Hoban at 95 : An ongoing tribute to - and update of - Hoban at 80*

Hoban at 95 : An ongoing tribute to - and update of - Hoban at 80*

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2019 (17 to 24 October)
(Click here to go directly to the Festival web-site)

19 January

Hoban at 95 : An ongoing tribute to - and update of - Hoban at 80*

After moving to London in 1969, Russell Hoban ('Russ') was to live the rest of his life in his adopted city, which informs his novels.

Wishing all who participate* a happy and fruitful @sa4qe !

* Or who might, if they knew what it was - for which see :https://t.co/MyaZGyM8SZ

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) February 4, 2021

Well, as Emmae Gibson points out, Russ was born in 1925, so - on 4 February, the day of SA4QE**, when people remember him (now and in his mortal years) - it will be Hoban at 96.

I suggest that we respond withGnome at her***, since time is an illusion, and - as Russ himself, at least twice, said in print**** - Nothing is forever. [Nothing, except love, as the waves and particles of Russ' novel Pilgermann, as Emmae has reminded me, suggest... ?]

The birthday of novelist Russell Hoban, who has also written and / or illustrated children's books, such as Jim's Lion, The Mouse and his Child, or 'the Frances books' (e.g. Bread and Jam for Frances) :https://t.co/cbJGdx1fnR#CelebrateHobanAt95 pic.twitter.com/LTzY3skdOb

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) January 20, 2021

Did anyone say 'puppets' ?

If people have read any novel by Russell Hoban, it's Riddley Walker*, here reported on as adapted for theatre in a celebrated show :https://t.co/FgjipRZSya#CelebrateHobanAt95

* Published by Jonathan Cape in 1980.

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) January 24, 2021

End-notes :

* This Tweet refers to where material from the original hoban2005.co.uk can now be found :

The site is now at https://t.co/WRvsUzhUzx

— RussellHoban.org (@russellhobanorg) February 4, 2021

** The Slickman A4 Quotation Event, named after its initiator, Diana Slickman, and during which [on (or for ?) 4 February] a distribution of quotations from the works of Russ is made.

Depending on the assiduity of the participants, the 4ations (as they are called) are usually shared via http://www.russellhoban.org/sa4qe, on or after that date.


*** Those who have read Hoban's second novel Kleinzet (1974) may have indulged a fascination for atrocious puns, or what - on Twitter - this writer collects as #Homophones.

**** The same (exactly ?) long paragraph appears in the consecutively published novels The Medusa Frequency (1987) and Fremder (1996).


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Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)