2023-09-28 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) When the word ‘homophobia’ was first invented, it didn’t mean what it means now. Instead, it had a different meaning. To disco… Read More
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A Library of Literary Interestingness
2023-09-27 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘The Missing Mail’ is a story from Malgudi Days, the short-story collection by the Indian writer R. K. Narayan (1906-2001). ‘T… Read More
2023-09-26 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘Before the Birth of One of Her Children’ is a poem by Anne Bradstreet (c. 1612-72), who was the first poet, male or female, from Am… Read More
2023-09-25 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘The Immortal Bard’ is a short story by the science-fiction author and prolific non-fiction writer, Isaac Asimov (1920-92). The stor… Read More
2023-09-24 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘On Virtue’ is a poem written by Phillis Wheatley (c. 1753-84) about that nebulous and wide-ranging quality known as virtue. Wheatle… Read More
2023-09-23 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Where does the word ‘leviathan’ come from, and what animal does it refer to? The origins of the word are to be found in the Old Test… Read More
2023-09-22 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘I See You Never’ is a short story by Ray Bradbury (1920-2012), published in 1947. One of Bradbury’s shortest stories, ‘… Read More
2023-09-21 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘The Black Walnut Tree’ is a poem by the American poet Mary Oliver (1935-2019), a poet who has perhaps not received as much attentio… Read More
2023-09-20 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Where did the word thoughtcrime originate? Most people, if asked, would probably shrug and say they don’t know. Of those people who feel c… Read More
2023-09-19 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) The English writer Hector Hugh Munro (1870-1916), who is better known under his pen name Saki, was a master of the short comic story and, in som… Read More
2023-09-18 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) In 1890, Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray was serialised in Lippincott’s Magazine. The following year, when the novel was pu… Read More
2023-09-17 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘The City’ is a short story about revenge best served cold. Written by the American author Ray Bradbury (1920-2012), the story was i… Read More
2023-09-16 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘There Was a Man, There Was a Woman’ is a short story from Sandra Cisneros’ 1991 collection Woman Hollering Creek and Other St… Read More
2023-09-15 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘A Hymn to the Evening’ is a poem written by Phillis Wheatley (c. 1753-84) in praise of the evening. Wheatley was the first African… Read More
2023-09-14 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) William Wordsworth’s classic poem beginning ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud’ is famous for its opening line, but it is a poem fu… Read More
2023-09-13 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘The Black Snake’ is a 1979 poem by the American poet Mary Oliver (1935-2019), who, at the time of her death, was reckoned to be the… Read More
2023-09-12 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘Funeral Blues’, the title often given to W. H. Auden’s poem that begins ‘Stop all the clocks’, is one of the most… Read More
2023-09-11 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘The Two Kings and the Two Labyrinths’ is one of the shortest stories by Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986), one of the most original and… Read More
2023-09-10 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Few songs can be said to typify the mid-noughties music scene like The Killers’ ‘Mr Brightside’. The Las Vegas band’s br… Read More
2023-09-09 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘Pollock and the Porroh Man’ is a short story by H. G. Wells (1866-1946), first published in the New Budget on 23 May 1895. Set in A… Read More
2023-09-08 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘The Eye of the Sibyl’ is a short story by the American writer Philip K. Dick (1928-82), written in 1975 but only first published in… Read More
2023-09-07 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) What connects vaccinations with cows? And how did a young boy and a milkmaid help to change the course of medical history? These questions are b… Read More
2023-09-06 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘Behind These Hazel Eyes’ is one of Kelly Clarkson’s greatest songs. It appeared on her second album, Breakaway, and Clarkson… Read More
2023-09-05 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Where did the word ‘homosexual’ originate? It’s a surprisingly recent coinage, and dates from the second half of the nineteent… Read More
2023-09-04 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Where does the word ‘odyssey’ come from, and what does it mean? In order to delve into the origins of ‘odyssey’, we have… Read More
2023-09-03 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘West End Girls’ was the breakthrough single for the Pet Shop Boys, hitting the number one spot in the UK in early 1986. But the son… Read More
2023-09-02 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) The term ‘scapegoat’ is well-known: it refers to an innocent person who has to carry the blame for something on behalf of other peop… Read More
2023-09-01 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘The Visitor’ is a very short story by the American writer Lydia Davis (born 1947). The story is narrated by a parent expecting the… Read More
2023-08-31 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) The editor of the Manchester Guardian (later to become The Guardian), C. P. Scott (1846-1932), was no fan of the word ‘television’… Read More
2023-08-30 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Few recent songs have attracted more speculation and debate without really justifying such attention than Zach Bryan’s ‘Something in… Read More
2023-08-29 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘A Robin Redbreast in a Cage / Puts all Heaven in a Rage.’ This couplet constitutes the other most famous quotation from ‘Augu… Read More
2023-08-28 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Some words have curious, and revealing, etymologies. The origins of the word ‘plagiarism’ are certainly revealing. The meaning of th… Read More
2023-08-27 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) What are the most important symbols and images in William Blake’s ‘A Poison Tree’? The poem is from Blake’s 1794 volume… Read More
