#BBC arts and ideas

[thoughtportal]

The Great Library of Alexandria had a mission to collect every book in the world. In attempting to do so it created the foundations for the systems and structures of public libraries that we know today. We discuss the development of libraries, our emotional attachment to them and their pupose in the digital age.

Islam Issa's new book traces the development of Alexandria. He joins Andrew Pettegree, author of The Library: A Fragile History, Fflur Dafydd whose murder mystery story The Library Suicides is set in the National Library of Wales and academic Jess Cotton who is researching the history of loneliness and the role played by public libraries as hubs for communities. Laurence Scott hosts.

Andrew Pettegree is a Professor at St Andrews University and the author of The Library: A Fragile History Fflur Dafydd is a novelist and screenwriter who writes in Welsh and English. She is the author of BAFTA Cymru nominated thrillers 35 awr and 35 Diwrnod and her novel The Library Suicides has also been made as a film Y Llyfrgell. Dr Jess Cotton from the University of Cambridge has been researching Lonely Subjects: Loneliness in Postwar Literature and Psychoanalysis, 1945-1975 Islam Issa is a Professor at Birmingham City University, author of Alexandria: The City that Changed the World. He is a New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by the BBC and Arts and Humanities Research Council to share academic research on radio. You can hear him discussing the Shakespeare collection at the Birmingham Library in an Arts and Ideas podcast episode called Everything to Everybody - Shakespeare for the people

[soosoosoup]

Oh Funk Branch Au by @bbc-trolls, I never stopped loving you

[poug1y]

stupid doodle ( ref under cut )

[knightswaypoint]

Full of Snausage!

(Inspired by this post)

[merlins-strawberriesandroses]

POV you’ve informed the Queen and the Court’s Sorcerer of something and they very clearly know something that they’re not letting on

[sepezzz]

my forever babygirl

[abisalli]

I was thinking about Merlin and dragons again... Didn't plan on only drawing Pen aka Arthur Jr. (the little red & gold dragon), but then my head was just filled with all these scenarios of Merlin trying to keep yet another secret & the little dragon causing havoc (not pictured) and dragonlord things and,,, orz

[gramnel]

[masterofiodine]

cap is in his element

[forecast0ctopus]

i just think they shouldve gotten ONE hug where they werent enchanted or like. dying

[noodles-and-tea]

I now have a hc that Sherlock just sends John relevant songs instead of properly verbalising his feelings

[thoughtportal]

The Palace of Dreams is a novel set in the Ottoman empire but used by the Albanian writer Ismail Kadare to reflect on the totalitarian state. Lea Ypi has been reading the novel which was banned two weeks after publication in 1981, but it had already sold out. Matthew Sweet looks at this and other examples of fiction exploring dreams, power and bureaucracy from Kafka to Dickens and Gospodinov. This Bulgarian novelist won the 2023 International Booker prize for his novel Time Shelter, which New Generation Thinker Mirela Ivanova has been reading. Also joining the conversation is Roger Luckhurst, Professor at Birkbeck University London who studies literature, film and cultural history.

[sexy-sapphic-sorcerer]

Gwen & Arthur Are Not in Love

Based on the cover of Gwen & Art Are Not in Love by Lex Croucher

also here are some close ups because I spent too long on small details and I need someone to see it

[poug1y]

two sides of the same coin

[knightswaypoint]

“Candid No. 24” by A. Penn Photo taken at “Camelot and Other Mythos” Exhibit, Natural History Museum

(Merlinktober Days 4 & 5: Foreign (Out of Place / Out of Time) & Lens)

[logan-the-artist]

can you hear roman’s indignation