11 April 2017
by Davide Mana 15 Comments

A mission statement of sorts

OK, let’s do it.
You see, yesterday I commented on my friend Victoria’s blog, on a post she wrote about our personal mission statement – that is, what our life is about, what we are trying to accomplish, what we are trying to be.

Victoria’s guidelines for writing a personal mission statement are straightforward and just a little macabre – imagine people talking about you at your funeral. What would you like them to say?
That’s your mission statement.

mission-statement

Now, I’ve been thinking about mortality a lot these last few months.
It comes in part from losing my father and being there to witness it, in part from the approaching 50th birthday, in part because I feel my old carcass is no longer working properly, and I sometimes worry.
But anyway, why not try and write a mission statement?
After all, I love talking about myself. Continue reading →

11 April 2017
by Davide Mana 11 Comments

The many faces of Holmes

Considering the success of last week’s post about Holmes, and the sudden appearance of so many Sherlockians on my blog, I decided to put together a small gallery of famous – or not so famous – Holmes from the big and the small screen, like the one I did for Philip Marlowe a while back.

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See if you can recognise them all.
Anyone I forgot? Please let me know in the comments.
And as you are at it – one of them is not Holmes, but it’s actually his brother. Can you spot him? Give your answer in the comments.

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SHH-FP-010 ROBERT DOWNEY JR. as Sherlock Holmes in Warner Bros. Pictures‚Äô and Village Roadshow Pictures‚Äô action-adventure mystery ‚ÄúSherlock Holmes,‚Äù distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures.

by ImageGear, AccuSoft Corp.

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Ian Richardson played Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1983) and in The Sign of Four (1983).

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A post I did for Ginger Nuts of Horror:

THE TYCOON AS VAMPIRE: CORRADO FARINA’S ‘HANNO CAMBIATO FACCIA’ (1971)

10 April 2017
by Davide Mana Leave a comment

Pulp History: Savitri Devi

Writing historical fiction and historical fantasy can sometimes lead to the discovery of less-than-pleasant characters.
Yesterday I made the acquaintance of someone I only knew passingly: Savitri Devi – the woman who, among other things, was convinced that Hitler was an avatar (or incarnation) of Vishnu. Which I’d file under crackpot were it not for the fact that the lady in question is a character worth of pulp fiction, and shows us an aspect of history some of us might have missed.

Savitri_Devi

Born of a Greek/Italian French father and an English mother, Savitri Devi started out as Maximiani Julia Portas in 1905. Graduated in chemistry and philosophy inLyon, she went on an archaeological expedition to Grece and developed an early interest in Aryan culture because of Schlieman’s discovery of a swastika in Anatolia.
Having renounced her French nationality to become a Greek national, she moved close to National Socialist political positions and travelled to India in search of the roots of the Aryan civilisation. She converted to Hinduism (if, most likely, her own version of Hinduism), and she was a spy for the Axis in India, keeping an eye on the British. Continue reading →

Who would have ever expected a Vanity Fair link on Karavansara? And yet…

The Man Behind History’s Most Iconic Movie Posters, From Breakfast at Tiffany’s to James Bond

9 April 2017
by Davide Mana 27 Comments

A way to keep the brain going: learning a foreign language (or five!)

The subject of languages came up in the comments section of my last post, when Floodmouse asked about my fluency in both English and Italian.
And I thought that for a blog that has the Silk Road as one of its themes, together with exotic adventure and history, then languages should be an interesting and pertinent topic. And languages have always been an interest of mine – and I learned a few, and I might have some dubious wisdom to share.

3592844F00000578-0-image-m-32_1466643151552 And talking of dubious wisdom…
I can’t remember in which of the Flashman novels¹, Flash Harry gives some good-natured suggestion to young men abroad in need of learning the local lingo in a haste.
Flashman’s suggestion boils down to shacking up with a local prostitute for the time needed, and do some conversation between… ehm, sessions.

Now I never tried that one, but I do have a few languages in my CV, and I am absolutely certain that knowing a different language (or three) is an essential life skill.
It helps us communicate with others, of course, and it provides us with the opportunity of seeing the world through other people’s eyes – by reading their books and newspapers, by listening to their songs and their radio news, by talking to them.
Practicing a foreign language is also an excellent method to keep the dust off our brain.
And it can be quite fun, if done with the proper attitude.
And indeed, the web provides a lot of opportunities for learning another language, and practicing it. Because practice is the important thing. Continue reading →

8 April 2017
by Davide Mana 2 Comments

Language and Stories

I’m writing a story.
It’s an alternate history short story for a forthcoming project.
I will not disclose the details, but I can safely say that it’s a story that features Carole Lombard – because I love Carole Lombard, and she’s the right woman in the right place, so to speak, for the story I want to write.