2023-08-26 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) gave us many memorable lines. The majority of these are one-liners and witticisms which he either used in conversation o… Read More
2023-08-25 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) What connects the word ‘gobbledygook’ with the word ‘maverick’? To discover the link, we need to delve into the origins… Read More
2023-08-24 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘Cotton Eye Joe’ is a song whose title has a long history, taking us back to the Deep South in the nineteenth century. However, it w… Read More
2023-08-23 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) The question ‘what is a woman?’ has been widely discussed and debated in recent times, given the ongoing arguments – which hav… Read More
2023-08-22 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘Wherever books are burned, men also, in the end, are burned.’ This observation – which is sometimes rendered in slightly diff… Read More
2023-08-21 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘The Fly’ is not one of the best-known short stories of the New Zealand-born writer Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923), but it is signi… Read More
2023-08-20 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘The Kiss’ is a short story by the American writer Kate Chopin (1850-1904), written in a single day (19 September 1894) and publishe… Read More
2023-08-19 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) The word ‘mysterious’ can be used to describe a wide variety of things: types of people, situations, or events can all be labelled … Read More
2023-08-18 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘The Electrocution’ is an early short story by the American fantasy author Ray Bradbury (1920-2012), included in his 1996 short-stor… Read More
2023-08-17 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘The Machine That Won the War’ is a 1961 short story by the science-fiction author Isaac Asimov (1920-92). The story is set shortly… Read More
2023-08-16 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Where does the word ‘pandemonium’ come from? This word, which has come to have somewhat different meaning from its original use, has… Read More
2023-08-15 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Sometimes it’s good to draw attention to one’s own, or someone else’s, open-minded attitude to something. But that very phrase… Read More
2023-08-14 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Where does the word ‘dinosaur’ come from, and what does it literally mean? And why is the word ‘dinosaur’ entirely inapp… Read More
2023-08-13 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) The word selfish is a very useful one, but it is also rather blunt and direct. Happily, there are other ways of describing someone as ‘sel… Read More
2023-08-12 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘Happiness’ is a poem by the American writer Raymond Carver (1938-88). Carver is probably best-known for his short stories, especial… Read More
2023-08-11 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) The compound adjective hard-working is of surprisingly old vintage: the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) traces it back as early as 1682, when Th… Read More
2023-08-10 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Here’s a question for you. When the word ‘virus’ was first used in English, what did it mean? Let’s make it a little eas… Read More
2023-08-09 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) To ‘delude’ someone is to trick, cheat, or deceive them, although the word’s origins are interesting. It’s derived from… Read More
2023-08-08 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Sometimes, writers get undue credit for coining particular words. Did Shakespeare really ‘invent’ the word ‘alligator’?… Read More
2023-08-07 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Let’s begin with a quiz question: what is the title of the poem in which the phrase ‘dark Satanic Mills’ appears? Is it a) &ls&hell…Read More
2023-08-06 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘Eyes Do More Than See’ is a very short story by Isaac Asimov (1920-92), which originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Sc… Read More
2023-08-05 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘Reading’ is a chapter from Henry David Thoreau’s 1854 book Walden; or, Life in the Woods. The book details Thoreau’s de… Read More
2023-08-04 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Prominent themes in Hughes’ poetry include: nature, especially the struggle for survival that is inherent within nature, as well as myth (… Read More
2023-08-03 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘The 60 Minute Zoom’, a 1976 short story by the British author J. G. Ballard (1930-2009), belongs to his middle period, when he was… Read More
2023-08-02 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Of all of the tracks on Taylor Swift’s 2020 album Evermore, ‘Marjorie’ is perhaps the most tenderly personal. The lyrics honou… Read More
2023-08-01 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘Jabberwocky’ is one of the most beloved poems in the English language, perhaps not least because it does such interesting things wi… Read More
2023-07-31 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Here’s a quiz question for you. Who was the first high-profile writer to use the phrase ‘mad as a hatter’? How about we narrow… Read More
2023-07-30 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) When is it a good idea to be nobody? There are some situations where it certainly pays to be Nobody, or rather, to claim to be ‘No One&rsq&hell…Read More
2023-07-29 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) A paean to drugs? Or alcohol? Or sex? Or the heady sensory experience of falling in love? Just what is the meaning behind ‘Diamonds’… Read More
2023-07-28 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘The Silence of the Sirens’ is a very short story by Franz Kafka (1883-1924), written in 1917 but doomed, like so much of his work… Read More
2023-07-27 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘Jabberwocky’ is one of the most beloved poems in the English language, perhaps not least because it does such interesting things wi… Read More
2023-07-26 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘Faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.’ This well-known quotation contains the three theological… Read More
2023-07-25 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Tiredness affects us all at some point. But how else can be express the feeling of being tired? There’s a handful of well-known adjectives… Read More
2023-07-24 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Along with ‘The Tyger’, perhaps ‘London’ is the best-known of all of the poems by William Blake (1757-1827) which he pub… Read More
