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.

“Inside me is an ocean like those tears / The just lock inside them when greed overtakes / The best of them, whilst worse men grow and thrive.”. The earth, which some call Erde, speaks to her abusers.

January 15, 2025

Atlas shivered as he held aloft the frame he thought once held the weight of Earth.Not blown away by some drive from Northernwinds, but wasted by the flow of waterColder than the ice at its poles: FluidThat flows from inside her. Being in doubtOf lasting long,Earth spoke of their spiritBroken by heart-ache at how men … More “Inside me is an ocean like those tears / The just lock inside them when greed overtakes / The best of them, whilst worse men grow and thrive.”. The earth, which some call Erde, speaks to her abusers.

‘Soon I will no longer be a shadow to you’. says Bill Skarsgård in an imagined thick ‘Transylvanian’ accent and within a dream fantasy to Ellen Hutter in Robert Eggers’ 2024 film ‘Nosferatu’. What’s added by the fleshly consummation of a vampire?

January 14, 2025

Philip Sledge pulls no punches quoting his own take on Robert Eggers new film Nosferatu (2024) in a MSN notice detailing the back catalogue of Nosferatu films [in one of which William Dafoe, playing the absurd Paracelsian vampire hunter Professor Alvin Eberhart von Franz in this film, played vampire Count Orlok himself] as “bloody, sexy, … More ‘Soon I will no longer be a shadow to you’. says Bill Skarsgård in an imagined thick ‘Transylvanian’ accent and within a dream fantasy to Ellen Hutter in Robert Eggers’ 2024 film ‘Nosferatu’. What’s added by the fleshly consummation of a vampire?

Remembering John Burnside. All he wanted to do ‘was tell one story my own. … something that begins in the world, but ends up somewhere else, as an entirely mental event’.

January 13, 2025

I am still attempting to catalogue my library and have just completed the section containing works by John Burnside, a writer who died recently but whose work I followed since I first read, in a whirl his The Devil’s Footprints, working my way backwards in his oeuvre as I and he moved forwards. I would … More Remembering John Burnside. All he wanted to do ‘was tell one story my own. … something that begins in the world, but ends up somewhere else, as an entirely mental event’.

‘Wealtherty’ : a new concept helps us to understand why poverty persists in the wake of economic growth, and why a Labour government should not silently accept trickle-down economics.

January 12, 2025

It was okay once for Labour MPs to laugh at Liz Truss’ belief that stimulating production through decreasing barriers to the rich getting really and relatively richer benefited the relarively poor. Wealth, Truss insists, trickles down the economic structure – increasing private wealth increases the wealth of all and reduces the problem of scarcity of … More ‘Wealtherty’ : a new concept helps us to understand why poverty persists in the wake of economic growth, and why a Labour government should not silently accept trickle-down economics.

‘Street Kids’ Joan Eardley (c. 1950): Townhead in Glasgow

January 11, 2025

I first saw this painting painted about 1950 at an Eardley retrospective at the Scottish Gallery of Modern Art in a Joan Eardley retrospective called ‘A Sense of Place’ in 2017. Though often reduced to statements of the ‘strong identification with the poor and deprived’ type, these paintings do not seem to me to call … More ‘Street Kids’ Joan Eardley (c. 1950): Townhead in Glasgow

‘Never meet your heroes!’: An illustrative tale of the folly of engaging informally, for that’s impossible, with important writers

January 10, 2025

The i newspaper collage above promises one minute with Jenni Fagan. It is a provocative statement. It’s  almost problematic in its offering of the writer to any reader. This blog was stimulated as I was scanning my bookshelves in order to catalogue my personal library. The last sequence of shelves I have attempted has been … More ‘Never meet your heroes!’: An illustrative tale of the folly of engaging informally, for that’s impossible, with important writers

‘When will I, will I be famous?’: A blog on the question of desired ‘fame’.

January 9, 2025

The song by Bros ‘When will I, will I be famous?’ with lyrics by Tom Watkins and Nicky Graham seems silly enough when it gets into your head like the ear worm it is. But I often find that seeing the lyrics in print rather changes how you read and interpret it, when not driven … More ‘When will I, will I be famous?’: A blog on the question of desired ‘fame’.

Many of Iris Murdoch’s characters feel they are in a drama not of their own scripting (which, of course they are) that can only be changed by getting out from ‘under the net’ of a web of false relationships. This blog contains some thoughts on reading a play I had neglected by the great novelist.

January 8, 2025

Many of Iris Murdoch’s characters feel they are in a drama not of their own scripting (which, of course they are – as Bradley Pearson and Hamlet are in The Black Prince and Hamlet respectively and both together in the first) that can only be changed by getting out from under the net of a … More Many of Iris Murdoch’s characters feel they are in a drama not of their own scripting (which, of course they are) that can only be changed by getting out from ‘under the net’ of a web of false relationships. This blog contains some thoughts on reading a play I had neglected by the great novelist.

Making and communicating decisions about our ‘favourite things’ are not exclusive to humans, who forget the truism, as stated by the University of Vienna cognitive biologist W. Tecumseh Fitch says: we really need to … recognize a very simple biological fact: It’s a truism, but people are animals, too.”

January 7, 2025

W. Tecumseh Fitch, a cognitive biologist (and, of course, an animal) from the University of Vienna, giving his keynote speech at the 2017 International Convention of Psychological Science in Vienna: ‘we really need to … recognize a very simple biological fact: It’s a truism, but people are animals, too.” Available at: https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/humans-are-animals-too-a-whirlwind-tour-of-cognitive-biology Forget precedence and … More Making and communicating decisions about our ‘favourite things’ are not exclusive to humans, who forget the truism, as stated by the University of Vienna cognitive biologist W. Tecumseh Fitch says: we really need to … recognize a very simple biological fact: It’s a truism, but people are animals, too.”

Sequestered:  The art of self-discovery might be no more than facing up to being  locked-in with your own doubts & uncertainty . A reflection after seeing Edward Berger’s film Conclave.

January 6, 2025

Sequestered:  The art of self-discovery might be no more than facing up to being  locked-in with your own doubts & uncertainty . A reflection after seeing Edward Berger’s film Conclave. [The film is directed by Edward Berger and written by Peter Straughan, based on the 2016 novel by Robert Harris]. There is a truly impressive moment – … More Sequestered:  The art of self-discovery might be no more than facing up to being  locked-in with your own doubts & uncertainty . A reflection after seeing Edward Berger’s film Conclave.

‘Snow was general all over Ireland’. Phrases that suddenly  make demands on you that you understand  them more fully.

January 5, 2025

We read about the weather all of the time and without thinking about them. I opened my smartphone cover, and the message hit me that ‘snow was likely to continue’ in my area of residence on the sides of the Northern Pennines in County Durham. Perhaps it caught my eye because I was concerned about … More ‘Snow was general all over Ireland’. Phrases that suddenly  make demands on you that you understand  them more fully.

When sexual innuendo is intended and when it is not in Shakespeare’s plays: ‘Nothing will come of nothing’.

January 4, 2025

A good blogger has I feel already stolen my thunder in respect of the term ‘nothing’ in Shakespeare about which I had intended to blog about; having nothing other on my mind. That blog takes its evidence from a piece in The Daily Telegraph about the polysemous use of the tern ‘nothing’, pronounced ‘noting’ in … More When sexual innuendo is intended and when it is not in Shakespeare’s plays: ‘Nothing will come of nothing’.