The Green Child is the only completed novel by the English anarchist
poet and critic Herbert Read. Written in 1934 and first published by
Heinemann in 1935, the story is based on the 12th-century legend of two
green children who mysteriously appeared in the English village of
Woolpit, speaking an apparently unknown language. Read described the
story in his English Prose Style, published in 1931, as "the norm to
which all types of fantasy should conform". Each of the novel's three
parts ends with the apparent death of the story's protagonist,
President Olivero, dictator of the fictional South American Republic of
Roncador. In each case Olivero's death is an allegory for his
translation to a "more profound level of existence", reflecting the
book's overall theme of a search for the meaning of life. Read's
interest in psychoanalytic theory is evident throughout the novel,
which is constructed as a "philosophic myth ... in the tradition of
Plato". The story contains many autobiographical elements, and the
character of Olivero owes much to Read's experiences as an officer in
the British Army during the First World War. The novel was positively
received, although some commentators have considered it to be
"inscrutable", and one has suggested that it has been so differently
and vaguely interpreted by those who have given it serious study that
it may lack the form and content to justify the praise it has received.
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Today's selected anniversaries:
475:
Basiliscus became Byzantine Emperor after Zeno was forced to flee
Constantinople.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basiliscus>
1839:
The French Academy of Sciences announced the daguerreotype photographic
process, named after its inventor, French artist and chemist Louis
Daguerre .
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/daguerreotype>
1923:
Lithuanian residents of the Memel Territory rebelled against the League
of Nations decision to leave the area as a mandated region under French
control.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaip%C4%97da_Revolt>
1972:
RMS Queen Elizabeth, an ocean liner which sailed the Atlantic Ocean for
the Cunard White Star Line, was destroyed by fire in Victoria Harbour,
Hong Kong.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Queen_Elizabeth>
1996:
First Chechen War: Chechen separatists launched raids in the city of
Kizlyar, Republic of Dagestan, which turned into a massive hostage
crisis involving thousands of civilians.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kizlyar-Pervomayskoye_hostage_crisis>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
from the word go (adv):
From the very beginning; from the outset; immediately
upon starting
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/from_the_word_go>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
The individual is defined only by his relationship to the world and to
other individuals; he exists only by transcending himself, and his
freedom can be achieved only through the freedom of others.
--Simone de Beauvoir
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Simone_de_Beauvoir>