language and she can read; she just can’t talk), especially her comrade the Chief, and when the Chief is accused of a murder he didn’t commit, Sally Jones decides she will not rest until he is free. Off she goes on extraordinary adventures, using her building and repair talents and her kind nature to connect with strangers, including a rich maharaja whose cruel heart she changes. The story is told via Sally Jones’ typewritten memoirs, so readers will know from early on that all is going to end well, or at least end with all key characters still alive, so the urgency and danger in the many travails Sally Jones faces is safely bounded. There’s a lot packed into this lengthy novel, especially a fantastic cast of characters (appearing first in intricate full-page black and white illustrations) and a wide range of early twentieth century settings. The complex plot paired with a languid pace may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but those who don’t mind staying a while with Sally Jones will revel in this gorgeous, clever, and memorable story. Copyright © 2016 by The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

De triennen fan cheetah: 27 Fryske ferhalen by Anne Feddema

is as simple as it is layered with complications and reflections on humanity. Marimar and Naftalinda are both notable characters whose plights speak to the devastating condition of women in the village . At the story’s outset, Marimar is thirtytwo and still lives with her parents. She is infertile, and “[a]n infertile woman in Kulumani is less than a thing.” She suffered immensely at the hands of her father and during the war, and experienced paralysis in her legs. She is taken to the local Catholic church to heal. There she meets Naftalinda, the indomitable first lady, married to the administrator for the village. When she meets Naftalinda at the church she is known as Oceanita. She was a large child, and her family delivers her into the care of Father Amoroso, “for so big a body, she would need many souls.” This kind of symbolism is an integral part of the novel, and while the work relies heavily on symbolism, its language, possibly because it is a translation, is somewhat muted and overshadowed by the intrigue of the story itself. There are many internal enemies in the village, leaving readers to wonder which is the greater threat: the lions or the people in the village. By turns, it is revealed that the “enemies” all have a vested interest in the subjugation of women. Tradition is an enemy that creates dispossessed women. The novel explores the question of what happens to a people after sustained wars and sustained poverty. Socioeconomic injustice, social exclusion, rape, and heinously violent crimes are featured in a nonintrusive manner that invites readers to interrogate these issues. The novel is an achievement in its understated presentation and vital content. Adele Newson-Horst Morgan State University Anne Feddema. De triennen fan cheetah: 27 Fryske ferhalen. Ljouwert, Netherlands. Afûk. 2014. isbn 9789062733910 Some stories bring us up close to the wonder of the ordinary and enrich our sense of humanity. Some help us discover the peculiarities of being human and enlarge our understanding. And then there are some that remind us of our imagination’s capacity to leap from the real to the surreal and leave us wondering about the meaning of it all. Anne Feddema is that kind of storyteller. For example: the story of a young reader, under the spell of his book’s fantasy, projecting a frightening fantasy of his own as the gathering dusk settles around him; the story of renowned painter and Frisianborn Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, wandering around London as a starving artist and meeting Charles Dickens, who feeds him and commissions a painting for a hefty sum, only to die before it’s finished; the story of a teacher of German, sitting in an outdoor café, imagining seeing Rainer Maria Rilke among the street workers, who then follows him into a public restroom for a homosexual encounter; the story of General Pattimoon, ready to go off to war, only to discover that everything around him has suddenly frozen into immobility; the story of the writer who in Barcelona tries to break through his writer’s block and finds himself turning into a frozen but conscious statue of Picasso. The various locales for these stories, which range from Scandinavia to California, add interest and color. There is no dominant theme as a linking device, though a thread that runs through many of them is the negative motif of failure, violence, disillusionment , or death. One such memorable story is “Revenge,” a story that begins as a beautifully descriptive idyll and ends as a demonic holocaust : a nature walk “where it is still quiet and peaceful in the darkly shaded deep-green forest, where one can hear nature whisper” turns into a nightmare experience of bloody killing fields as unreal monsters slaughter the innocent, unreal creatures of nature, a chilling reminder of the real world around us. Perhaps the characters are in part projections of the storyteller as a wounded soul, wounded by the failure to find life inherently meaningful. The imagination then finds its escape into surrealism and the absurd as the condition of human existence. Through these stories Feddema surely stimulates the reader’s imagination, though he sometimes disappoints when...

