T.S.Eliot : "The Waste Land" Considerado el mejor poema del siglo XX

"The Waste Land - Part I-

"The Waste Land - Part II -

"The Waste Land - Part III -

The Waste Land: Death By Water

V. What the Thunder Said

Anton Chekhov

Biography

Monólogo "Sobre el daño que causa el tabaco" de 

Anton Chéjov (1ª Parte)

2ª

3ª

ANTON CHEKHOV

This article was originally published in Plays by Anton Tchekoff. Trans. Marian Fell. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1912. pp. 3-10.

ANTON CHEKHOV was born in the old Black Sea port of Taganrog on January 17 [Old Style], 1860. His grandfather had been a serf; his father married a merchant's daughter and settled in Taganrog, where, during Anton's boyhood, he carried on a small and unsuccessful trade in provisions. The young Chekhov was soon impressed into the services of the large, poverty-stricken family, and he spoke regretfully in after years of his hard-worked childhood. But he was obedient and good-natured, and worked cheerfully in his father's shop, closely observing the idlers that assembled there, and gathering the drollest stories, which he would afterward whisper in class to his laughing schoolfellows. Many were the punishments which he incurred by this habit, which was incorrigible.
His grandfather had now become manager of an estate near Taganrog, in the wild steppe country of the Don Cossacks, and here the boy spent his summers, fishing in the river, and roving about the countryside as brown as a gypsy, sowing the seeds of that love for nature which he retained all his life. His evenings he liked best to spend in the kitchen of the master's house among the work people and peasants who gathered there, taking part in their games, and setting them all laughing by his witty and telling observations.
When Chekhov was about fourteen, his father moved the family to Moscow, leaving Anton in Taganrog, and now, relieved of work in the shop, his progress at school became remarkable. At seventeen he wrote a long tragedy, which was afterward destroyed, and he already showed flashes of the wit that was soon to blaze into genius.

He graduated from the high school at Taganrog with every honour, entered the University of Moscow as a student of medicine, and threw himself headlong into a double life of student and author, in the attempt to help his strugging family.

His first story appeared in a Moscow paper in 1880, and after some difficulty he secured a position connected with several of the smaller periodicals, for which, during his student years, he poured forth a succession of short stories and sketches of Russian life with incredible rapidity. He wrote, he tells us, during every spare minute, in crowded rooms where there was "no light and less air," and never spent more than a day on any one story. He also wrote at this time a very stirring blood-and-thunder play which was suppressed by the censor, and the fate of which is not known.

His audience demanded laughter above all things, and, with his deep sense of the ridiculous, Chekhov asked nothing better. His stories, though often based on themes profoundly tragic, are penetrated by the light and subtle satire that has won him his reputation as a great humourist. But though there was always a smile on his lips, it was a tender one, and his sympathy with suffering often brought his laughter near to tears.

This delicate and original genius was at first subjected to harsh criticism, which Chekhov felt keenly, and Trigorin's description in "The Sea-Gull" of the trials of a young author is a cry from Chekhov's own soul. A passionate enemy of all lies and oppression, he already foreshadows in these early writings the protest against conventions and rules, which he afterward put intoTreplieff's reply to Sorin in "The Sea-Gull": "Let us have new forms, or else nothing at all."

In 1884 he took his degree as doctor of medicine, and decided to practice, although his writing had by now taken on a professional character. He always gave his calling a high place, and the doctors in his works are drawn with affection and understanding. If any one spoke slightly of doctors in his presence, he would exclaim: "Stop! You don't know what country doctors do for the people!"

Chekhov fully realized later the influence which his profession had exercised on his literary work, and sometimes regretted the too vivid insight it gave him, but, on the other hand, he was able to write: "Only a doctor can know what value my knowledge of science has been to me," and "It seems to me that as a doctor I have described the sicknesses of the soul correctly." For instance, Trigorin's analysis in "The Sea-Gull" of the state of mind of an author has well been called "artistic diagnosis."

