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 ‘happiness Tsar’: the ideology of well-being despite every circumstance.

December 12, 2024

Photo by Rick Pushinsky of Richard Layard: the ‘happiness Tsar’ under the Tony Blair regime from Annie Maccoby Berglof article in ‘The Financial Times’ ( September 12 2014) available at: https://www.ft.com/content/b1d0b140-3386-11e4-85f1-00144feabdc0 We hear much less of ‘happiness’ since the termination of the Blair-Brown government but perhaps it will return under Keir Starmer, who needs an ideology to … More The ‘happiness Tsar’: the ideology of well-being despite every circumstance.

A ‘wild surmise’ whilst ‘Silent, upon a peak in Darien’.

December 11, 2024

Let’s wait for a moment on a peak in Darién Province in Panama in South America. Why are we waiting? We got to Darién Province, not through its history of colonisation, though it is a fairly interesting story, having seen off the ill-fated Scottish mercantile project of subsuminf it to Scottish rule in the eighteenth   … More A ‘wild surmise’ whilst ‘Silent, upon a peak in Darien’.

Why reading matters more than just hearing stories. With the help of Father Ong, Rita Carter and, more than the rest, Jobo (Joanne).

December 10, 2024

Father Walter J. Ong shook my world in 1982 with his book Orality and Literacy, wherein he tried to show us why we, seeped in literacy (even if we cannot or will not read because the characters to be read would still surround us and puzzle us, with either their potential to polysemous mystery or … More Why reading matters more than just hearing stories. With the help of Father Ong, Rita Carter and, more than the rest, Jobo (Joanne).

‘Ecce Homo!’ To ‘have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part, …’. He changed me.

December 9, 2024

Caravaggio’s Ecce Homo (1605) available via: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecce_homo Let Wikipedia have the first word of explanation of my choice of title: Ecce homo! (this links to the full Wikipedia article). And let this happen before I justify, as a non-believer and atheist, the choice of the Christian tradition (and in particular, that of the High Anglican … More ‘Ecce Homo!’ To ‘have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part, …’. He changed me.

“Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show”. 

December 8, 2024

“Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show”. (Charles Dickens: the first sentence of David Copperfield (1849-50)). Visualizing the future self and the use of memories of past visualisations when that future presents itself. I have always … More “Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show”. 

The Rattle Of A Simple Man: or resetting a jelly that has already liquefied.

December 7, 2024

Charles Dyer’s play, later a film, The Rattle f a Simple Man tells the story of a Northern mill worker who goes to London to find out if he is up to the job of bringing charismatic success into his life. It is success as a lover he seeks and hence that is a big … More The Rattle Of A Simple Man: or resetting a jelly that has already liquefied.

‘born to set it right!’. Genetics, Destiny and Duty for all time in ‘Hamlet’

December 6, 2024

Act 1 Scene 5 is pivotal in Shakespeare’s play Hamlet for the eponymous character and the progress of the play’s plot itself, partly because it makes clear that the character of Hamlet is the substance of the plot of Hamlet as a play. If plot distributes the actions that take place in a play, those … More ‘born to set it right!’. Genetics, Destiny and Duty for all time in ‘Hamlet’

‘It was like everything you thought you knew could be rewritten. / like learning that time can sing and that it’s old and young, …’. (Brice in Ali Smith’s ‘Gliff’) What song might time sing?

December 5, 2024

They were dancing to the music of timein those days, gliding through the moleskin hours,or so it seemed to us. Our vocal chordsbroken now, each song we sing lacks the air that my love struggles to take. Raking backthe sound that coughs all night: the rasping hackthat like Lear’s hand smells of mortality.The air that … More ‘It was like everything you thought you knew could be rewritten. / like learning that time can sing and that it’s old and young, …’. (Brice in Ali Smith’s ‘Gliff’) What song might time sing?

Expectations, illusions and realities. The issue of the ‘first day’ at something.

December 4, 2024

The Indeed website is an online job search and career placement service, describing itself as the ‘#1’ of its kind. About this I can’t comment on, although their own description is below (part of it at least): Detail of: https://www.indeed.com/about However, I noticed that it raises the issue of the first day at a new … More Expectations, illusions and realities. The issue of the ‘first day’ at something.

‘et potiores / Herculis aerumnas credat saevosque labores / et venere et cenis et pluma Sardanapalli’. Minding Physical exercise.

December 3, 2024

The phrase ‘ a healthy mind in a healthy body’ from Juvenal Satires X haunts the insistence on doing physical exercise or elae of advisers, counsellors and other ‘Job’s comforters ‘ (Job 2: 11). Read on from Job verse 2  if you want the content of their advice and Job’s summary of it in his … More ‘et potiores / Herculis aerumnas credat saevosque labores / et venere et cenis et pluma Sardanapalli’. Minding Physical exercise.

The total absurdity of the phrase ‘less is more’! An example of ‘overthinking’ on that theme.

December 2, 2024

Mies Van Der Rohe thought the phrase ‘less is more’ a defence of the refusal of embellishments in architecture that are both non-functional and decorative rather than part of a basic form or formal concept expressed by a building, but the phrase is a kind of pleasing nonsense that the love of binaries makes possible. … More The total absurdity of the phrase ‘less is more’! An example of ‘overthinking’ on that theme.

We called it the Leonardo cartoon. We visited it every week.

December 1, 2024

Leonardo da Vinci (about 1499-1500) The Burlington House Cartoon.Charcoal (and wash?) heightened with white chalk on paper, mounted on canvas, 141.5 x 104.6 cm. Purchased with a special grant and contributions from the Art Fund, The Pilgrim Trust, and through a public appeal organised by the Art Fund, 1962. NG6337. Available at: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/NG6337 There were … More We called it the Leonardo cartoon. We visited it every week.