William Bradford (1590-1657)

The first real Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1623 after a providential rain shower saved the plantation’s crops. Apart from the end of the drought, the 1623 Thanksgiving also celebrated the news that a ship carrying new colonists was safe. 

Sometimes there is confusion with a 1621 harvest celebration on the fourth Thursday in November that lasted days and Indian guests, who brought deer for dinner, were also invited. 

This and other interesting issues can be learnt reading William Bradford thanks to his letters, journals and the play “Of Plymouth Plantation” that covers a trip from England to Holland, from whence they traveled to America and their lives therein from 1620 to 1646. However, these books were not published until the year 1857.

WILLIAM BRADFORD (1590-1657)

William Bradford

William Bradford was born in Yorkshire, England. At a very age he abandoned his family to join a community of believers who had separated from the Church of England, strict Calvinists. 

They wanted the separation of Church and state; this was seen as treason to the king. As a consequence, they left England and moved to Holland and then, they moved to New England, America. They wanted to establish the city of God on earth; looking for a promised land they were called the Pilgrim Fathers and also Puritans. 

They parted alongside other people on merchant vessel called Mayflower from Southampton. After arriving at the new world, William Bradford was elected governor of Plymouth Colony, being re-elected thirty times. Thanks to his pieces of writing, we have a real account of historical events as well as the very bleak impression they had when they saw America for the first time.

John Smith 1580-1631

The first texts in America were written in Spanish and the first compositions are oral ones in old Native American languages.

The first English work written in America “A true relation of such occurrences and accidents of Note as hath happened in Virginia” has John Smith as its author.

John Smith

The problem with John Smith is that many critics doubt over the verisimilitude of the accounts that this author depicted in his books. Without going any further, the national myth of Powhatan was created relying basically on an account Smith published seventeen years after the actual events, where he often mixed fact and fiction.

The truth has John Smith published some books in which he never mentioned Powhatan. However, once Powhatan died and she became famous, John Smith included her in a story he had never told previously, the famous one in which they fell in love and she saved him from passing away. What is more, the story with Powhatan is almost equal to a real one that was published in Spain by a Spanish adventurer who met an Indian princess in South America.

John Smith was an adventurer who left England to fight in Hungary. Subsequently, was wounded in battle while in Transylvania. After being made prisoner and sold as a slave, Captain Smith escaped by killing the brother of a girl who had fallen in love with him.

Back in England, he was enrolled in an expedition with a company named Virginia Company that was formed by King James I to be in charge with the settlement of Virginia in 1606. They wanted to accumulate wealth as quickly as possible.

During the trip, he was on the verge of being killed in West Indies. Nonetheless, once in America, he was elected as the main leader of the expedition.

He met indigenous; he fought and also was imprisoned by them for seven weeks. After being released and suffering burnings from a gunpowder explosion, he came back to England to have his injuries healed. 

He wanted to visit America again, yet because of his ambitions the company prevented him from doing so, therefore, he started to write about what he lived in the current United States, encouraging Britain to further colonize the new territory.

10 truly extraordinary lives of ten relevant authors

The reader would have probably heard of the following authors about whom I am to write. Nonetheless, while some of their quotes are verily famous and the name of their plays likewise, the real facts with regards to their lives are on many occasions modified or unknown.

Literature

You can discover the lives of 10 coruscating authors who were born before the year 1900, all of them belong to the field of American literature. Some of the episodes of the lives depicted are just incredible.

The period represented is fascinating insofar as one can devise the inception, creation and subsequent development of the strong nation that the United States has been hitherto.

There are more writers and poets from this period of course, yet what these ten selected authors experienced are such unique episodes you might widely enjoy this article.

Review the adventures of Halcombe Norilsk and other gripping tales

Halcombe has received a very positive review in the United States which can be enjoyed in this post. 

My book the Adventures of Halcombe Norilsk and other gripping tales is available worldwide. the adventures of Halcombe Norilsk and other gripping tales (Read this in Spanish) crítica the adventures of Halcombe Norilsk and other gripping tales It has received 4 stars out of five.

The adventures of Halcombe Norilsk and other gripping tales

BOOK REVIEW; The adventures of Halcombe Norilsk and other gripping tales

Reviewed by Elizabeth Konkel

July 17, 2017

The Adventures of Halcombe Norilsk is a dryly funny account of self-discovery.

Halcombe’s The Adventures of Halcombe Norilsk is a memoir about one man’s dreams, shared in a series of humorous and often mocking essays exploring desires for fame and inspiration.