The young doctor-writer is described at this time as modest and grave, with flashes of brilliant gaiety. A son of the people, there was in his face an expression that recalled the simple-hearted village lad; his eyes were blue, his glance full of intelligence and kindness, and his manners unaffected and simple. He was an untiring worker, and between his patients and his desk he led a life of ceaseless activity. His restless mind was dominated by a passion of energy and he thought continually and vividly. Often, while jesting and talking, he would seem suddenly to plunge into himself, and his look would grow fixed and deep, as if he were contemplating something important and strange. Then he would ask some unexpected question, which showed how far his mind had roamed.

Success was now rapidly overtaking the young author; his first collection of stories appeared in 1887, another one in the same year had immediate success, and both went through many editions; but, at the same time, the shadows that darkened his later works began to creep over his light-hearted humour.

His impressionable mind began to take on the grey tinge of his time, but much of his sadness may also be attributed to his ever-increasing ill health.

Weary and with an obstinate cough, he went south in 1888, took a little cottage on the banks of a little river "abounding in fish and crabs," and surrendered himself to his touching love for nature, happy in his passion for fishing, in the quiet of the country, and in the music and gaiety of the peasants. "One would gladly sell one's soul," he writes, "for the pleasure of seeing the warm evening sky, and the streams and pools reflecting the darkly mournful sunset." He described visits to his country neighbors and long drives in gay company, during which, he says, "we ate every half hour, and laughed to the verge of colic."

His health, however, did not improve. In 1889 he began to have attacks of heart trouble, and the sensitive artist's nature appears in a remark which he made after one of them. "I walked quickly across the terrace on which the guests were assembled," he said, "with one idea in my mind, how awkward it would be to fall down and die in the presence of strangers."

It was during this transition period of his life, when his youthful spirits were failing him, that the stage, for which he had always felt a fascination, tempted him to write "Ivanoff," and also a dramatic sketch in one act entitled "The Swan Song," though he often declared that he had no ambition to become a dramatist. "The Novel," he wrote, "is a lawful wife, but the Stage is a noisy, flashy, and insolent mistress." He has put his opinion of the stage of his day in the mouth of Treplieff, in "The Sea-Gull," and he often refers to it in his letters as "an evil disease of the towns" and "the gallows on which dramatists are hanged."

He wrote "Ivanoff" at white-heat in two and a half weeks, as a protest against a play he had seen at one of the Moscow theatres. Ivanoff (from Ivan, the commonest of Russian names) was by no means meant to be a hero, but a most ordinary, weak man oppressed by the "immortal commonplaces of life," with his heart and soul aching in the grip of circumstances, one of the many "useless people" of Russia for whose sorrow Chekhov felt such overwhelming pity. He saw nothing in their lives that could not be explained and pardoned, and he returns to his ill-fated, "useless people" again and again, not to preach any doctrine of pessimism, but simply because he thought that the world was the better for a certain fragile beauty of their natures and their touching faith in the ultimate salvation of humanity.

Both the writing and staging of "Ivanoff" gave Chekhov great difficulty. The characters all being of almost equal importance, he found it hard to get enough good actors to take the parts, but it finally appeared in Moscow in 1889, a decided failure! The author had touched sharply several sensitive spots of Russian life, and the play was also marred by faults of inexperience, which, however, he later corrected. The critics were divided in condemning a certain novelty in it and in praising its freshness and originality. The character of Ivanoff was not understood, and the weakness of the man blinded many to the lifelike portrait. Chekhov himself was far from pleased with what he called his "literary abortion," and rewrote it before it was produced again in St. Petersburg. Here it was received with the wildest applause, and the morning after its performance the papers burst into unanimous praise. The author was enthusiastically fêted, but the burden of his growing fame was beginning to be very irksome to him, and he wrote wearily at this time that he longed to be in the country, fishing in the lake, or lying in the hay.
His next play to appear was a farce entitled "The Boor," which he wrote in a single evening and which had a great success. This was followed by "The Demon," a failure, rewritten ten years later as "Uncle Vanya."

All Russia now combined in urging Chekhov to write some important work, and this, too, was the writer's dream; but his only long story is "The Steppe," which is, after all, but a series of sketches, exquisitely drawn, and strung together on the slenderest connecting thread. Chekhov's delicate and elusive descriptive power did not lend itself to painting on a large canvas, and his strange little tragi-comedies of Russian life, his "Tedious Tales," as he called them, were always to remain his masterpieces.

