Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Great Regulars: [J.M.] Coetzee's piece, then, is a real treat

for me. A 4000-word consideration of the muscular talent of the son of New South Wales dairy farmers [Les Murray], who said of himself "it's my mission to irritate the hell out of the eloquent who would oppress my people, by being a paradox that their categories can't assimilate: the Subhuman Redneck who writes poems", it's a fine piece of criticism: sympathetic, celebratory, but at the same time clear-eyed, alive to the poet's blindspots and inconsistencies.

from Sarah Crown: The Guardian: J.M. Coetzee on the "angry genius" of Les Murray:

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50 Cent spent much of the last year making a film about an American football player diagnosed with cancer, entitled Things Fall Apart. At least it was called Things Fall Apart--until [Chinua] Achebe got wind of it and instructed his legal team to contest it on the grounds that the title belonged to his own 1958 novel. According to Nigerian news website Naijan.com, 50 Cent offered Achebe $1m for the right to use the title, only to have his offer firmly declined.

from Sarah Crown: The Guardian: Title-fighting: Achebe vs 50 Cent

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