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.

Forward Poetry Prize fills the stage with meaning, truth, beauty and not a little fun.

October 11, 2024

The Forward Poetry Prize is probably the most prodigious of prizes for a working poet and I have followed the short list for best collection with joy , mounting interest and some intense feeling generated by superb works of which I could not predict the winner (see my blog at this link) for I enjoyed … More Forward Poetry Prize fills the stage with meaning, truth, beauty and not a little fun.

‘Space’ explored in light at Durham Cathedral, 7 p.m. on 9th October 2024.

October 10, 2024

‘Space’ explored in light at Durham Cathedral, 7 p.m. on 9th October 2024. This week we are attending events at Durham’s Book Festival but our programme starts tonight with us going to see a revisit to Durham Cathedral of the moving light art exhibition group, Lux Muralis (use the link to read the group’s self-introduction). Their subject this year is Space of the Outer … More ‘Space’ explored in light at Durham Cathedral, 7 p.m. on 9th October 2024.

Alan Hollinghurst says that even if the first person narrator has a ‘testifying force’, it ‘is also filled with the omission of not knowing everything’. This is a blog on Alan Hollinghurst (2024) ‘Our Evenings’.

October 9, 2024

Alim Kheraj of GQ magazine starts his interview regarding Our Evenings (2024) with novelist Alan Hollinghurst with a question about  the ‘distinct first-person narrator’, asking: ‘How did that voice develop?’ Hollinghurst’s answer gives the reason why he thought a first person narrator was ‘inevitable’ because the events must be seen by someone ‘racially distinct from … More Alan Hollinghurst says that even if the first person narrator has a ‘testifying force’, it ‘is also filled with the omission of not knowing everything’. This is a blog on Alan Hollinghurst (2024) ‘Our Evenings’.

A note about ‘Bajazet’ by Racine and translated by Alan Hollinghurst and featuring in ‘Our Evenings’

October 8, 2024

Alan Hollinghurst’s newest novel opens with the memoirist, who is the novel’s focus, Dave Win, thinking about his present life in his 80s. He is ‘two weeks into rehearsals for Bajazet at the Anvil’, where he is ‘playing old Acomat, the grand Vizier, a gift of a part, …’. This blog is a starter before … More A note about ‘Bajazet’ by Racine and translated by Alan Hollinghurst and featuring in ‘Our Evenings’

‘how dare I love you here in the evidence of evil’: some thoughts about ‘Sioux Falls’ in Danez Smith (2024) ‘Bluff’.

October 7, 2024

‘how dare I love you here in the evidence of evil’: some thoughts about Sioux Falls in Danez Smith (2024: page 81) Bluff London, Chatto & Windus. This blog is a preliminary in a mini-project to prepare myself to hear Danez Smith reading from Bluff at the London Literary Festival at The Southbank Centre at 3.15 … More ‘how dare I love you here in the evidence of evil’: some thoughts about ‘Sioux Falls’ in Danez Smith (2024) ‘Bluff’.

‘They flee from me that sometime did me seek’ : Abandonment is a colossally mistaken feeling.

October 6, 2024

Sometimes, it seems that all away do runSometimes, it seems that all away do runand I alone from them do stalk, feeling colossal in my rightness, though aloneperhaps forever – turning in my mindbeing abandoned as gifts held aloftto send me elsewhere – to another sphereof dominion, some place in which I’llstill reign, again held … More ‘They flee from me that sometime did me seek’ : Abandonment is a colossally mistaken feeling.

“… and when I love thee not, chaos is come again.” it takes ‘Othello’ to be played on a shoestring to see it as a drama of predictable personal breakdown of a man who lives only in his self-image. This is a blog on seeing Elysium Theatre play ‘Othello’ at Bishop Auckland Town Hall on Friday September at 7.30 p.m.