Govindarajan, V., Trimble, C., Reverse Innovation: Create Far from Home, Win Everywhere, Harvard Business Review Press, 2012

1 A Capsule Summary of the Book In their recent book, Reverse Innovation: Create Far from Home, Win Everywhere, Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble discuss the importance of innovation for international markets. They stress the argument that the success and longtime survival of multinational companies from developed markets will depend heavily on their ability to reach the developing world. Nowadays, emerging economies account for the lion's share of world GDP growth and if companies are not growing in these markets, they are probably not growing much at all (p. 190). However, companies that aim at entering these markets must develop a deep understanding of the local conditions and unsatisfied needs as there are tremendous gaps between what consumers in the developed markets desire and what customers in emerging markets look for. In order to succeed in developing economies, multinational companies have to rethink their traditional way of doing business--following a glocalization approach--and implement reverse innovation--the ability to develop new products and strategies particularly for the developing world. Even though a reverse innovation approach appears more risky--as novel pricy alternatives might easily replace sales of premium products--the advantages described in the book are remarkable. Products that are invented in developing markets do not only enable companies to better tackle local markets with their restricted environmental conditions but might also become suitable alternatives in developed markets. In this book, Govindarajan and Trimble show in a very persuasive way, reinforced by many detailed examples, how multinational companies see the world and what changes are needed in order to cope with the challenges in the twenty-first century. 2 Objective and Target Audience According to the authors, the book's objective is twofold: First, the book should help the readers to understand the theoretical framework and basic principles of reverse innovation as well as the strategic value of its application. Second, the book should serve as a practical guideline on how to execute successful reverse innovation initiatives (p. 9). The authors broadly define reverse innovation as any innovation that is first adopted in the developing world, then flows uphill by penetrating marginalized markets in the rich world, and finally reaches mainstream markets in the developed world. While the authors state that the targeted audience of the book are corporate business leaders of multinational companies headquartered in developed markets, managers of emerging giants, and leaders of innovative start-ups, the book is equally valuable to academic researchers and business students as it vividly demonstrates a new thinking about innovation with powerful stories, beneficial practical implications, and recommendations for managers. Moreover, the authors' ideas correspond to other influencing books, such as Blue Ocean Strategy (Kim and Mauborgne 2004), Jugaad Innovation (Radjou et al. 2012), The India Way (Cappelli et al. 2010), as well as The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid (Prahalad 2006). 3 Structure and Contents The book is organized in twelve chapters enclosed by a forward, preface, and appendices totaling 229 pages. In chapter 1, the authors present the memorable story of Gatorade's development in order to arouse the readers' interest in the phenomenon of reverse innovation, outline the purpose of the book, and provide a short overview of what readers can expect in the following chapters. Chapter 2 highlights the differences between developed and emerging markets by illustrating five need gaps: the performance gap, the infrastructure gap, the sustainability gap, the regulatory gap, and the preferences gap. Based on these five gaps, the authors articulate three simple but memorable messages. First, there are huge opportunities in the developing world. …

