June | 2014 | Guy Portman's Blog

Bizarre Author Deaths IX

Jun 27 2014

I have stated on several occasions that there would be no further instalments to the Bizarre Author Deaths series. However, it has since come to my attention that I have omitted two authors. Here they are.

Petronius

Circa 27 AD – 66 AD

Notable works: Satyricon.

Gaius Petronius Arbiter was a Roman courtier during the reign of the Emperor Nero. Petronius belonged to a group of pleasure seekers whom Seneca described as ‘men who turn night into day’. He also held a number of official positions, including governor of the province of Asia, as well as serving on The Consul, the highest position in Rome. Petronius is widely accepted to be the author of the satirical novel Satyricon, a scathing satire, which ridiculed the pretensions of Rome’s newly rich. Satyricon went beyond the literary limitations of its day by concentrating less on plot than character and by portraying detailed speech and behaviour.

Petronius’s high position purportedly made him an object of envy. In 66 AD, Tigellinus, the commander of the Emperor’s guard, accused him of plotting to kill the Emperor Nero. Petronius was arrested. Instead of waiting for his sentence, the author decided on the slow process of committing suicide by having his veins opened and then bound up again. The bandages were bandaged to prolong life, so that Petronius could spend the last hours as of his life conversing with friends, dealing with his slaves and enjoying a sumptuous banquet, after which he went to bed to die in his sleep. Tacitus wrote of the author’s demise, ‘so that his death, though forced upon him, should seem natural.’

Yukio Mishima

January 14th 1925 – November 25th 1970

Notable works: The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, The Sailor who Fell from Grace with the Sea, Spring Snow.

Yukio Mishima was the pen name of Kimitake Hiraoka – a novelist, playwright, poet, short story writer, essayist and critic. His literary output included thirty four novels, twenty five books of short stories and fifty plays. Considered one of the most important Japanese authors of the Twentieth century, Mishima was nominated three times for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Mishima’s writing was a fusion of modern and traditional aesthetics that focused on subjects such as death, sexuality and politics. Many of his most famous works were translated into English, resulting in the iconic author becoming popular in both Europe and America.

Mishima was a nationalist with a commitment to the code of the Samurai (bushido). In 1968 he formed Tatenokai or ‘shield society’, a private militia sworn to protect the Emperor of Japan. On November 25th the author and four members of Tatenokai barricaded themselves in the Tokyo headquarters of the Eastern Command of Japan’s self-defence forces. Having delivered a speech from the balcony to the soldiers below, Mishima committed Seppuku, a Japanese ritual suicide consisting of disembowelment followed by beheading.

Tatenokai member, Masakatsu Morita, who was acting as Mishima’s accomplice, failed in his decapitation duties, resulting in another member severing the author’s head. According to Mishima’s biographer and translator John Nathan the author was using the coup as a pretext for the ritual suicide he had long dreamed of.

Click here to read Bizarre Author Deaths VIII

Harrods

Jun 20 2014

On Wednesday afternoon I went to Harrods. This is what I did there.

In the Ladurée cafe on the first floor I came across this dizzying array of macaroons (see below). In my experience macaroons are a bit like wild mushrooms, in that the dullest looking ones are normally the best and the alluringly bright ones are usually the most virulent. I briefly contemplate warning the lady in front of me to reconsider her selection of a strawberry macaroon (they taste like washing up liquid) and to instead go for an extra pistachio (my favourite).

Ignoring the macaroons I ordered a Plaisir Sucré and a pot of Ceylon tea (see aerial shot below).

After tea I took a leisurely stroll through the shop. In the cutlery section I came across this elegant yet understated silver set (see below).

‘Are you interested in this exquisite Carrs silver set,’ enquired a female shop assistant.

‘I’ll take them.’

‘Do you require the box gift wrapped?’

‘I only want these two teaspoons,’ reply I, placing two teaspoons in her palm.

A few minutes later, clasping a small Harrods bag containing my two teaspoons, I made my way to the Luxury Goods department, where I came across what I thought was an ostentatious Ocelot. The label revealed that it actually a ‘lurking Panther’.

Next up was this garish, jewel encrusted Aquamarine Panther (see below).

Having finished with the big cats, I wandered through to the Halcyon art gallery, where I came across this multi-coloured Mao (see below).

The multi-coloured Mao or Cultural Revolution Mark II as I refer to it as was painted by Andy Warhol in 1972. It is an iconic piece of art that continues to cause controversy to this day. Last year the Chinese authorities banned the painting from an exhibition in the country. I was somewhat surprised to see it here in Harrods, a shop that has so many Chinese visitors that there are Chinese speaking staff members in a number of departments. I took to wondering how Chinese tourists visiting the gallery would react. I didn’t have to wait long to find out. A one child Chinese family entered the gallery soon after. The girl, eleven or so I guess, a stack of newly purchased designer handbags cradled under each arm, uttered ‘Mao’ several times and emitted noises that were evidently glee. Her parents approaching the picture took photographs, whilst the grandparents cowered in a corner, perhaps recollecting the Little Red Book touting days of their youth on the communal farm.

It was time to leave.

Controversial Authors (Part 7)

Jun 13 2014

This week’s blog post sees the latest instalment of my popular Controversial Authors series. It will likely be the last. However, as you may be aware from my never-ending Bizarre Author Death series, I am partial to changing my mind, and there may be a further instalment, or possibly two at some point.