In 1890 Chekhov made a journey to the island of Saghalien, after which his health definitely failed, and the consumption, with which he had long been threatened, finally declared itself. His illness exiled him to the Crimea, and he spent his last ten years there, making frequent trips to Moscow to superintend the production of his four important plays, written during this period of his life.

"The Sea-Gull" appeared in 1896, and, after a failure in St. Petersburg, won instant success as soon as it was given on the stage of the Artists' Theatre in Moscow. In Trigorin the author gives us one of the rare glimpses of his own mind, for Chekhov seldom put his own personality into the pictures of the life in which he took such immense interest.

In "The Sea-Gull" we see clearly the increase of Chekhov's power of analysis, which is remarkable in his next play, "The Three Sisters," gloomiest of all his dramas.

"The Three Sisters," produced in 1901, depends, even more than most of Chekhov's plays, on its interpretation, and it is almost essential to its appreciation that it should be seen rather than read. The atmosphere of gloom with which it is pervaded is a thousand times more intense when it comes to us across the foot-lights. In it Chekhov probes the depths of human life with so sure a touch, and lights them with an insight so piercing, that the play made a deep impression when it appeared. This was also partly owing to the masterly way in which it was acted at the Artists' Theatre in Moscow. The theme is, as usual, the greyness of provincial life, and the night is lit for his little group of characters by a flash of passion so intense that the darkness which succeeds it seems wellnigh intolerable.
"Unvle Vanya" followed "The Three Sisters," and the poignant truth of the picture, together with the tender beauty of the last scene, touched his audience profoundly, both on the stage and when the play was afterward published.

"The Cherry Orchard" appeared in 1904 and was Chekhov's last play. At its production, just before his death, the author was fêted as one of Russia's greatest dramatists. Here it is not only country life that Chekhov shows us, but Russian life and character in general, in which the old order is giving place to the new, and we see the practical, modern spirit invading the vague, aimless existence so dear to the owners of the cherry orchard. A new epoch is beginning, and at its dawn the singer of old, dim Russia was silenced.

In the year that saw the production of "The Cherry Orchard," Chekhov, the favourite of the Russian people, whom Tolstoi declared to be comparable as a writer of stories only to Maupassant, died suddenly in a little village of the Black Forest, whither he had gone a few weeks before in the hope of recovering his lost health.

Chekhov, with an art peculiar to himself, in scattered scenes, in haphazard glimpses into the lives of his characters, in seemingly trivial conversations, has succeeded in so concentrating the atmosphere of the Russia of his day that we feel it in every line we read, oppressive as the mists that hang over a lake at dawn, and, like those mists, made visible to us by the light of an approaching day.

"The prejudice map"

¿Qué opinan los usuarios de Internet de los españoles? Que son artistas, que reaccionan visceralmente y que son capaces de disfrutar de la vida. ¿Y acerca de los italianos? Que tienen un estilo impecable, que adoran la pasta y que gesticulan mucho con las manos.

Philipp Lenssen, un informático afincado en Alemania y autor de un conocido blog llamado Google Blogoscoped, ha identificado los estereotipos más frecuentes en la Red según el país de origen colocando sistemáticamente en el popular buscador frases como "Germans are known for" (A los alemanes se los conoce por...), "English are known for" (A los ingleses se los conoce por...) y ha recopilado los resultados. Las respuestas han dado lugar a un curioso gráfico que ha titulado "The prejudice map" (El mapa de los prejuicios, en inglés), donde se muestra una importante colección de clichés y tópicos.

El trabajo refleja las ideas preconcebidas sobre los habitantes de una treintena de países de los cinco continentes. Según el mapa, a los brasileños se les asocia con la informalidad, las fiestas y los bikinis; los suecos tienen el cliché de austeros y ávidos consumidores de cafés; los keniatas se relacionan con las metáforas y la capacidad de correr rápido; y los alemanes al amor por la cerveza, la puntualidad, la precisión y la predisposición a emprender.

 By Muy Interesante

Cineclub Buñuel: "ALMANYA"

Mañana, Jueves 8 de Noviembre de 2.012 el Cineclub Buñuel en Marbella presenta:

"ALMANYA": "BIENVENIDO A ALEMANIA"

De:

Yasemin Samdereli.