A History of Korea: An Episodic Narrative by Kyung Moon Hwang

Reviewed by: A History of Korea: An Episodic Narrative by Kyung Moon Hwang Franklin Rausch A History of Korea: An Episodic Narrative by Kyung Moon Hwang. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. 328 pp. 11 images. 1 map. Bibliography. Index. $29.00 (cloth) The need to please two very different audiences—professors and undergraduates—makes writing an introductory history textbook a true challenge. Such a book must be comprehensive and accurate, yet concise, and requires the author to include fields of academic endeavor that can lay far outside his or her expertise while paring down much of the material related to that scholar’s own specialty. A textbook must also provide hard facts while recounting memorable stories that will stick with students even when the course is over. All of this must be done with a writing style that is academic, detailed, colorful, and fluid, for if it is not, the pedagogical value of the text will be lost and students will not understand it or even read it. Save for a few minor issues, Kyung Moon Hwang’s A History of Korea manages to successfully surmount these difficulties, producing a text that is not only ideally suited for the undergraduate classroom (or for upper-level high school courses), but which a specialist in Korean history can read, learn from, and enjoy. Hwang’s textbook includes an introduction, twenty-seven chapters, a handy chapter-by-chapter bibliography, and a useful index. With approximately 280 pages of text, each chapter is only about nine to twelve pages in length. While less than half as long as the number of pages in a typical chapter from a monograph (or textbook for that matter), the short chapters work well for the intended undergraduate audience. Each chapter can be read in just a few minutes, allowing students ready access to what for many will be a largely unfamiliar history. Moreover, as each of these short chapters is largely self-contained, it is easy for [End Page 465] an instructor to construct a syllabus with this text, rearrange the order of chapters, or supplement the textbook with other readings. Because there are so many chapters, it is not possible in a review to give a detailed description of each one. I will instead focus on providing a general idea of the material covered and the layout of a typical chapter. While Hwang does begin with a discussion of the story of Tan’gun and the mythical origins of Koreans, his primary focus in his first chapter is the kingdom of Koguryŏ and its relationship with the two kingdoms of Paekche and Silla. He ends his survey of Korean history with the suicide of former president Roh Moo-hyun (No Muhyŏn) and the presidency of Lee Myung-bak (Yi Myŏngbak). Hwang spends three chapters on the Three Kingdoms period, three on Koryŏ, one on the Koryŏ-Chosŏn transition, eight on Chosŏn, four on the Japanese Colonial Period, one on the years 1945 to 1950, one on the Korean War, and ends with two on North Korea and four on South Korea. The general structure of each chapter is worthy of note. A brief chronology of the period covered by the chapter is first provided. An anecdote from Korean history introducing the themes that will serve as the foci is then given, followed by the main text of the chapter, which is helpfully divided by headings every two to three pages. This layout is particularly helpful for students who are new to history or to Korea (or both) because it allows Hwang to repeat, without being repetitious, the main characters, themes, and facts that he wants students to understand and remember. An important person might be mentioned in the chronology, be a major character in the anecdote, and then be referred to in one or more of the sections. Hwang’s skillful weaving together of these different elements makes this work especially enjoyable to read and, I believe, particularly beneficial to undergraduates as a textbook. To give but one example, in chapter 3, “The Unified Silla Kingdom,” Hwang describes the assassination of Chang Pogo in 846, and then continually refers back to Chang in...

Social Media's Learning Outcomes within Writing Instruction in the EFL Classroom: Exploring, Implementing and Analyzing Storify

Research has frequently demonstrated the positive impact of Web 2.0 tools on writing education in foreign-language classrooms. However there is limited research on the use of social media (e.g. Facebook) in teaching practices in general, and writing instruction in second-language teaching in particular. This paper presents an experiment to examine the effectiveness of social media on writing activities within the EFL classroom. We focused on Storify, which stands out amongst social media, as it collects content from existing multiple social networks, and creates the possibility to write your own memorable story by adding text. Furthermore, it is a community of practice with authentic learning material. A specific lesson (2 x 50min) was designed which benefited from the social media potential of Storify. The lesson was taught to 5 different classes (n=80), after which a survey was given to the students to detect their attitude towards this new teaching tool. The products of the students were analysed qualitatively to explore new possibilities in writing instruction. Finally, a focus group of teachers was organized. Results indicate that using social media in EFL writing instructions affects students’ learning process as it enhances student involvement. Students feel they can improve their writing performance, thus improving learning outcome. Additionally students believe Storify to be useful in EFL practices.