Aristophanes

Circa 446 BC – 386 BC

Notable works: The Clouds, The Birds, The Frogs, Lysistrata

Often referred to as ‘the father of comedy’, Aristophanes was an ancient Athenian comic playwright, whose plays are still performed to this day. Though regarded as being old fashioned and conservative, Aristophanes was also extremely controversial. Respected and feared for his comic wit, the playwright was merciless in his scathing satire of religion, politicians and poets. His victims included such influential figures as Euripides, Cleon and Socrates.

Plato, outraged by Aristophanes’ play, The Clouds, labelled it slanderous. The populist Cleon denounced his second play, The Babylonians, as being misrepresentative of the Athenian state. We can only assume any legal action Cleon may have taken was unsuccessful, as Aristophanes caricatured him relentlessly in his subsequent plays, most notably in The Knights.

Arguably Aristophanes’ most controversial work, the play Lysistrata, was written during the Peloponnesian War, a conflict the playwright was bitterly opposed to. The story is about one woman’s efforts to end the war. Having a female lead would have been considered highly controversial in male dominated Athenian society.

Over two thousand years later in 1873 Lysistrata was banned in America, due to its perceived obscene and immoral content.

J.D. Salinger

January 1st 1919 – January 27th 2010

Notable works: The Catcher in the Rye, Nine Stories, Franny and Zooey

The reclusive J.D. Salinger was an American author, whose seminal work The Catcher in the Rye spent thirty weeks on the New York Bestseller List, and went on to sell over ten million copies worldwide. To this day the book continues to sell around a quarter of a million copies a year.

At the time of its publication in 1951 many were concerned by what they regarded as the immorality and perversion of the book’s protagonist, Holden Caulfield. The text is replete with religious slurs, casual sex and prostitution; subject matters that were highly controversial in the conservative nineteen-fifties. One concerned parent counted two hundred and thirty-seven occurrences of the word ‘goddamn’, fifty-eight ‘bastard’s’, thirty-one ‘Chrissake’s’ and six ‘fuck’s’.

The book was later banned in some countries and in many U.S. schools. In the nineteen-seventies several high school teachers who had assigned The Catcher in the Rye were forced to resign from their posts. A 1979 study of censorship noted that The Catcher in the Rye was the most frequently censored book in America, in addition to being the second most taught (after Of Mice and Men).

Click here to read Part 6.

Banks, Politics and The World Cup

Jun 06 2014

Tuesday Morning 11:50am – I am walking to the bank. There is a newspaper discarded on a bench at the bus stop. I pick it up. The queue at the bank stretches nearly to the door. I take the opportunity to peruse the paper. It appears that half of Europe is in the midst of political change. The Greeks are refusing to accept austerity measures. Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Front scored its first victory in European Parliament elections in France. And over here the rise of UKIP, could be the final nail in the coffin for the Liberal Democrats, if this paper is to be believed. A scruffily dressed woman with a wheel trolley standing behind me, points at the article I am reading and says, ‘Innit it sad so many idiots voting for that UKIP.’

‘Quite,’ reply I.

‘Is that all you got to say, you can do better than that.’

Looking up at her I remark, ‘Are you aware that you are wearing a beige jumper with floral motif tracksuit bottoms?’

She looks down at her ensemble and then up at me. She says, ‘Err yes, I put them on didn’t I.’

‘Oh, you do know, okay.’

After leaving the bank I stop off at a pub, where I continue reading the newspaper whilst sipping on a pint of Fosters. At the other end of my table two men are partaking in a jovial conversation. A man with a Scottish accent, who from the look of his bulbous nose and thread veined cheeks, drinks full time. The other, a gentleman in an expensive looking linen summer suit, who sounds like he is from West Africa.

Soon after they engage me in conversation. The newspaper is laid out on the table in front of me, and the Scottish man and the other, who transpires to be a Nigerian, make comments about its various articles. It is a sort of impromptu ‘Question Time’ (broadcast on the BBC). The Nigerian, name unknown, has a quick wit, which I appreciate. On turning to the political article from earlier, he complains about the ‘ineptitude’ of British politicians compared to his home country of Nigeria. I tell him, ‘I’ve got two words for you, Boko – Haram’.

On turning to the finance pages it becomes apparent that he is something of a minerals expert, as he offers some fairly detailed analysis about the state of the Australian bauxite industry and Congolese coltan mines. The Scottish man finishes his drink and bids us farewell.

Next up is the sports section. Inevitably the conversation turns to the forthcoming World Cup. In a very sincere voice he tells me that he believes that the Super Eagles (Nigeria) will win the tournament. I laugh out loud and then exclaim, ‘Absolute nonsense, Nigeria won’t even get out of their group. Bosnia and Herzegovina will go through in second place behind Argentina.’

‘How can you know these things,’ responds the man in a menacing tone, encroaching into my personal space as he does so.

I reply, ‘I just do.’

He proceeds to preach to me about the qualities of the Super Eagles, in a very loud and aggressive manner, using hand gestures liberally, pacing up and down as he does so. His comments include, ‘You cannot understand these things.’ And ‘We have Mikel, Moses and Emenike.’ And ‘God is with the Super Eagles.’

Then, quite unexpectedly, he pulls up the trouser legs of his white suit to reveal green Super Eagle socks. This is concerning.

A barman walks over. He tells us a customer has complained, and we have to leave, which seems unreasonable, as I haven’t uttered so much as a word in quite sometime. I down my pint. Outside in the fresh air the man is instantly calm again. We go our separate ways.