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.

Dis/Placed: meanings in the art metamorphose, and the variant contexts are at base space and time

June 3, 2025

Dis/Placed: meanings in the art of Anselm Keifer metamorphose in association with the variant contexts contingent on the ‘placement’ in space and time This blog post is a sequel to one on Part One of the Anselm Kiefer exhibition in Amsterdam at this link. Just a glance at the new work at the top of … More Dis/Placed: meanings in the art metamorphose, and the variant contexts are at base space and time

‘… something between me and the picture felt poised on an edge waiting to happen, the verge of something wild’. This blog is for Joanne, who loves and understands Ali Smith, relating to that author’s republished essay on Munch in book form, ‘So In The Spruce Forest’.

June 2, 2025

‘… something between me and the picture felt poised on an edge waiting to happen, the verge of something wild’.  [1] This blog is for Joanne, who loves and understands Ali Smith, relating to that author’s republished essay on Munch in book form, ‘So In The Spruce Forest’. Some people, and Joanne is one of … More ‘… something between me and the picture felt poised on an edge waiting to happen, the verge of something wild’. This blog is for Joanne, who loves and understands Ali Smith, relating to that author’s republished essay on Munch in book form, ‘So In The Spruce Forest’.

It would be: ‘He tried to notice the underlying things!’ Is this a case in point?: This blog looks at a discovered copy of the 75th anniversary issue of ‘Granta’ from 1964 [Volume 68, No 1233].

June 1, 2025

It would be: ‘He tried to notice the underlying things!’ Is this a case in point: This blog looks at a discovered copy of the 75th anniversary issue of ‘Granta’ from 1964 [Volume 68, No 1233]. In it a poet speaks of another much earlier poet: ‘Going, he carefully left his words behind’. My husband … More It would be: ‘He tried to notice the underlying things!’ Is this a case in point?: This blog looks at a discovered copy of the 75th anniversary issue of ‘Granta’ from 1964 [Volume 68, No 1233].

Anselm Kiefer sees Van Gogh in Amsterdam, and the confrontation is world-changing.

May 31, 2025

Anselm Kiefer said in a lecture in Tate Britain in 2019 (abridged for the new Van Gogh exhibition in Amsterdam in 2025 as an introduction to the catalogue): ‘Van Gogh’s composition is minimalist. There is no shimmering light dissolving the material world into pointillistic touches of colour. Van Gogh builds the landscape like a bricklayer, … More Anselm Kiefer sees Van Gogh in Amsterdam, and the confrontation is world-changing.

This blog is a reflective take on Seán Hewitt’s 2025 novel ‘Open, Heaven’ New York, Alfred A. Knopf.

May 29, 2025

‘It was  all unfinished and most likely it always would be’. Open, Heaven, which despite having many endings is also truly an unending story, asks us how much we really want our loves to remain open rather than closed to future promise: that ‘life of constant negotiation, movement, agony, bliss’ And we desire this perhaps … More This blog is a reflective take on Seán Hewitt’s 2025 novel ‘Open, Heaven’ New York, Alfred A. Knopf.

The Van Gogh Museum: Preface to seeing Van Gogh through the eyes of Anselm Kiefer

May 27, 2025

The Van Gogh Museum: Preface to seeing Van Gogh through the eyes of Anselm Kiefer The pictures above were by other tourists than us. This blog is an intrusion into the three-part set of blogs, in effect a fourth added to them but to preface the ones on the joint exhibition of Anselm Kiefer, both … More The Van Gogh Museum: Preface to seeing Van Gogh through the eyes of Anselm Kiefer

On the myth that visiting the Rijksmuseum is the primary way of knowing the culture of Holland and the Dutch spirit.

May 26, 2025

On the myth that visiting the Rijksmuseum is the primary way of knowing the culture of Holland and the Dutch spirit. In my introductory blog on our Amsterdam trip [at this link], I suggested there would be three more Amsterdam blogs to come.  There, in the first version (now updated to reflect the chosen final … More On the myth that visiting the Rijksmuseum is the primary way of knowing the culture of Holland and the Dutch spirit.

I don’t think I do know when to ‘unplug’. But I do get to points where I feel I have ‘unplugged’. It happened in Amsterdam. Our Amsterdam experience: an introduction

May 25, 2025

I don’t think I do know when to ‘unplug’. But I do get to points where I feel I have ‘unplugged’. It happened in Amsterdam. Our Amsterdam experience: an introduction You could say our Amsterdam experience was defined in the wake of its progression: the place of one’s status quo existence becoming a mist that rides … More I don’t think I do know when to ‘unplug’. But I do get to points where I feel I have ‘unplugged’. It happened in Amsterdam. Our Amsterdam experience: an introduction

We evaluate both a belonging and the feeling of belonging with or by principles of rightful exclusion for ownership and membership thereof respectively.

May 24, 2025

What personal belongings do you hold most dear? In a blog on  novel called, and in some degree about, the wider implications of what we mean by Theft (see it at this link), I found myself considering associations with two different kinds of entitlement: the entitlement of ownership of things (and sometimes people) one calls … More We evaluate both a belonging and the feeling of belonging with or by principles of rightful exclusion for ownership and membership thereof respectively.

Heather Christle‘s (2025)  ‘In The Rhododendrons’: thank you Kaveh Akbar for your recommendation on the book’s jacket that made me buy this. You have great friends.

May 22, 2025

In Heather Christle‘s (2025)  In The Rhododendrons many people (with effects of pleasure and pain or hope and despair) continually strike ‘the same pose’ that made images of a possible past recur. Christle tells us that is what family albums do, but that recurrence or repetition within them can, and perhaps should,  be perceived ‘differently’. … More Heather Christle‘s (2025)  ‘In The Rhododendrons’: thank you Kaveh Akbar for your recommendation on the book’s jacket that made me buy this. You have great friends.

Putting Love and Death on the screen in the context of the greatest of the dead Masters. A tentative new beginning with WordPress blogs.

May 21, 2025

I am returning to WordPress blogging after a break, including a short break in Amsterdam, which I will no doubt make many blogs about in the near future. But I, like the wedding guest in Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, felt that my taking leave of WordPress was not unlike … More Putting Love and Death on the screen in the context of the greatest of the dead Masters. A tentative new beginning with WordPress blogs.

The end of a streak means relaxing into my Amsterdam trip with my wonderful husband tomorrow.

May 11, 2025

There is something rather neurotic about daily blogging. Well, there you go. I am free at last. WordPress has, or had, a function by which it congratulated people each time they increase the number of days of continuous daily blogs. You were given a streak number corresponding to the number of days you continued your … More The end of a streak means relaxing into my Amsterdam trip with my wonderful husband tomorrow.