Con:

Vedat Erincin,

Lilay Huser,

Rafael Koussouris.

Después de vivir 45 años en Alemania, un inmigrante

turco anuncia a su familia que ha comprado una casa

en Turquía y que todos deben volver con él para hacer

las reformas necesarias. La familia no se siente en

absoluto atraída por la idea.

Proyecciones:

Marbella: Instituto “Río Verde”. C/ Notario Luis Oliver, 18.

Miércoles y Jueves. 8 tarde y 10:15 noche.

San Pedro Alcántara: Centro Cultural San Pedro. Plaza de la Libertad

Viernes. 8 tarde y 10:15 noche.

Entrada: 3 € Abono: 12 €

Henry V -Shakespeare-(1989) by Kenneth Branagh

Henry V Part 1 (1989)

Henry V Part 2 (1989)

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CICLO DE CONFERENCIAS SOBRE EL CONSTITUCIONALISMO ESPAÑOL,

 coordinado por la Fundación Ortega y Gasset, que tendrá lugar en el Centro Cultural Cortijo Miraflores a las 20,00 horas los días 15, 21 y 29 de noviembre y 4 de diciembre.

BICENTENARIO DE LA CONSTITUCIÓN DE 1812

Coordinado por la Fundación Ortega y Gasset

Jueves, 15 noviembre

Conferencia: “CÁDIZ Y LA CONSTITUCIÓN DE 1812 “

A cargo del profesor PEDRO GONZÁLEZ TREVIJANO,Rector de la Universidad Rey Juan Carlos. Catedrático de Derecho Constitucional, rector de la UniversidadRey Juan Carlos y vocal de la Junta Electoral Central.

Ha sido asimismo subdirector del Centro de Estudios Políticos y Constitucionales. Colaborador habitual de losperiódicos ABC, La Gaceta de los Negocios y La Voz de Galicia, ha publicado varias obras, entre las que cabedestacar La Costumbre en Derecho Constitucional, Libertad de circulación, residencia, entrada y salida en Español, La España constitucional, etc..Se encuentra en posesión, entre otras, de la Gran Cruz al Mérito Militar
con distintivo blanco, la Orden de San Raimundo de Peñafort y la Encomienda de la Orden Civil de Alfonso X el Sabio. Además es presidente del Consejo Editorial de La Ley, y ha obtenido los premios Máster de Oro del Fórum de Alta Dirección, Pablo Padrier Foderé, concedido por la Universidad Nacional de Perú, FIES de Periodismo y la concesión del título de Honorary Degree por parte de ESERP Business School. Es doctor honoris causa por las universidades de Tarapacá (Chile) y Ricardo Palma (Perú).

Miercoles, 21 noviembre

Conferencia: “LA CONSTITUCIÓN DE 1876 Y EL SISTEMA POLÍTICO DE LA RESTAURACIÓN”

A cargo del profesor JOSE VARELA ORTEGA, Presidente Fundación Ortega y Gasset
Catedrático de Historia Contemporánea de la Universidad Rey Juan Carlos y Director del Instituto Universitario Ortega y Gasset. Presidente de la Fundación José Ortega y Gasset, donde ha presidido también diversos Consejos consultivos y dirigido publicaciones en el área de su especialidad. Sucedió a su madre en el cargo de presidente de la fundación y en el de director de la Revista de Occidente, fundada por su abuelo. Desde 2002
al 2005 ocupó el cargo de director del Colegio de España en París.

Entre sus obras publicadas cabe destacar, ” Los amigos políticos: partidos, elecciones y caciquismo en la restauración”. ”Elecciones, alternancia y democracia. España-México, una re exión comparativa”. ”Contra la violencia. A propósito del nacional-socialismo alemán y del vasco”. ” Un puente sobre el Sena o el regreso a Bruselas”. ” El poder de la in uencia: geografía del caciquismo en España.” “Una paradoja histórica: Hitler, Stalin, Roosevelt y algunas consecuencias para España de la Segunda Guerra Mundial”. “El poder de la in uencia. Geografía del caciquismo en España”

Jueves 29 noviembre

Conferencia: “LA CONSTITUCIÓN REPUBLICANA DE 1931”

A cargo del profesor OCTAVIO RUIZ-MANJÓN,Catedrático de Historia Contemporánea UCM. Doctor en Filosofía y Letras en 1974 con una tesis sobre el Partido Radical. Esa tesis se publicó en 1976, con el título “El Partido Republicano Radical, 1908-1936” (Tebas, Madrid).

