NOTE TO SELF: I’ve got this as far as I can and I doubt I’ll revise. Yet I do sense lots of problems remaining in my own prose. Still it is enough for what I want – to write out how this book seemed to me to work for my own understanding. If anyone else … More ‘”Queerness has an especially vexed relationship to evidence”’. Reflecting on why Mark Doty, a queer poet, insists on the queerness of the body of Walt Whitman’s verse in his reflection on the poet’s influence. (Doty, M. (2020) ‘What is the Grass: Walt Whitman in My Life’

“In low-class circles, more often than Latin, Greek was associated with extreme, other-worldly, intellectual prowess and arcane, even sinister arts”.[1]  A reader reflecting on themselves, why pearls shouldn’t be cast before swine and the world of the classics – reflexive reading of Edith Hall & Henry Stead (2020) A People’s History of Classics: Class and … More “In low-class circles, more often than Latin, Greek was associated with extreme, other-worldly, intellectual prowess and arcane, even sinister arts”.[1] A reader reflecting on themselves, why pearls shouldn’t be cast before swine and the world of the classics – reflexive reading of Edith Hall & Henry Stead (2020) A People’s History of Classics: Class and Greco-Roman Antiquity in Britain and Ireland 1689 to 1939

“Says he can’t believe how much I  look like her.” (εϊδωλον “image, likeness, simulacrum, replica, proxy, idol”): Reflecting on Anne Carson’s (2019) Norma Jeane Baker of Troy London, Oberon Books. A very waspish review of this play by Maya Phillips in The New York Times says that: … while Carson’s writing feels innovative and thematically … More “Says he can’t believe how much I look like her.” (εϊδωλον): Reflecting on Anne Carson’s (2019) ‘Norma Jeane Baker of Troy’ London, Oberon Books.

‘[D]etails, chopped up finely, reduced to the state of impalpable dust and arranged … as to multiply their effect many times over and together form an impression of a landscape’.[1] Visualising space in reading and recreating Guiseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s The Leopard. This blog is not what I intended, although it does try to look … More ‘[D]etails, chopped up finely, reduced to the state of impalpable dust and arranged … as to multiply their effect many times over and together form an impression of a landscape’. Visualising space in reading and recreating Lampedusa’s ‘The Leopard’.

Two blogs on the Bensons: No. 2 of 2: Writing the complexity of a family: Simon Goldhill (2016) A Very Queer Family Indeed: Sex, Religion and the Bensons in Victorian Britain Chicago & London, The University of Chicago Press. To see this blog use: https://stevebamlett.home.blog/2020/06/02/writing-the-complexity-of-a-family-simon-goldhill-2016-a-very-queer-family-indeed-sex-religion-and-the-bensons-1-of-2-blogs/ How then do we read novels queerly, avoiding oversimplifying categories? … More How then do we read novels queerly, avoiding oversimplifying categories? Reading E. F. Benson (1916) ‘David Blaize’.

Two blogs on the Bensons: No. 1 of 2: Writing the complexity of a family: Simon Goldhill (2016) A Very Queer Family Indeed: Sex, Religion and the Bensons in Victorian Britain Chicago & London, The University of Chicago Press How then do we read novels queerly, avoiding oversimplifying categories? Reading E. F. Benson (1916) David … More Writing the complexity of a family: Simon Goldhill (2016) ‘A Very Queer Family Indeed: Sex, Religion and the Bensons’ (1 of 2 blogs)

“Possible failure or disaster seemed to lurk round every corner: … Why on earth does one go submitting oneself to such torments?”[1] Creativity and imminent disaster in Stanley Cursiter: reporting on Beasant, P. (2007) Stanley Cursiter: a life of the artist Kirkwall, Orkney Museums and Heritage I’d like to start with the usual personalised note, … More “Possible failure or disaster seemed to lurk round every corner: … Why on earth does one go submitting oneself to such torments?” Creativity and imminent disaster in Stanley Cursiter: reporting on Beasant, P. (2007) ‘Stanley Cursiter’

Reflecting for a third time on Somerled @Somerled_Art: After Somerled began to work with digital animation of their images and to practice shape-shifting or metamorphosis in real time. What does it mean for shapes to shift? I’d like to think it’s something more than one thing changing into another thing. If A becomes B that … More Reflecting for a third time on Somerled @Somerled_Art: After Somerled began to work with digital animation

Reflecting on queer puzzles in Cavafy. Based mainly on reading Cavafy, C.P. (trans Daniel Mendelsohn) (2013) C.P. Cavafy: Complete Poems London, Harper Press & Liddell, R. (1974) Cavafy: A Critical Biography London, Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd. Mendelsohn in 2013 tells us that Liddell’s biography, ‘is still the only book-length biography of the poet in … More Reflecting on queer puzzles in Cavafy. Reading Cavafy, C.P. (trans Daniel Mendelsohn) (2013) ‘C.P. Cavafy: Complete Poems’ & Liddell, R. (1974) ‘Cavafy: A Critical Biography’

Does the paranoia of fantasy thrillers help us understand complex events in real life?: Examining Peter May (2020) Lockdown London, riverrun Quercus Editions Ltd. Peter May wrote this book in the wake of the fear that spread the world over a possible bird flu pandemic in 2005. Written in 6 weeks, he tells us in … More Does the paranoia of fantasy thrillers help us understand complex events in real life?: Examining Peter May’s (2020) ‘Lockdown’.