Traditional music for the Scandinavian midsummer “Schottis” dance. It's not known for sure who plays on this recording but it's likely to be accordion duo Arvid Franzen and Einar Holt recorded in the mid 1920s in New York: publicdomainreview.org/collection/a-m… #Midsommar

A novelist in the making.

I love this description of literature. Of course, it is not only literature that is required to think big. There's music, visual art and film too; all of which can also face the big issues.

This post touches on and gets to the heart of writing and whether or not it matters if it is read or appreciated. 'If a tree falls in the woods etc.' is a wonderful way of showing this.

Just occasionally, individuals who deliriate are eventually seen not to be deluded. I'm sure that we can all think of historical examples in art, science and philosophy.

Hay fever sufferers, among others, will recognise the value and beauty of Carl Julius Fritzsche's work.

I think this poem has something to do with accepting the limitations of both life and language.

A counterbalance to the 1600s in London of Samuel Pepys, Alice Thornton's four-volume autobiography provides a female, northern and Irish viewpoint of the same century. smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/rea…

William Faulkner, read read read

A wonderful range of courses can be found here: openculture.com/freeonlinecour…

A magnificent warning against complacency.

Are there any other things that a writer needs? Kindness, possibly, or self-understanding, or bravery?

Through careful observation, Charles Darwin saw almost everything in a new way, plants included.

Thank you for posting this. The thought will be balm to those who wish to reduce their carbon footprint. Through travel, we do not escape ourselves. We still face, as Emerson puts it, 'the stern fact, the sad self, unrelenting, identical, that I fled from.'

"I do not want art for a few any more than education for a few, or freedom for a few." ✒ #WilliamMorris, English textile designer, poet, artist, fantasy writer, and socialist activist associated with the British #Arts and #Crafts movement, #DOTD 3 October 1896.

Yes. And especially in the West Midlands, as Shakespeare knew, we can reach beyond our circumstances!

A scholarly and thoughtfully illustrated account of René by Jozef Ignác Bajza, an eighteenth century Slovak novel that I had previously not known about.

The state of things now makes me think we need more fundatrix; women inheriting the Earth.

Good advice on writing from Cato and John Banville to concentrate on the object and the words will follow.