En 1978 ganó una Cátedra de Historia Contemporánea en la Facultad de Ciencias de la Información de la Universidad Complutense de donde pasó, en 1979, como “Visiting Scholar”, a la Columbia University de Nueva York.
De 1980 a 1988 fue catedrático de Historia Contemporánea de la Universidad de Granada.
En 1986, con ocasión del cincuenta aniversario del comienzo de la Guerra civil española, organizó un Congreso Internacional sobre la Guerra civil, que se publicaría en 1990, con el título de “Los nuevos historiadores ante la guerra civil española”.

En 1998 fue Presidente del Congreso Internacional “Los signi cados del 98”, que se publicaría al año siguiente con el título de La sociedad española en la génesis del siglo XX.
Desde hace ocho años, realiza también crítica de libros de historia en el semanario “El Cultural”.

Martes 4 diciembre

Conferencia: “LA CONSTITUCIÓN DE 1978 EN LA ENCRUCIJADA”

A cargo del profesor ROBERTO BLANCO VALDÉS, Catedrático de Derecho Constitucional Universidad Santiago de Compostela. Licenciado en Derecho por la Universidad de Santiago de Compostela. En la actualidad es Catedrático de Derecho Constitucional en el Departamento de Derecho Público y Teoría del Estado de la Universidad de Santiago. Ha sido profesor de las Facultades de Derecho y Sociología de la Universidad de A Coruña y en la actualidad lo es en las de Derecho y Ciencias Políticas de la Universidad de Santiago.
Entre sus obras cabe destacar “Rey, Cortes y fuerza armada en los orígenes de la España liberal (1808-1823)”, “La ordenación constitucional de la defensa”, “Los partidos políticos”, “El problema americano en las primera Cortes liberales españolas”, “El valor de la Constitución” “Introducción a la Constitución de 1978” y “Las conexiones políticas”.

Además de su actividad académica, desarrolla desde hace años una activa labor ensayística -en revistas como "Claves de Razón Práctica", "Leviatán", "Sistema" o "El Noticiero de las Ideas"- y periodística, como analista político en La Voz de Galicia y, hasta su cierre, en Diario 16. En el año 2001, obtuvo el "47 Premio Juan Fernández Latorre" de periodismo escrito.

¿Menos medicación para el TDAH?

¿Menos medicación para el TDAH?

El Dr. John J. Ratey, es  profesor de la Harvard Medical School y en febrero de 2010 realizó el curso Exercise and the Brain para que los participantes aprendieran a instruir a sus pacientes sobre los cambios en el cerebro y en el estado de ánimo que se producen tras el ejercicio físico aeróbico Este psiquiatra ha demostrado realizar ejercicio aeróbico en sus diferentes formas logra que  el alumno "se prepare" mejor para aprender, aumentando la atención, la motivación y el control de la impulsividad. Es autor, entre otros, del libro Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain.

Un estudio reciente, publicado en la revista Science, mostró que el ejercicio activo provoca en el cerebro cambios demostrables en la cantidad de receptores de dopamina o, en otras palabras, cómo influye en la bioquímica cerebral humana. Estos hallazgos invitan al optimismo ante la posibilidad de que contribuyan a  nuevos tratamientos para personas con problemas en la memoria a corto plazo como el trastorno por déficit de atención con hiperactividad (TDAH), el ictus o la encefalomielitis miálgica.

El Dr. Ratey no pretende decir, ni dice, que el ejercicio haga a los niños más inteligentes,; simplemente los prepara para aprender mejor. Después de un ejercicio moderado, el cerebro "mejora el rendimiento" y es más eficiente por  un aumento de neurotransmisores como la dopamina, la serotonina y la norepinefrina. Éstas hormonas están relacionadas con la regulación del humor, la atención y el equilibrio mental. Propone que, desde el experimento en una escuela de Charleston,  el hacer pausas breves con mini- sesiones con ejercicio durante 10 minutos de ejercicio dentro de las aulas, sirven para mantener la atención de los niños, aunque sea temporalmente siendo más beneficiados.los más distraídos.

