Comments on: The Internet: it changed little

By: Oscar Wildebeest

Oscar Wildebeest — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 06:42:00 +0000

Sorry, that should have been ‘At Swim-Two-Birds’, not At ‘Swim-Two-Birds’. It’s almost midday, which is a little early for me.

By: Oscar Wildebeest

Oscar Wildebeest — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 06:41:00 +0000

'The Third Policeman' is one of the ten best novels written in the English language.

At 'Swim-Two-Birds' is notable for, amongst other things, beginning with "Chapter One". There are no other chapters in the book.

By: Michael

Michael — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 05:01:00 +0000

He was once threatened with expulsion from school/university (I forget which) for allegedly publishing an obscene poem.

Upon investigation, it turned out that it was written in Old Irish, which none of the relevant administrators could understand (at least not to the level of subtlety presumably required to appreciate the alleged obscenity), so he got away with it.

(This is paraphrased entirely from memory, so it's probably riddled with minor factual slip-ups, but I think that was the general gist - Cronin was the source).

By: Jim

Jim — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 03:49:00 +0000

Yeah, the idea that Flann O’Brien might be even funnier in Irish remains probably the best (and for me, only) reason for learning that language.

By: Michael

Michael — Mon, 22 Aug 2005 18:56:00 +0000

I've given so many copies of The Third Policeman to friends that I'm not sure I own one myself at the moment - and, annoyingly, I feel an overwhelming urge to re-read it.

I also thoroughly recommend Anthony Cronin's biography, which amongst many other fascinating titbits reveals that English was O'Brien's second language - he was the son of an ardent Irish nationalist who refused to allow it to be spoken in the house. Like his near-contemporary Vladimir Nabokov, he more than made up for lost time by becoming one of its absolute masters.