The world history of animation

Lavishly illustrated and encyclopedic in scope, World History of Animation tells the genre's 100-year-old story around the globe, featuring key players in Europe, North America, and Asia. From its earliest days, animation has developed multiple iterations and created myriad dynamic styles, innovative techniques, iconic characters, and memorable stories. Stephen Cavalier's comprehensive account is organized chronologically and covers pioneers, feature films, television programs, digital films, games, independent films, and the web. An exhaustive time line of films and innovations acts as the narrative backbone, and must-see films are listed along with synopses and in-depth biographies of individuals and studios. The book explains the evolution of animation techniques, from rotoscoping to refinements of cel techniques, direct film, claymation, and more. A true global survey, World History of Animation is an exciting and inspirational journey through the large and still-expanding animation universe - a place as limitless as the human imagination. This title is a comprehensive international history of animation, featuring all genres, styles, media, and techniques. It features film, television, and web-based animation. It is illustrated in full color throughout. It includes comprehensive biographies of leading practitioners.

Review

140 The Michigan Historical Review Richard Paul Liblong. Answering the Call to Duty: Saving Custer, Heroism at Gettysburg, POWs and other Stories of Michigan’s Small Town Soldiers in the Civil War. Traverse City, Mich.: Arbutus Press, 2011. Pp. 192. Illustrations. Index. Photographs. Sources. Paper, $17.95. Though today’s Michigan is quite different from the predominantly rural society that confronted the Civil War in 1861, the notion of community remains relevant. Sending 90,000 of Michigan’s sons (and a few daughters) off to fight for Union and liberty required a multitude of small towns, villages, and farms all across both peninsulas to endure steep sacrifices. Soldiers from these communities volunteered to risk their lives and forsake the security of home; while those who were left behind coped with major disruptions to the everyday social fabric and an uncertain future. Rick Liblong’s paean to his Michigan hometown seeks to preserve rural stories of those who answered the call to duty on behalf of their country. Their service deserves the remembrance. Of the book’s eight chapters, the first five set the stage by discussing Lapeer County, the town of Almont, and the broader context of the Civil War, the bloodiest conflict in the nation’s history. The final two chapters center on the war memorial erected at the town’s main intersection in 1865—one of the earliest in Michigan, if not the nation— and life in Almont once the victors came home. Sandwiched between is the great substance of the work, a lengthy chapter in which Liblong recounts some two dozen memorable stories of individual soldiers. The book, then, is largely anecdotal. We learn of the five Austin brothers from St. Clair, including ten-year-old George, who served in an artillery unit as a drummer boy. Levi Clark was a 38-year-old farmer from Almont who enlisted late (1864) and participated in both the siege of Atlanta and Sherman’s renowned March to the Sea. In recounting a long-forgotten act of heroism by his own great-grandfather, Norvell Churchill, Liblong proves how one individual’s actions can change the course of history. Near the raging battle of Gettysburg, Churchill’s cavalry unit went into action under its new general, George Armstrong Custer, at the Pennsylvania hamlet of Hunterstown. Custer faced capture or death when his mount went down in front of enemy lines. The Almont lad bravely rode into hostile fire, hoisted his commander aboard his horse, and raced back to safety. William Hamilton, who was a teacher, was less fortunate. He spent 17 months in Confederate prisons, surviving despite the odds and returning home, where he later became a physician and one of Almont’s leading citizens. Book Reviews 141 This eminently readable effort by first-time author Liblong contributes to our knowledge of Michigan’s participation in America’s largest crisis. The key role played by Michiganders in preserving the Union deserves a fuller telling and a larger audience. Answering the Call to Duty shows how history is frequently comprised of inspiring accounts from small-town America that enrich understanding and increase appreciation for our rural heritage. Jack Dempsey, President Michigan Historical Commission Joseph M. Lubig. Maltese in Michigan. “Discovering the Peoples of Michigan” series. Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2011. Pp. 100. Appendices. For further reference. Illustrations. Index. Notes. Paper, $12.95. This booklet is the latest disappointing publication in the “Discovering the Peoples of Michigan” series. At its core is an illustrated 28-page essay (32 pages minus the blank pages numbered 18, 28, 34, and 38), which can be summarized briefly as follows: Attracted by jobs in the automobile industry, a wave of 5,000 Maltese came to the Detroit area in the 1910s and 1920s. This made Detroit home to the largest Maltese community in the United States. We read that these were hardworking people who migrated as families. This latter claim contrasts, however, with a statement on page 37 that the gender imbalance of Maltese in America in the 1920s was 1,000 (yes, 1,000) women for every 38 men! If the statistic is genuine, I imagine historians of gender would be fascinated to hear more...

