Edward Mendelson

[John Cleese @JohnCleese]

I am also an icon, a clandestine Nazi, an example to the youth of today. a Bristol City supporter and a grumpy old man

I have certificates for all of these, one signed by a Python

But the description I like best is the one bestowed on me recently by my wife...' nasty little man '

She and I laughed for about a week

Explain that to the wokes

At all of them

[Edward Mendelson @edwardmendelson]

... and always, though truth and love
can never really differ, when they seem to,
the subaltern should be truth.
-- W. H. Auden, "The Common Life"

[Edward Mendelson @edwardmendelson]

@trefinedAura @___smartalec Someone gave him a sweatshirt with the name Gimli on it, and at least one photograph shows him wearing it. But I very much doubt he ever "called himself Gimli" in any other way than wearing that sweatshirt.

[Edward Mendelson @edwardmendelson]

@trefinedAura @___smartalec This is perhaps a myth. Is there a source for this story?

[Edward Mendelson @edwardmendelson]

@thekumachan One image-tester says this was produced by AI; another says it wasn't. Any clarification would be welcome!

[Edward Mendelson @edwardmendelson]

@thekumachan Fascinating writeup: well done! One question: what is the source of that extraordinary photo, which I don't think I've ever seen before?

[Edward Mendelson @edwardmendelson]

@BrightYoungM2 Aha! Thank you for that explanation. How very strange that X did that!

[Edward Mendelson @edwardmendelson]

@cyberlocksmith @paulg He did not write that either. The closing quotation mark belongs after "decade."

[Edward Mendelson @edwardmendelson]

@cyberlocksmith @paulg Auden did not write this.

[Edward Mendelson @edwardmendelson]

@RoeRalph92965 @BoylanRoger But wouldn't Auden have been in Purgatory when Tomorrow was broadcasting, not Limbo? Maybe AI can tell us?

[Edward Mendelson @edwardmendelson]

@RoeRalph92965 @BoylanRoger Just saw this today. Again, it would be very impressive if Auden managed to appear on a show that begin broadcasting only after Auden's death and a year after he left the US for the UK. - And the linked blog gets it wrong: Auden appeared on Merv Griffin's show, not Carson's.

[Edward Mendelson @edwardmendelson]

Book authors: Did you get an offer from Classic FM (UK) to host (for a fee) a "live discussion" of your book? I declined, but I'm curious about the experience of anyone who accepted. The offer message was obviously generated by AI. Was your discussion with a person or an AI bot?

[Edward Mendelson @edwardmendelson]

@RoeRalph92965 @BoylanRoger The Tomorrow show seems to have been first broadcast in October 1973; Auden died in September 1973. So those interviews must have been on some other program?

[Edward Mendelson @edwardmendelson]

@MatthewStadlen @McCallSmith Bad human typing: that should have said "Human Natural Intelligence..."

[Edward Mendelson @edwardmendelson]

@MatthewStadlen @McCallSmith Numan Natural Intelligence reports: Yes, Peter Stadlen interviewed Auden about opera libretti in the BBC Third Programme, 22 October 1966, and wrote about it in the Daily Telegraph ("Beyond the Reach of Words"), 29 October 1966, p. 11. (Did AI know any of this?)

[Edward Mendelson @edwardmendelson]

@dev95471 Peter Mandelson, pas "Edward Mendelson," s'il vous plaît!!!!

[Edward Mendelson @edwardmendelson]

@simonjjacobson @KingTherapy @wideofthepost Definitely not Auden; definitely not The Age of Anxiety.

[Edward Mendelson @edwardmendelson]

@_concorde4590 Wonderful find! Source here: https://t.co/CjG2V00gMq - Revista de la Universidad de Mexico, November 1956.

[Edward Mendelson @edwardmendelson]

@saintsoftness @stannieholt Yes - and this isn't the best forum for expresssing how moved I am by your good words - and was by your essay prompted by "The More Loving One." (And I hope Curtis Brown was reasonably prompt in granting those permissions!)