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.

Retiring? Never and always simultaneously and repetitively is the only answer, however contradictory that is!

June 14, 2025

In the Elizabethan theatre a secluded space off stage and curtained, or otherwise partitioned off, and called a ‘tiring house’ acted as as a place in which actors went when they left the stage on which they performed their role or roles: it served two purposes. It was a place in which actors changed their … More Retiring? Never and always simultaneously and repetitively is the only answer, however contradictory that is!

The problems of expression with exactitude: how to start thinking about Gertrude Stein as a meta-writer [a writer who writes mainly about the nature of writing].

June 13, 2025

Describe your dream chocolate bar. Used as an adjective here, the word ‘dream’ is usually thought to have the equivalent meaning as, to some extent, clearer adjectives like ‘perfect’ or ‘ideal’, but the force of the meaning of the noun persists, which describes an event that occurs entirely within the person, and with the same … More The problems of expression with exactitude: how to start thinking about Gertrude Stein as a meta-writer [a writer who writes mainly about the nature of writing].

I am passionate about the role of reading and the redemption of material life it carries with it. This is a blog on Ocean Vuong (2025) ‘The Emperor of Gladness’

June 12, 2025

‘The linoleum, too, … is blue. So blue you’ll have the feeling  of being swept away because you are, into a current of corridors intentionally too narrow to turn around in’.[1] Queer writers have so long challenged the false universals of heteronormative stability, and perhaps privileged the discourse of sexual interaction as a panacea  for … More I am passionate about the role of reading and the redemption of material life it carries with it. This is a blog on Ocean Vuong (2025) ‘The Emperor of Gladness’

This is a blog about the role of the uniform in the construction of the object of queer desire in the contexts of the militarisation of social, political and psychosexual cultures based on reading Jeffrey Schneider (2023) ‘Uniform Fantasies: Soldiers, Sex, and Queer Emancipation in Imperial Germany’.

June 10, 2025

‘… uniforms did not just shape and display a disciplined male body but also guided and excited the gazing eye in particular ways’.[1] This is a blog about the role of the uniform in the construction of the object of queer desire in the contexts of the militarisation of social, political and psychosexual cultures based … More This is a blog about the role of the uniform in the construction of the object of queer desire in the contexts of the militarisation of social, political and psychosexual cultures based on reading Jeffrey Schneider (2023) ‘Uniform Fantasies: Soldiers, Sex, and Queer Emancipation in Imperial Germany’.

The meaning of notable! What leaves a mark? Who makes that note?

June 9, 2025

When I visited the wonderful John Bellany self-portraiture exhibition at City Art Gallery in Edinburgh on Friday 4th June, there was also another exhibition (on Modern Scottish Art) containing one other Bellany painting, that painting known as Obsession. Photography was banned so I rely on internet photographs to mark or note memories not my own. … More The meaning of notable! What leaves a mark? Who makes that note?

The one thing I cannot live without is art – however raw its raw materials. Uncluttering the classic stage: Lear, a production of The National Theatre of Scotland at the Traverse Theatre seen 2.30-3.30 p.m. Saturday 7th June 2025.

June 8, 2025

The one thing I cannot live without is theatre – however raw its raw materials. Uncluttering the classic stage: ‘Lear’, a production of The National Theatre of Scotland at the Traverse Theatre seen 2.30-3.30 p.m. Saturday 7th June 2025. Bcck in the old days at Honley Grammar School, my friend Ann will remember that we … More The one thing I cannot live without is art – however raw its raw materials. Uncluttering the classic stage: Lear, a production of The National Theatre of Scotland at the Traverse Theatre seen 2.30-3.30 p.m. Saturday 7th June 2025.

Perhaps we all spend ‘the most time’ with ourselves and that rowdy group of conflicting persons’ thoughts. Hence, the need to keep learning!

June 7, 2025

Who do you spend the most time with? Mine is the next train, and I sit here with my skinny cappuccino waiting for it, aware I hate leaving my hubby and doggy behind in Durham. But that’s what it is like to be driven to leave no vacant space that might get filled by experience. … More Perhaps we all spend ‘the most time’ with ourselves and that rowdy group of conflicting persons’ thoughts. Hence, the need to keep learning!

‘The Secret Seven’ fail to catch up on ‘The Little Prince’.

June 4, 2025

‘The Secret Seven’ fail to catch up on ‘The Little Prince’. When I was in primary school, Enid Blyton ruled the world of children’s fiction, yet apart from having a kind of loving fascination for The Island of Adventure (because I liked island books), I had not even a pretend interest in The Famous Five … More ‘The Secret Seven’ fail to catch up on ‘The Little Prince’.

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.