Graham R.: Rosamund Marriott Watson, Woman of Letters (review)

Reviewed by: Graham R.: Rosamund Marriott Watson, Woman of Letters Talia Schaffer (bio) Linda K. Hughes, Graham R.: Rosamund Marriott Watson, Woman of Letters (Athens: Ohio Univ. Press, 2005). $46.95. Hardback. In Graham R.: Rosamund Marriott Watson, Woman of Letters, Linda K. Hughes has given us a biography of one of the most intriguing people of the fin de siècle. Tomson was a deft and ambitious poet, who used her virtuosic command of language for an unusually moody, sensitive, and erudite range of subjects. She was also an innovative prose stylist and magazine editor, with a social circle including such notables as Oscar Wilde, W. E. Henley, Elizabeth Robins Pennell, H. G. Wells, J. M. Barrie, and Thomas Hardy. As one friend wrote, she was “beautiful, reminiscent of Rossetti in her tall willowy slimness, with her long neck like a column and her great halo of black hair and her big brown eyes, appealing, confinding [sic], beseeching” (p. 85). No wonder that influential critic Andrew Lang called her, “a new Muse, and more like a Muse than most” (pp. 63–64). Yet her poetic fame was rivaled by her personal scandal. She twice divorced and eloped, with four children by three different men, and lived with her last partner outside wedlock. Tomson’s unconventional erotic life may fascinate modern readers but it destroyed her career, as Hughes shows in her account of this tragic and memorable story. As Hughes comments, one reason Tomson “seems so modern is her unstable identity” (p. xiii). Born Rosamund Ball, she married George Francis Armytage in 1884 and respelled her first name, therefore publishing her first poems as Rosamond Armytage or R. Armytage. But as the marriage disintegrated, she eloped with artist Arthur Tomson in 1886 (leaving her two daughters as well as her husband) and renamed herself Graham R. Tomson. Divorcing Armytage and marrying Tomson, Graham R. Tomson enjoyed great success for several years. But in 1894 Tomson left her husband and son, eloping with journalist H. B. Marriott Watson, and—in a disastrous decision—she changed her pseudonym once again, becoming Rosamund Marriott Watson. Giving up the name-recognition and social credentials of Graham R. Tomson proved devastating, and for the last seventeen years of her life, she struggled with poverty, isolation, domestic work, and illness. The name changes also publicized her scandalous relationships and made them integral parts of her poetic publications. Her multiple names make it frustratingly difficult for modern scholars to track Tomson through period documents, as I can personally attest, and Hughes’s achievement in locating so much material is quite simply extraordinary. Hughes is also alert to the ways that the multiplicity of [End Page 287] names baffles any attempt to capture a stable identity. Was R. Armytage really, in any sense, the same person as Rosamund Marriott Watson? How much of herself remained when she had only her own R.? If I have talked about Tomson’s relationships before her poetry, it is symptomatic of the way those affiliations shape any attempt to understand her life. But Tomson was a supremely technically skilled poet who specialized in celebrations of urban modernity, eerie folk-like ballads, and wistful evocations of fading love and time. Hughes is a superb reader of Tomson’s poetry, and it is a pleasure to follow her informed and appreciative guidance. On “Chimaera,” for instance, Hughes unspools the various meanings of the title, pointing out how it evokes decadence, a perverse imagination, and lesbian desire, but how it also “expressed the speaker’s unending desire for mystery, for the unknown” (p. 115). In a reading of “The Last Fairy” as brilliant as it is brief, Hughes notices that “rather than a nostalgic ballad . . . it was the sole free-verse poem in Graham R.’s volume, an unexpected pairing of traditional lore and modernist technique that underscored the fairy’s inability to chime with others (as in rhyme) and the creature’s entrapment in modernity” (p. 140). Hughes has done all possible (and probably some impossible) research. She is extremely skilled at weaving together disparate documents to speculate about Tomson’s state of mind in cases where we have no evidence. For instance...