Essays regarding Halcombe’s life are framed as if he’s a folk hero. He travels and explores various career avenues, including those of a musician and a politician, hoping to become well-known. These adventures lead to his most significant chance at greatness, when he sends his manuscript off to a publisher. His self-referential writing weaves into the essays that follow, which range from autobiographical to his personal thoughts on topics such as pop culture.

Anecdotes often have a satirical or self-mocking flavor. Halcombe refers, for example, to his “real job” and downplays his goals as fantasies. He is overly dramatic at times, writing that he “fatally fell” after opening a letter from his publisher; he relates incidents at his own expense, as when he includes a photo of himself captioned “‘Rest in peace, loser,’ says his wife.”

The “gripping tales” that follow continue to break the fourth wall. They include things such as a list of ways to fall asleep, with reading “this book several times until midnight” thrown in. Topics that are more thoroughly analyzed, such as an essay on the origins of Metallica, have a more polished and researched feeling than do such lists and reflections on the basic enjoyment of life. All essays considered together, it seems clear that this is a collection meant to be enjoyed and taken lightly.

Essays in the second half cover a wide variety of pop culture and inspirational topics that function through exposition instead of action. Halcombe writes about celebrities—all of whom connect back to him, thanks to their shared desire to be famous.

While achieving fame is a motivating force within many of these essays, ways to earn such success peek through as their greatest lessons. Carlos Raposo, Halcombe reflects, earned a large salary playing Brazilian football “without knowing how to play the game.” A series of success stories—as well as stories of other people’s failures—follow, indicating that hard work and inspiration can sometimes, if not always, lead to success.

The writing style varies between essays. Some get right to the point; others use more descriptive language. At times, language is humorous and witty. Tones are made to match their topics—sorrowful, snarky, or inquisitive as is necessary.

The Adventures of Halcombe Norilsk is a dryly funny account of self-discovery.

BUY The adventures of Halcombe Norilsk and other gripping tales The adventures of Halcombe Norilsk and other gripping tales

The Dream of the Celt

The Dream of the celt is the first book I have ever read from Peruvian author and Nobel Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa. I do not believe this is one of his most popular books, yet it is a great novel nonetheless.

Roger Casement

THE DREAM OF THE CELT-ROGER CASEMENT

What I have enjoyed on this novel is how it is told. We start discovering the protagonist is in prison.

Soon thereafter, we know about his childhood in current Northern Ireland, youth in Liverpool and his travels to Congo and South American jungle (frontier between Perú and Colombia, Putumayo region) as he is working for the British Empire and he is in charge of writing reports on how foreign potencies are working and using Indians (South America) and native people (Africa) in order to extract and trade rubber throughout the world.

Roger Casement The Dream of the celt

Seeing how European empires have exploded poor countries makes him aware of the problems of his own. Henceforth and after having received a knighthood from British authorities, he embraces the fight of Irish nationalism to make Ireland independent.

When he was young, he believed colonialism was great as European nations were supposed to help poor countries in Africa, Asia or South America. Nonetheless, he was one of the first to denounce officially the cruelties and abhorrent deeds rich countries attained in order to control overseas nations. 

Likewise, it is assured he was the one who told Joseph Conrad everything he needed to know. Subsequently, Conrad wrote his masterpiece Heart of Darkness thanks in part to Roger Casement. Such intriguing life is depicted in this brilliant novel. Yet, there are a lot of things that are unclear with regards to the life of Roger Casement.

His personal life does not seem right, let alone for a Catholic country like Ireland. However, are all rumours true or just a plot from British authorities to discredit Roger Casement and imprison him for treason???

This is the real account of the life of an Irish legend but Vargas Llosa makes a novel with all the episodes of his life and the result is outstanding, really interesting as the life of a person who it is unclear as yet who was in real terms.                                                                                                                                       

Was Roger Casement a hero, an intellectual, a fool or a deviant?? Read The dream of the Celt, it will not disappoint you.

Lastly, Irish Poet William Butler Yeats dedicated these lines to Roger Casement;

"I SAY that Roger Casement

Did what he had to do.

He died upon the gallows,

But that is nothing new."

Halcombe Norilsk NIUME 100 posts on Niume

I have just published my first 100 Niume posts and I am happy. I enjoy Niume, I feel comfortable using it, I like the design and how it allows you to create posts, I love writing in Niume and adding pictures. Niume

It is good also to meet new people who love writing and the easiness in how you share your articles on social media. Thanks to Niume I have discovered platforms I had never heard before such as Stumble Upon or Flipboard.

