Author: stevendouglasblog

Born in 1954. Chequered career including Lecturer in English, Social Worker and Lecturer in Social Work. Had breaks related to mental health that also meant I worked in social care. Now retired.

The end of rituals of mass salvation: the deep and necessary attack on identity politics in ‘Midnight Mass’.

July 6, 2025

Last night, Geoff and I steeled ourselves to watch the final sessions of Midnight Mass on Netflix, another blockbuster event. I say ‘steeled’ ourselves but that was not because of , up to the final episodes, of any terror at the violence and gore in it, but it’s totally serious attempt to listen to conversations … More The end of rituals of mass salvation: the deep and necessary attack on identity politics in ‘Midnight Mass’.

Is giving up on a challenge a strategy that ever brings comfort? An example from my reading.

July 5, 2025

The illustration – by Liz Zonarich/Harvard Staff – is from the Harvard Gazette article cited below, but to give up a book because it makes you uncomfortable may not be to ‘bin’ it but just re-shelve it in your mind (source: https://content.news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2024/10/when-to-quit-a-book/ ). After all the bin in the illustration has a l;ong shadow – … More Is giving up on a challenge a strategy that ever brings comfort? An example from my reading.

Even positive psychology cannot ignore the truths of the ‘inverted U’ curve that do not go away.

July 3, 2025

To be an icon of sexual attraction to men can never have been easy, and now even queer men find themselves fighting to fit into that category of being. Witness Elizabeth Taylor standing on the ‘burnish’d gold’ of her barge as Cleopatra, dressed and made-up to the nines but still clearly a woman of some … More Even positive psychology cannot ignore the truths of the ‘inverted U’ curve that do not go away.

‘Surgery’. The vindication of the use of tools of violent healing.

July 2, 2025

Have you ever had surgery? What for? The Extraction of the Stone of Madness (The Cure of Folly) by Hieronymous Bosch Let’s as usual start with the history of the word ‘surgery’ for it contains an important fiction. Here is that history, as usual from the invaluable etymonline.com: surgery (n.): c. 1300, sirgirie, “the work of a … More ‘Surgery’. The vindication of the use of tools of violent healing.

This is a blog in which I prepare to see Lila Raicek’s ‘My Master Builder’ on Tuesday 8th July at Wyndham’s Theatre, London.

July 2, 2025

How should we view the fall of a great man in a post-patriarchal age? A blog on preparing to see Lila Raicek’s ‘My Master Builder‘ on Tuesday 8th July at Wyndham’s Theatre, London. I consider some ways in which her play re-sees what Raicek calls Henrik Ibsen’s ‘autobiographical play’, ‘The Master Builder’ [‘Bigmester Solness’]. My … More This is a blog in which I prepare to see Lila Raicek’s ‘My Master Builder’ on Tuesday 8th July at Wyndham’s Theatre, London.

If I were a poet, then I might know how best to thank those who make life beautiful: Gillian Allnut thanks someone for showing her how to see the beauty of a ‘Golden Saxifrage’ and other kindness. This blog is about one poem in Gillian Allnut’s beautiful 2025 volume ‘Lode’. I wish I knew how to thank her.

June 29, 2025

I bought Lode from the Left bookshop in Durham where Gillian Allnut herself works as a volunteer, and I read it through for the first time last night before attempting to ignore the heat and sleep. What buzzed through my mind together with the gorgeous complex rhythmic adventures and associations with recall from past great … More If I were a poet, then I might know how best to thank those who make life beautiful: Gillian Allnut thanks someone for showing her how to see the beauty of a ‘Golden Saxifrage’ and other kindness. This blog is about one poem in Gillian Allnut’s beautiful 2025 volume ‘Lode’. I wish I knew how to thank her.

The future sounds a neutral enough subject but in truth it is a concept owned and shaped by the powerful few. This blog reflects on the republished ‘Young Palestinians Speak’ (2017, 2023) by Anthony Robinson & Annemarie Young.

June 28, 2025

One librarian at the Tamer Library, Haneen, interviewed by Robinson and Young devises activities for 8 – 13 year-olds in the area of Gaza where the Institutuon stands. When asked about their future lives, Haneen considers that the older children think mainly of emigration from Gaza, whilst ‘younger ones, without older siblings, do not think … More The future sounds a neutral enough subject but in truth it is a concept owned and shaped by the powerful few. This blog reflects on the republished ‘Young Palestinians Speak’ (2017, 2023) by Anthony Robinson & Annemarie Young.

Authority is a passing thing: The Story of one copy of the First Folio and an exhibition of its story in Durham

June 27, 2025

The First Folio of Shakespeare’s plays could be termed to give an authoritative statement of Shakespeare’s Plays. It does not. We think of authoritative things as things that can’t change. They do and must and authoring statements does not guarantee their infinite extension into wisdom that all must take on as belief. This is the … More Authority is a passing thing: The Story of one copy of the First Folio and an exhibition of its story in Durham

When lifestyle is less about style and more about the precarity of life itself. This blog is based on reading Curtis Garner ‘Isaac’ (2025) Harpenden, Verve Books.

June 25, 2025

Okay, lets deal with the elephant in the room first. When we hear the term ‘sustainable lifestyle’, we are perhaps meant first to look at how individuals manipulate the way or ‘style; of how they live to make it more possuible for that life mode to be sustained over time. It is meant to be, … More When lifestyle is less about style and more about the precarity of life itself. This blog is based on reading Curtis Garner ‘Isaac’ (2025) Harpenden, Verve Books.

Literally fabulous or confabulated – the dream of romance

June 24, 2025

As always with WordPress prompts there seems to be an agenda based on how a word is used in the immediate present of culture. After all only that could explain being asked for ‘your definition’ of a word, as if any words were amenable to purely personal definition and its use by that person validated … More Literally fabulous or confabulated – the dream of romance

Is patience is the name given by Stoics and Christians to ‘the time we waste in waiting and  longing for change’ so that it seems to be of the greatest value of all things?

June 22, 2025

Is patience is the name given by Stoics and Christians to ‘the time we waste in waiting and  longing for change’ so that it seems to be of the greatest value of all things? “It’s very dree work, waiting,” says ‘Old Alice’ in Elizabeth Gaskell’s Mary Barton of waiting for news of her lost sailor … More Is patience is the name given by Stoics and Christians to ‘the time we waste in waiting and  longing for change’ so that it seems to be of the greatest value of all things?