The impact of newspapers on consumer confidence: does spin bias exist?

It is sometimes argued that news reports in the media suffer from biased reporting. Mullainathan and Shleifer (2002, 2005) argue that there are two types of media bias. One bias, called ideology, reflects a news outlet's desire to affect reader opinions in a particular direction. The second bias, referred to as ‘spin’ or ‘slanting’, reflects the outlet's attempt to simply create a memorable story. Competition between outlets can eliminate the effect of ideological bias, but increases the incentive to spin or slant stories. We examine whether we find some evidence of spin in Dutch newspaper reporting on the state of the economy. If newspapers are indeed able to create memorable stories this should, according to our hypothesis, affect the opinion of readers with respect to the state of the economy. Sentiments about the actual state of the economy could be magnified by spin. As a result, consumer confidence–a variable that routinely measures the opinion on the state of the economy–can be expected to be affected not only by economic fundamentals, but also by the way these fundamentals are reported. We construct a variable that reflects the way consumers perceive economic news reported in newspapers. We find that this variable indeed has a significant impact on consumer confidence, which is short-lived.

The poet as a teacher: Form and discourse in the poetry of Chinua Achebe

Not many people know Chinua Achebe as a poet. But this great mind's fascination with language, knowledge and culture, has drawn him into this genre which he uses as a platform continue the teaching of his people about the dignity of their past. Using a simple pliable form derived from his prose, Achebe executes a poetic discourse that is at once pedagogic, in act and didactic in theme.Not many people know Chinua Achebe as a poet. His fame rests mostly on his ability spin wonderful arid memorable stories, as could be seen in his great novels like Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God. Thus he has become synonymous with the. African Novel. But there is also Achebe the poet. In one of his essays: The Novelist As Teacher, Achebe says that-- part of his aim of writing is teach his people or readers that their past was not one long night of savagery, but a past that also had its good and noble elements. This has been his guiding principle. Though he may have been talking about his novels, our critical interest being on his poetry, we were anxious rind out if he is still using the same principle that governed his fiction, find direction for his, poetry. What we found out was positive: that in his poetry he is also teaching his people, to put away these years of self denigration... op cit This paper therefore describes Achebe's role as a teacher in his poetry. To do this, we are going explore his work from the point of view of form being the level of grammatical structure and vocabulary and DISCOURSE being the level of meaning, subdivided into layers - ideational, interpersonal and textual. Sophia: An African Journal of Philosophy Vol. 8(1) 2005: 11-17 Keywords : Keywords :

Terrorism as theater: Analysis and policy implications

In some regards the production of terrorism resembles the production of culture, especially television and theater. Terrorism is a spectacle produced for viewers, many of whom live apart from the violent staged events. Spectacular theater and the telling of memorable stories are inputs for fundraising and motivating subsequent terrorists. This understanding of terrorist motivation has concrete policy implications.

The Impact of Newspapers on Consumer Confidence: Does Spin Bias Exist?

It is sometimes argued that news reports in the media suffer from biased reporting. Mullainathan and Shleifer (2002) argue that there are two types of media bias. One bias, called ideology, reflects a news outlet's desire to affect reader opinions in a particular direction. The second bias, referred to as spin, reflects the outlet's attempt to simply create a memorable story. Competition between outlets can eliminate the effect of ideological bias, but increases the incentive to spin stories. We examine whether we find some evidence of spin in Dutch newspaper reporting on the state of the economy. If newspapers are indeed able to create memorable stories this should, according to our hypothesis, affect the opinion of readers with respect to the state of the economy. Sentiments about the actual state of the economy could be magnified by spin. As a result, consumer confidence - a variable that routinely measures the opinion on the state of the economy - can be expected to be affected not only by economic fundamentals, but also by the way these fundamentals are reported. We construct a variable that reflects the way consumers perceive economic news reported in newspapers. We find that this variable indeed has a significant impact on consumer confidence, which is short-lived.