La memoria a corto plazo o memoria de trabajo, es la capacidad de retener información durante cortos periodos de tiempo, por ejemplo en los procesos de resolución de problemas. La dopamina es una molécula mensajera que desempeña una función primordial en este tipo de memoria. La función de la dopamina como neurotransmisor es transportar mensajes desde una célula nerviosa a otra. Los fallos en el sistema de la dopamina pueden dañar la memoria a corto plazo, daños que se asocian con una serie de disfunciones psiquiátricas y neurológicas, además de con el proceso de envejecimiento natural. 

Todos sabemos que el ejercicio es bueno para el cuerpo, pero no sabíamos que mejoraba el rendimiento cerebral. El Dr. Ratey explora la conexión entre el ejercicio y el rendimiento del cerebro y su importancia para el tratamiento con ejercicio físico del TDAH por varias razones. Casi inmediatamente, tras el ejercicio aumenta la dopamina y la norepinefrina y las mantiene durante un período de tiempo parecido al del metilfenidato (medicación para el TDAH). También  ayuda a frenar la impulsividad y posponer los deseos de gratificación inmediata. Según este especicialista, el ejercicio:.

• Mejora el aprendizaje, el humor, la motivación y las ganas de hacer las cosas
• Influye en el aprendizaje directo, a nivel celular, mejorando el potencial del cerebro para acceder y procesar la información nueva. El ejercicio crea el  adecuado ambiente paralas células cerebrales
• Aumenta la neurogénesis, que es la producción de nuevas neuronas por la liberación de factores que fomentan la acción de las células madre
• Mejora la respuesta al estrés creando una resistencia interna a los factores estresantes gracias los enzimas antioxidantes propios, la reparación y reconstrucción de las proteínas, y mejorar los sistemas de eliminación de residuos tóxicos en el interior de las células nerviosas.
• Mejora el estado de ánimo al elevar los niveles de "nuestros neurotransmisores antidepresivos": dopamina, norepinefrina y serotonina.

El TDAH no tiene un método diagnóstico definitivo ni exacto y, a menudo,  el tratamiento con medicación es controvertido y  muchos creen, entre ellos yo, que es una enfermedad sobretratada por la presión de los laboratorios farmacéuticos que hacen su agosto con ella.. El Dr. John J. Ratey defiende que debería incluirse el ejercicio físico en el tratamiento, y que el ejercicio puede reducir o incluso eliminar la necesidad de la medicación. La razón, como se puede intuir, es sencilla tras lo dicho hasta ahora; en el TDAH el ejercicio aumenta la concentración tanto de la dopamina como de la noradrenalina, así como de otras sustancias químicas cerebrales: el mismo efecto que se consigue con la medicación. Por ese motivo el Dr. Ratey siempre ha mantenido que una dosis de ejercicio es como tomar un poco de metilfenidato o similar ; su efecto es idéntico a tomar un estimulante.

En EEUU algunas escuelas tienen pausas para hacer ejercicio cada hora, cada par de horas, o parecidas. Un paciente con TDAH podría beneficiarse de una pausa para ejercicios de 10-15 minutos cada hora, suficiente para conseguir que se acelere el pulso durante al menos unos cuantos minutos. Cuando tenga tiempo les hablaré del Tread Desk (una cinta continua para hacer ejrcicio mientras se está trabajando con el ordenador.) El paradigma del ejercicio contra la medicación es el nadador olímpico Michael Phelps, que fue diagnosticado de TDAH a los 9 años y comenzó a ser tratado con medicación. Aun así descubrió que le era imposible permanecer en la escuela. Entonces comenzó a nadar. Cuando alcanzó las 3 horas de ejercicio diario, no volvió a necesitar la medicación nunca más.

¡Bien, Dr. Ratkey! aunque todavía se están realizando ensayos clínicos específicos con ejercicio y TDAH. Es evidente que hay un espectro de gravedad en este trastorno y sólo el ejercicio no sería suficiente pero se logrará que muchos menos niños "vayan drogados". Eso sí, habrá que cambiar un poco, muy poco, el orden de la clase.

By el Doctor en Pediatría D. Santiago García-Tornel