Language

  • Column: Ode aan de taal – en Drs. P

    Afgelopen zaterdag overleed op 95-jarige leeftijd een van de grootste woordkunstenaars van het Nederlandse taalgebied. Drs. P stond voornamelijk bekend om zijn karakteristieke liedjes over de meest uiteenlopende onderwerpen, maar staat voor mij toch vooral symbool voor correct en werkelijk taalgebruik. En voor de schoonheid van precisie. Door Nicole des Bouvrie. Eerder geplaatst op Zinweb.

    Read more

  • The Soundtrack of Writing

    It’s dangerous to reflect once it’s finally going the way you hope. Writing seems like a delicate balance of happiness, frustration and a sense of urgency. Is it me, did something change, or I am I just (finally!) ready to write my PhD, after two-and-a-half years of reading and preparing? Building momentum, struggling through meters…

    Read more

  • Danton’s Dood – Poetry and the French Revolution in the Theatre

    Sometimes it is impossible not to go and see something. To be part of something. Toneelgroep Amsterdam and also their newest piece, Danton’s Dood [Danton’s Death], is no exception. It is exceptional, provocative and captivating. How to explain this, without giving anything away? (As it only opened this weekend, I do implore everyone to go…

    Read more

  • The Act of Writing

    Some days seem to revolve around a certain topic. Although many things might have come up, there is this one insistence that doesn’t escape even the most feeble mind. Today this concerned writing. Writing. Also known as vomiting, editing, pausing, spitting it out, a bridging of the void. It still seems weird to me that…

    Read more

  • Consequence of Writing in English

    I often wonder which language I should use. I used to be obsessed by the English language, trying to learn it as fast and as good as I could. Until I realised that whatever I would do, I would never be considered a native speaker, even when my command of that language would be well-above…

    Read more

  • Crying & Style

    In the end it must be as it is and has always been: great things are for the great, abysses for the profound, shudders and delicacies for the refined and, in sum, all rare things for the rare…” Friedrich Nietzsche This quote has stayed with me, for many years since I first read it. And…

    Read more