2023-07-23 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Not many 1980s pop songs have inspired a world-famous meme, but ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ by Rick Astley certainly has that claim to… Read More
2023-07-22 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) The list of synonyms for the word ‘boring’ is not, ironically, an exhaustive or monotonously long list. There are relatively few com… Read More
2023-07-21 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘Everything and Nothing’ is a short story by the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986), although it is usually classified… Read More
2023-07-20 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘Beyond the Door’ is an early story by Philip K. Dick (1928-82), and by no means one of his most famous or most sophisticated tales… Read More
2023-07-19 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) The expression to give up has two complementary but distinct meanings. Indeed, in one sense, the two meanings stand in opposition to each other:… Read More
2023-07-18 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Two extremely popular musical acts who emerged in Britain in the 1980s owed their names to the work of the American psychologist Arthur Janov (1… Read More
2023-07-17 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) William Wordsworth’s classic poem beginning ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud’, which was first published in 1807, is a classic wo… Read More
2023-07-16 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘Lying’ is a very useful word. But it’s also a strong accusation, and one that, when made, we want to hit the mark and have ma… Read More
2023-07-15 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘Can’t Get You out of My Head’ is one of Kylie Minogue’s best-known and most-played tracks. Taken from the 2001 album Fe… Read More
2023-07-14 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘The Waiting’ is a 1950 short story by the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986). Alternatively known as ‘The Wait… Read More
2023-07-13 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘Marionettes, Inc.’ is a 1949 short story by the American writer Ray Bradbury (1920-2012). The story was reprinted in Bradbury&rsquo&hell…Read More
2023-07-12 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘True’ is Spandau Ballet’s signature song. But what is the actual meaning of this pop-soul ballad which topped the UK charts i… Read More
2023-07-11 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘The peace which passeth understanding’ has become a well-known biblical phrase, and it originates in a couple of verses found in St… Read More
2023-07-10 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘The Courtship of Mr Lyon’, which was originally published in the British version of Vogue magazine, is a 1979 short story by Angela… Read More
2023-07-09 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) The Book of Hosea is one of the twelve short prophetic books which conclude the canonical Old Testament. For this reason, Hosea is often known a… Read More
2023-07-08 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’ is one of many classic songs by the Manchester group The Smiths. More than this, it is one of many classic… Read More
2023-07-07 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘Ye cannot serve God and mammon’. This is one of many famous Bible quotations. Indeed, it is one of many famous quotations from the… Read More
2023-07-06 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Written by George Michael in 1979 when he was still a teenager, ‘Careless Whisper’ became a number one hit in 1984 on both sides of… Read More
2023-07-05 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘Verses upon the Burning of Our House, July 10th, 1666’ is a poem by Anne Bradstreet (1612-72), a Puritan poet who was the first per… Read More
2023-07-04 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Let’s take a closer look at some of the most notable quotations from one of Ray Bradbury’s very best stories, ‘The Veldt&rsquo&hell…Read More
2023-07-03 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘Mexican Movies’ is a short story from Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories, a 1991 collection of short stories by the American w… Read More
2023-07-02 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) The Book of Esther has a surprising claim to fame: it’s the only book in the Bible in which the word ‘God’ does not appear. (C… Read More
2023-07-01 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘The Commuter’ is an early short story by Philip K. Dick (1928-82), which appeared in the science-fiction magazine Amazing in 1953… Read More
2023-06-30 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.’ Who said, or wrote, this well-known sentence? Karl Marx? Vladimir Lenin? Not eit… Read More
2023-06-29 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Strength can take many forms: physical toughness and sheer muscle, strength of character and qualities such as perseverance, and strength of min… Read More
2023-06-28 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) What has a woman named Iris got to do with the famous track of that name by the Goo Goo Dolls? And does the name, in fact, have anything to do w… Read More
2023-06-27 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Who were Castor and Pollux and what are the details of the story involving these two figures from Greek mythology? These two Greek heroes, who a… Read More
2023-06-26 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Repetition in poetry can take many forms. A particular clause or phrase might be repeated in the same line, or in successive lines; the same lin… Read More
2023-06-25 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Don McLean’s ‘American Pie’ is one of the most famous songs in the annals of rock music. McLean’s most popular song &nda&hell…Read More
2023-06-24 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘The Doctor’s Word’ is a story from Malgudi Days, the short-story collection by the Indian writer R. K. Narayan (1906-2001). T… Read More
2023-06-23 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘The Devoted Friend’ is one of the fairy tales for children written by the Irish author Oscar Wilde (1854-1900). It was published in… Read More
2023-06-22 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Metre (or meter) is a key building-block of poetry. Often used synonymously with the term ‘rhythm’, the metre of a poem is the patte… Read More
2023-06-21 14:00
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter’. This line is among the most famous quotations found in the work of John K… Read More
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