Linguistic interventionism

There’s already been plenty of comment on the determined attempt by Jacques Chirac and other European nationalists to kick themselves once again in the goolies, this time over Google Print’s fiendish plot to Anglicise the world. One of the many fine non-English texts available through GP and so far undiscovered by Mr Chirac is Otto…

The worms crawled in and the worms crawled out

Towards the end of La colmena (The hive), Cela’s portrait of a post-war Madrid devoid of heroes and on the brink of oblivion, The morning ascends, little by little, climbing like a worm through the hearts of the men and the women of the city. This reminds me of the episode in Pío Baroja’s morbid…