#New Zealand literature

[gennsoup]

"Out of the frying pan . . . into another frying pan--falling out of that frying pan--into the underworld, where there is a huge frying pan where the devils dance, and say, 'Fuck to you.'"

Tamsyn Muir, Nona the Ninth

[have-you-read-this-short-fiction]

[illustration-alcove]

Studio Muti’s illustrated book covers for Ashling McCarthy’s The Poacher’s Moon Crime series.

[aroundmes1tsthen1ght]

"Why am I not writing too? Why, feeling so rich, [...], do I not begin? If only I have the courage to press against the stiff swollen gate all that lies within is mine; why do I linger for a moment?"

Katherine Mansfield, from a diary entry written in 1916, featured in 'Complete Works of Katherine Mansfield' (published in 2012)

[shortskirtsandsarcasm]

Birnam Wood Review

The contemporary answer to Edward Abbey’s The Monkey Wrench Gang

Eleanor Catton has a beautiful writing style and Birnam Wood is the contemporary answer to Edward Abbey’s The Monkey Wrench Gang. Books set in New Zealand are not often popular abroad and I was glad to be able to get my hands on one. I have had Catton’s Booker Prize winner The Luminaries on my list for years now and I was lucky enough to get Birnam Wood through Netgalley.

For the full review of this title, see my Medium page and my website.

Photo by Matthew Smith on Unsplash

[aroundmesitsthenight]

"[...] feel sad and full of love."

Katherine Mansfield, from 'Late at Night', first published in 1917.

[in-sufficientdata]

A bilingual book about the Māori creation story has won the highest accolade in children's literature.

Te Wehenga: The Separation of Ranginui and Papatūānuku by Motueka writer Mat Tait (Ngāti Apa ki te rātō) won the Margaret Mahy Book of the Year Award at New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults held at Wellington's Pipitea Marae.

Te Wehenga simultaneously tells the Māori creation pūrākau, which explains the beginning of the world, in te reo Māori and English.

[thegirlwholovesliterature]

September’s chill breathes life into their shared delight. / A season of celebration that deepens my night. / Their birthdays collide in a month I dread, / Each joyful post a dagger to what we once had. / The calendar turns, and with it, I see— / Their new beginning while my heart bleeds silently. / In the soft, cruel glow of autumn’s descent, / I am haunted by memories and a love that’s spent.

- Excerpt from a story that I no longer share #7 // Will you think about me on that day? Or will someone else get your attention like always? // krupapatelreads on instagram

[moonriver0312]

It is always:

"You are full of surprises"

But never:

(A Little Life, Part 5, Chapter 2, pg. 605 - Hanya Yanagihara)

[arconinternet]

Children of the Dog Star (Book, Marie Stuttard, 1984)

You can read it here. You can watch the 1984 New Zealand TV series here.

The series features the 1982 arcade game The Pit, which I posted about here. If in-browser emulation still isn't working, you can get the C64 version's .d64 file from here and play it in this alternate in-browser emulator. Fixing the controls is a lot easier in that one - just click the arrows between the two nine-pin ports at the bottom of the window.

[sapphia]

i used to think playing dr with your own psych meds in a funded health system was reckless. then i got treated by our public psychiatrists and actually it’s the only safe way to do it

[gennsoup]

One must name cats, people, whoever comes close, even though they carry their real names hidden inside them.

Keri Hulme, The Bone People

[have-you-read-this-short-fiction]

"The Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex" is available to read here

[leavemeslowly]

I have just read that the new „East of Eden” is filmed in New Zealand and I think it is hilarious given that the novel takes place in California

[aroundmes1tsthen1ght]

"I believe in immortality because he is not here, and I long to join him."

Katherine Mansfield, from a diary entry dated October 29th 1915, featured in 'Complete Works of Katherine Mansfield' (published in 2012)

[canadachronicles]

"Let us put awhile away All the cares of work-a-day, For a golden time forget, Task and worry, toil and fret, Let us take a day to dream In the meadow by the stream. We may lie in grasses cool Fringing a pellucid pool, We may learn the gay brook-runes Sung on amber afternoons, And the keen wind-rhyme that fills Mossy hollows of the hills. Where the wild-wood whisper stirs We may talk with lisping firs, We may gather honeyed blooms In the dappled forest glooms, We may eat of berries red O'er the emerald upland spread. We may linger as we will In the sunset valleys still, Till the gypsy shadows creep From the starlit land of sleep, And the mist of evening gray Girdles round our pilgrim way. We may bring to work again Courage from the tasselled glen, Bring a strength unfailing won From the paths of cloud and sun, And the wholesome zest that springs From all happy, growing things."

--A Day Off, Lucy Maud Montgomery.

Any day spent with my girl feels like a day off, even when I must leave her for a few hours to work. But travelling with her around North Island these past few days, proper days off, has been sheer bliss!