I consider Niume much better than other blogging platforms, albeit I try not to write anything, we can publish anything in other traditional blogging platforms but here I prefer to publish my best pieces because the audience is more selective and it is good to treat things with excellence and respect. My first 100 Niume Posts

This post is to celebrate my first 100 NIUME posts NIUME 

Halcombe Norilsk NIUME

Walt Whitman vs Emily Dickinson

Scarcely could we have been acquainted with such dissimilar poems as the two consigned to scrutinize; My life had stood-a loaded gun by Emily Dickinson and Song of Myself by Walt Whitman with regards to imagery, albeit these two authors achieve what they want plus both represent modernity. Walt Whitman vs Emily Dickinson

Walt Whitman vs Emily Dickinson

Barring the extension of both poems (Song of Myself is a great deal longer than My life had stood-a loaded gun) these two pieces of art, are different likewise in every imagery aspect we might think of.

Walt Whitman

Whilst the poem by Whitman epitomizes imagery in all its splendour, allowing the reader to elaborate a vivid mental picture of everything conveyed. 

Without going any further, we have these examples “Observing a spear of summer grass” (line 5), “the flog of my disposition” (line 16) or “the handkerchief of the Lord” (line 17). Similarly, “the young fellow drives the express wagon” (line 69) or “This grass is very dark to be from the white heads of old mothers” (Line 31), the aforementioned, works as literal language appealing to our senses, the poetic voice is evident therein.

On the other hand, Emily Dickinson pens a poem embracing a technique known as “Omitted centre”. The imagery on this poem is not as clear or as evident as the imagery in the poem by Whitman.

Emily Dickinson

Phrases such as; “We roam in sovereign woods” (line 5) “I guard My Master´s head” (line 14), “On whom I lay a Yellow Eyes” (line 19) can leave us both speechless and frustrated.

What Dickinson leaves is open to interpretation. So open that the crucial information is omitted in purpose, thus the meaning is not evident, it is abstract. Indeed, there are discussions about what this poem in reality means to date. Furthermore, while Dickinson is famous for her economy in language, Whitman is because of his verbose poems.

Poetic voice of Dickinson is unclear as her life was. By contrast, Whitman does make his voice evident; this is a big difference amongst them. Howbeit, we ought to point out that these both authors broke from previous ones in the sense they paved the way for modern literature, being afar from religious themes that were extremely popular in the past.

In accordance with the imagery concept, the only thing both authors can be compared to is they attain their aim and they are less close to God than what was recurrent.

 Notwithstanding, these two writers provide us with two utterly different uses of imagery; Whitman uses it clearly to explain his feelings. Conversely, Dickinson uses it to make the poem ambiguous. Walt Whitman vs Emily Dickinson

John Smith vs William Bradford

Inasmuch as we are confronting with two literary pioneers, John Smith and William Bradford, those two coruscating names epitomize Literature history. John Smith vs William Bradford

John Smith vs William Bradford

Yet, does it imply they are wonderful writers? Are their pieces of writing overlaid with the same attributes with regards to wilderness and civilization? We are to study these two authors to discover all of this. Let´s start with William Bradford.

WILLIAM BRADFORD

Seldom do we notice reading the words penned by William Bradford how the inhabitants of the new world were and behave. Indeed, when the new settlers arrive at their destination; there is an utter scarcity as far as food is concerned, it is assured. They had to work to bring substance to their lives.

JOHN SMITH

On the other hand, vivid and detailed descriptions arranged by Captain Smith explained to us everything we ought to know about different tribes in the current United States of America and their ways of living. 

In fact, we can infer reading his words which are their names “Openchancanough” for instance, or the greatness of their means “bread and venison was brought him that would have served twenty men.” 

William Bradford does not mention them, nor does he explain they are living in abundance, but just the opposite because his description for the new world is rather grim. By contrast, Captain Smith dazzles you, every aspect is intended to impress albeit both texts are set in the same location regardless.

Whilst there is a constant reference to god throughout the whole of the text penned by William Bradford “God of Heaven” “Apostle” “Scripture” “Pisgah” that may highlight the religious intention, and justify their mission so that change those lands for good assuring everything is a divine journey. 

The use of the third person in the hands of Captain Smith when referring to himself gives his tale a passionate recount, which provides us with reasons to believe we should collaborate with anybody or do anything in order to explore, settle and exploit the new lands, however people live therein, however can take place. 

We have a more down to earth writer but with spiritual meaning like Bradford, and a more imaginative novelist with earthly greed and richly ambitious.

