Books Blog: English Literature & Linguistics

I’ve posted about 6 word short stories before, but now it’s time to celebrate the genre with new dedicated blog Six Word Stories:

My current favorite is this one:

“Hello Son,” it said, tentacles waving. — G. Sulea

If you haven’t seen it, you should check out the Cant Dictionary of Thieving Slang, 1737:

ANGLERS

ANGLERS, alias HOOKERS; petty Thieves, who have a Stick with a Hook at the End, wherewith they pluck Things out of Windows, Grates, &c. Make ready your Angling Stick; a Word of Command used by these petty Villains, to get ready the Stick with which they perform their Pranks, and as a Signal of a Prey in Sight. In the Day-time they beg from House to House, to spy best where to plant their Designs, which at Night they put in Execution.

It’s a classic.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Russian author of The Gulag Archipelago and One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich, has died at age 89 of heart failure.

The BBC article has some commentary:

He died in his home in the Moscow area, where he had lived with his wife Natalya, at 2345 local time (1945 GMT), Stepan told Itar-Tass. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sent his condolences to the writer’s family, a Kremlin spokesperson said. French President Nicolas Sarkozy described him as “one of the greatest consciences of 20th Century Russia”. “His intransigence, his ideals and his long, eventful life make of Solzhenitsyn a storybook figure, heir to Dostoyevsky,” he said in a statement.

Solzhenitsyn served as a Soviet artillery officer in World War II and was decorated for his courage but in 1945 was denounced for criticising Stalin in a letter. He spent the next eight years in the Soviet prison system, or Gulag, before being internally exiled to Kazakhstan, where he was successfully treated for stomach cancer.