Tag Archives: The Lamp

A not-paradox, a not-paradox, a most ingenuous not-paradox

Posted on August 9, 2017 by Patrick Miles

In my post of 8 October 2016 I discussed George Calderon’s love of paradox and suggested that the ‘self-referential’ paradoxes in his plays might have been influenced by his following ‘developments in set theory in the 1900s, as he was an … Continue reading →

Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian English, Edwardian literature, Modern parallels, Personal commentary | Tagged Albert Einstein, anomalies, anomalous expansion of water, Anton Chekhov, biographies, biography, Bryan, C.P. Snow, comments, contradiction, Daily News, Dardanelles, Fermi's Paradox, Frankfurt Book Fair, Gallipoli, Geminae, George Calderon, Gilbert and Sullivan, incongruity, Jim Al-Khalili, John Polkinghorne, Laurence Binyon, Lewis Carroll, Lord Weidenfeld, mathematicians, Maxwell's Demon, multiverse, overcrowding, paradox, quantum physics, relativity, Russell's Paradox, Schrödinger's Cat, science, set theory, Simon Baron-Cohen, String Theory, The Barber Paradox, The Fountain, The Grandfather Paradox, The Great War, The Lamp, The Liar Paradox, The Lieutenant's Heroine, The Little Stone House, The Paradox of the Twins, The Pirates of Penzance, The Pole in the Barn Paradox, the soul, The Two Talismans, The Walrus and the Carpenter, time travel, Trinity College Oxford, World War I, wormholes, Zeno | 4 Comments

‘A paradox, a paradox…’

Posted on October 8, 2016 by Patrick Miles

As part of my preparation for writing ‘Who George Calderon Was’, I have just re-read all the personal memoirs that Kittie asked George’s friends to write for Percy Lubbock’s book about George (the memoirs themselves have never been published). Undoubtedly … Continue reading →

Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian English, Edwardian literature, Modern parallels, Personal commentary | Tagged Archie Ripley, barber paradox, Bertolt Brecht, Bertrand Russell, Caucasus, comments, Dardanelles, Downy V. Green, Dwala, Gallipoli, Geminae, George Bernard Shaw, George Calderon, Golden Square, Joe Orton, Kittie Calderon, Laurence Binyon, Lev Tolstoi, liar paradox, Lipa Sidorovna, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Man and Superman, Martin Shaw, Mary Hamilton, Noel Coward, paradoxes, Patrick Marber, Percy Lubbock, Russell's Paradox, St John Hankin, The Fountain, The Great War, The Lamp, The Lieutenant's Heroine, The Two Talismans, Tom Stoppard, Widowers' Houses, World War I, Zeno | Leave a comment

‘The Lamp’ (Concluded)

Posted on April 18, 2015 by Patrick Miles

Today, 18 April 1915, was a Sunday. Kittie doubtless went to church (we don’t yet know which one), with Nina, Jim Corbet and her god-daughter Lesbia very much on her mind. Perhaps George thought further about what he was going … Continue reading →

Posted in Edwardian literature, Modern parallels, Personal commentary | Tagged Alfred Sutro, Anton Chekhov, Arthur Pinero, comments, George Bernard Shaw, George Calderon, Harley Granville Barker, John Galsworthy, John Masefield, Laurence Binyon, Mikhail Bakhtin, one-act plays, Stephen Phillips, The Great War, The Lamp, The Little Stone House, West End, World War I | Leave a comment

‘The Maharani’: A postscript

Posted on April 13, 2015 by Patrick Miles

Read The Maharani of Arakan yourself to decide whether it is (just) ‘A Romantic Comedy’, as George playfully subtitled it, or a ‘Symbolist Mystery Play’ (allegory)! Having re-read it over the weekend, I increasingly feel it’s the latter. If it is … Continue reading →

Posted in Edwardian literature, Personal commentary | Tagged allegory, Anton Chekhov, comments, George Calderon, Rabindranath Tagore, romantic comedy, symbolist mystery plays, The Great War, The Lamp, The Maharani of Arakan, women, women's suffrage, World War I | Leave a comment

What is ‘The Lamp’ about? (2)

Posted on April 12, 2015 by Patrick Miles

Presumably George was home again at 42 Well Walk, Hampstead, for the long weekend of 9-12 April 1915, so he may have done more work on leaving various literary projects in a publishable state in case he did not come … Continue reading →

Posted in Edwardian literature, Personal commentary | Tagged Anton Chekhov, comments, Ernst Zermelo, Feofan Zatvornik, Geminae, Georg Cantor, George Calderon, La Sainte Courtisane, Lenin, mathematics, Oscar Wilde, Rugby Scool, Russell's Paradox, set theory, The Fountain, The Great War, The Lamp, The Little Stone House, The Two Talismans, World War I | Leave a comment

What is ‘The Lamp’ about? (1)

Posted on April 3, 2015 by Patrick Miles

In 1915, today was Easter Saturday. For reasons I will give this coming Monday, I think George Calderon was at home over Easter on long weekend leave. This means he may have worked on the possibly four literary works that … Continue reading →

Posted in Edwardian literature, Personal commentary | Tagged comments, George Calderon, Jesus Christ, The Lamp, The Little Stone House | Leave a comment

Weekend work: ‘The Lamp’

Posted on March 29, 2015 by Patrick Miles

If, as I have suggested, George used his long weekend leave to put his literary manuscripts in order, then as well as working on a detailed synopsis of Tahiti (see my posts of 14 and 21 March) he must have done something … Continue reading →

Posted in Edwardian literature | Tagged Anton Chekhov, Fort Brockhurst, George Calderon, Harold Pinter, Kittie Calderon, one-act plays, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, The Great War, The Lamp, The Little Stone House, World War I | Leave a comment

‘Black Pot’ and black holes

Posted on February 25, 2015 by Patrick Miles

For the first two years that I was writing George Calderon’s biography, its working title was Black Pot: The Mysterious Life of George Calderon. The reason for this was not just that several people before me had failed to find significantly … Continue reading →