John Smith vs William Bradford

Civilization to Bradford is what the settlers conquer and what they are going to make in the new world. To Smith, all the people who already are living in the new world represent civilization. 

They agree in their defence of their mission and the place wherein it does take place, but scarcely in other thing unless appertaining both to the concept “European settlers” if this can be taken into account.

They are in literature history because of their primal recall of facts happening in an unknown world. There not being covering such historical events, they might not be in literature history at all.  John Smith vs William Bradford

Words in Spanish which come from Peru

One of the biggest fans of Halcombe and a loving reader of his first book written in Spanish Ser un Tusitala comes from Perú. 

In order to pay homage to this beautiful South American country, we are to show some Spanish expressions that come from and are only spoken there. Take a look!!! Perú Read this in Spanish Perú

Peruvian fan of Halcombe!!!!

SPANISH EXPRESSIONS THAT COME FROM AND ARE ONLY SPOKEN IN PERÚ

Perú: Recontra Spanish: demasiado English: Too much

Perú: Canchita Spanish palomitas English: popcorn

Perú: Chévere Spanish: bonito, bien English: beautiful

Perú: Pata:Spanish: tío, chico English: guy, man,

Perú: Engreír Spanish: mimar, cuidar English: Look after, pamper

Perú: Flaca: Spanish: tía, chica English: girl, gal

Perú: Colectivo Spanish: autobús English: coach, bus

Perú: Bacán Spanish: guay English: cool

Perú: Huasca Spanish: borrachera English: drunkenness

Perú: Galán/enamorado: Spanish: hombre, pareja  English: lover, man.

Perú: Pituco Spanish: rico, de familia acomodada English: Rich, posh.

Perú: Ficho Spanish: pijo, caro: English: Expensive.

Perú: Chibolo Spanish: chaval, niño English: child

Perú: Botar Spanish: echar, expulsar English: expel, kick out, send off.

Perú: Roche Spanish: vergüenza English: Embarrasment

Perú: Floro Spanish: palabras English: Words, speech

Perú: Regia Spanish: guapa English: Pretty

Causa limeña: postre típico del Perú-Typical dish from Perú.

Ceviche: plato típico del Perú a base de pescado-Typical fish dish from Perú.

Hope you have discovered new words and have found this interesting. Perú

Lastly, you can watch a humble TV interview with Halcombe

Terrorist attack Nice, France

I lived the terrorist attack that took place in Nice last summer. Nice, France

It is now when I realize everything. It is now when I openly think about it. A mortal terrorist attack was round the corner. 85 people died. 303 were injured. I was too close to it.

                                 14th of July, 2016. Nice, France

NICE, FRANCE

That day it was French National Day, 14th of July. I was in Cote du Azur having holidays without knowing it was such a big day.

The highlight of our vacances did happen that day as we went from Nice to Monaco. It was such a nice day as Nice is. It was a sunny one similarly in Monaco as the picture shows. We did have such a pleasant time in Monte Carlo, yet it was going to end in tragedy for France.

When we came back to Nice there was an incredible parade by the beach. The exhibition was marvelous; you could tell it and you could appreciate how beautiful and outstanding arrangements were. Read this in Spanish Niza, Francia

Terrorist Attack

Our hotel was called Universe which is only 10 minutes walking away from the Hotel Palais de la Méditerranée, where a terrorist was killed by French Officials. The terrorist had driven a truck through a main street for 2 evil kilometers.

We did not see the parade at the same place where the terrorist attack happened. Nonetheless, it was so close I am trembling while recalling it.

People were seeing the display only 20 minutes away from we were. We did not know anything that night. It was such a big party everywhere. We had dinner and see the city centre. The ambience was unique.

But the following morning (although we did not even know what took place) we had petite dejeuner and we walked throughout the streets.

Everything was quiet, somehow empty, the atmosphere was especially strange. It was more than clear that something important had happened.

There were helicopters flying and police everywhere. Some people carrying flowers and plenty of television reporters standing by.

They had cordoned the area off, but we did not realize at that moment the seriousness of what was happening. You felt the sensation, the distressing mood but not completely.

Later on, I watched French television but my command of French it is no so fabulous. As a consequence, I did not fully understand a terrorist attack had actually happened.

As I was on holidays I did not even have my mobile phone with me. We did not know anything at all.

In fact, we left Nice and France without realizing it. But afterwards, I spent one week with no internet, no mobile devices nor watching television. I was tired, exhausted. Read the end following the link Terrorist Attack, Nice, France