October 5, 2024

“,,. and when I love thee not, chaos is come again.” it takes ‘Othello’ to be played on a shoestring to see it as a drama of predictable personal breakdown of a man who lives only in his self-image. This is a blog on seeing Elysium Theatre play ‘Othello’ at Bishop Auckland Town Hall on … More “… and when I love thee not, chaos is come again.” it takes ‘Othello’ to be played on a shoestring to see it as a drama of predictable personal breakdown of a man who lives only in his self-image. This is a blog on seeing Elysium Theatre play ‘Othello’ at Bishop Auckland Town Hall on Friday September at 7.30 p.m.

J.K. Rowling asserts when answering questions about her religious beliefs that she ‘believes in biology’: what I learned on Geoff finding for me a book on Georg Kolbe, who felt forced into such beliefs.

October 4, 2024

Geoff works in a charity bookshop as a volunteer and often buys me little books that don’t sell but he thinks might interest me. Yesterday he brought this little book first published in Leipzig, Germany, but undated, with a written brief life of Kolbe by Richard Grant (whom I have failed to trace) in German, … More J.K. Rowling asserts when answering questions about her religious beliefs that she ‘believes in biology’: what I learned on Geoff finding for me a book on Georg Kolbe, who felt forced into such beliefs.

A blog stating a case for a ‘queer’ reading of the classic play by Samuel Beckett ‘Waiting for Godot: A tragicomedy in two Acts’. Seeing Ben Whishaw at the Haymarket 25th October 2024

October 3, 2024

‘[The moon rises at back, mounts in the sky, stands still, shedding a pale light on the scene.] …. ESTRAGON: “Pale for weariness” VLADIMIR: “Eh?” ESTRAGON: Of climbing heaven and gazing on the likes of us.” A blog about feeling not worthy of ‘its constancy’, and a case for a ‘queer’ reading of a classic … More A blog stating a case for a ‘queer’ reading of the classic play by Samuel Beckett ‘Waiting for Godot: A tragicomedy in two Acts’. Seeing Ben Whishaw at the Haymarket 25th October 2024

‘Maybe it wasn’t true that there were no arts of living’. This is a blog on Garth Greenwell (2024) ‘Small Rain’.

October 2, 2024

There are no answers in this novel about ‘how to live’ other than the possibility that there might be, but possibly  too there aren’t,  ‘provisional truths’. Sometimes wisdom looks like the realisation that: ‘Maybe it wasn’t true that there were no arts of living’.[1] In this novel Garth Greenwell leaps from the queered description of … More ‘Maybe it wasn’t true that there were no arts of living’. This is a blog on Garth Greenwell (2024) ‘Small Rain’.

Ekphrastic Lines that Hover over Two Men Stilled in Love in Hugh Steer’s ‘Blue Rug’ (1994).

October 1, 2024

Ekphrastic Lines that Hover over Two Men Stilled in Love in Hugh Steer’s Blue Rug (1994). Hugh Steers ‘Blue Rug’ (1994) painted in the year before his death from AIDS Everything is still:the bed still folded back,the chair still bears his shape.We stand so formallyOur hands don’t touch, but hold:Hold on still, forever. From above … More Ekphrastic Lines that Hover over Two Men Stilled in Love in Hugh Steer’s ‘Blue Rug’ (1994).

Amy Liptrot says of the film based on her personal story, ‘The Outrun’, that it has transformed her life ‘into art, something bigger than me: ….. One of the themes … is the link between mental illness and addiction and the desire to reach for extremes. This film-making process has been another example of these extremes. I am amplified, cinematic, extra-real’. A blog on ‘The Outrun’.

September 30, 2024

Amy Liptrot in The Observer on the 22nd September says of the film based on her personal story, The Outrun, that it has transformed themes in her life ‘into art, something bigger than me: ….. One of the themes of The Outrun is the link between mental illness and addiction and the desire to reach for extremes. … More Amy Liptrot says of the film based on her personal story, ‘The Outrun’, that it has transformed her life ‘into art, something bigger than me: ….. One of the themes … is the link between mental illness and addiction and the desire to reach for extremes. This film-making process has been another example of these extremes. I am amplified, cinematic, extra-real’. A blog on ‘The Outrun’.