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.

This blog documents reflection on a visit, and reading afterwards about, ‘Gilbert & George: 21st Century Pictures’ in the London South Bank, The Hayward Gallery on 22nd October 2025 at 10.30 a.m.

November 2, 2025

What might Gilbert & George mean when they said in 1986 in What Our Art Means (and republished by them in the catalogue of this exhibition in 2025) that it is intended ‘to speak across the barriers of knowledge directly to People about their Life, and not about their knowledge of art’.[1] This blog documents … More This blog documents reflection on a visit, and reading afterwards about, ‘Gilbert & George: 21st Century Pictures’ in the London South Bank, The Hayward Gallery on 22nd October 2025 at 10.30 a.m.

This blog is written after seeing Anton Chekhov’s ‘The Seagull’ as adapted by Michael Poulton at The Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh on Wednesday 29th October at 2.30 p.m.

October 31, 2025

This blog is written after seeing Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull as adapted by Michael Poulton at The Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh on Wednesday 29th October at 2.30 p.m. Let’s start with the fact that John Poulton calls this version of The Seagull not a translation but an adaption. Nevertheless in his programme note he makes it … More This blog is written after seeing Anton Chekhov’s ‘The Seagull’ as adapted by Michael Poulton at The Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh on Wednesday 29th October at 2.30 p.m.

The ubiquitous phenomenon of the unreliable narrator in the novel is an admission that the only truth in human hearts is its tendency to ambivalence; knowing, feeling and sensing opposite ideas , emotions and sensations to be true and possible at the same time. Why  should we ‘know’ this? I use a reading of John Banville’s ‘Venetian Vespers’ (2025) as a test case.

October 30, 2025

The ubiquitous phenomenon of the unreliable narrator in the novelin the novel is an admission that the only truth in human hearts is its tendency to ambivalence; knowing, feeling and sensing opposite ideas , emotions and sensations to be true and possible at the same time. Why should we ‘know’ this? I use a reading … More The ubiquitous phenomenon of the unreliable narrator in the novel is an admission that the only truth in human hearts is its tendency to ambivalence; knowing, feeling and sensing opposite ideas , emotions and sensations to be true and possible at the same time. Why  should we ‘know’ this? I use a reading of John Banville’s ‘Venetian Vespers’ (2025) as a test case.

Innocence is not the condition of childhood- rather it is inability to control the heart or stop it from being overwhelmed. This blog is an attempt to prepare myself to see a revival of Chekhov’s ‘The Seagull’ at The Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh on Wednesday 29th October at 2.30 p.m.

October 28, 2025

Innocence is not the condition of childhood- rather it is inability to control the heart or stop it from being overwhelmed. This truth is embedded in the reflexive nature of Chekhov’s great play The Sea-Gull. In Act IV of The Sea-Gull, we hear of the stage in a country estate’s garden that in Act I … More Innocence is not the condition of childhood- rather it is inability to control the heart or stop it from being overwhelmed. This blog is an attempt to prepare myself to see a revival of Chekhov’s ‘The Seagull’ at The Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh on Wednesday 29th October at 2.30 p.m.

October 21st 2025: The first day of my birthday treats ends earlier than planned: Mea Culpa!

October 25, 2025

October 21st 2025: The first day of my birthday treats ends earlier than planned: Mea Culpa! I started this blog on the 21st October and its now the 24th and so backlogged with diary like blog reports. However, it helps to organise my brain to do them. On the 21st, I wrote this after an … More October 21st 2025: The first day of my birthday treats ends earlier than planned: Mea Culpa!

‘… stood kind of hyper’ and ‘itching for some … some fucking … ‘action.’ You know. “Drama”’. Another play to see and to make Geoff think his birthday present to me takes me and him back to Nottingham. The line here is supposedly said on ‘Trent Bridge’!

October 19, 2025

‘… stood kind of hyper’ and ‘itching for some … some fucking … ‘action.’ You know. “Drama”’. Another play to see and to make Geoff think his birthday present to me takes me and him back to Nottingham. The line here is supposedly said on ‘Trent Bridge’! Clearly I have added to my birthday treats. … More ‘… stood kind of hyper’ and ‘itching for some … some fucking … ‘action.’ You know. “Drama”’. Another play to see and to make Geoff think his birthday present to me takes me and him back to Nottingham. The line here is supposedly said on ‘Trent Bridge’!

Anthony Delaney’s ‘Queer Georgians’: queer tales from history ambitiously takes Foucault to task for the misrepresentation and cancellation of queer history and charms with the author’s personality at the same time.

October 19, 2025

Anthony Delaney’s ‘Queer Georgians’: queer tales from history ambitiously takes Foucault to task for the misrepresentation and cancellation of queer history and charms with the author’s personality at the same time. If you had to give a prize for the readability of queer history, this book would have to take it. Moreover, it does not … More Anthony Delaney’s ‘Queer Georgians’: queer tales from history ambitiously takes Foucault to task for the misrepresentation and cancellation of queer history and charms with the author’s personality at the same time.

The 2025 Booker Shortlist – My experience & predictions for those I read

October 18, 2025

The 2025 Booker Shortlist – My experience & predictions for those I read The Longlist blog is still available – and still messy. It is here at this link, if you want to access link to blogs on books not shortlisted. Tash Aw was definitively cheated of a shortlist place with his best book ever … More The 2025 Booker Shortlist – My experience & predictions for those I read

A speculative blog on Kiran Desai’s ‘The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny’. My Booker winner.

October 17, 2025

At one point in the latter parts of The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny two women, Babita and Sonia, alone in separate rooms in a huge mansion from the Portuguese era in Goa, an era established from 1510, that has all the characteristics of a Gothic Castle of Otranto, speak between the sound-porous walls of … More A speculative blog on Kiran Desai’s ‘The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny’. My Booker winner.

Those events within the period of my life that I can not remember and claim not to be my historical experience need committing to memory more than anything else. How else do we become whole persons and communities? Geoff and I see a performance of contemporary Indian classical dance at Bishop Auckland Town Hall. Family and distance is a theme that applies to personal and cultural experience, yet we shun the relevance of migration stories to our ‘entitled’ Britishness.

October 16, 2025

Geoff and I see a performance of a contemporary version of Indian classical dance at Bishop Auckland Town Hall on Wednesday 15th October, 7.30 p.m. It is on a vitally important theme of the moment: family and distance in migrant experience Fatherhood Imagine a performance in which one man invests himself in the personality of … More Those events within the period of my life that I can not remember and claim not to be my historical experience need committing to memory more than anything else. How else do we become whole persons and communities? Geoff and I see a performance of contemporary Indian classical dance at Bishop Auckland Town Hall. Family and distance is a theme that applies to personal and cultural experience, yet we shun the relevance of migration stories to our ‘entitled’ Britishness.

If once you haven’t been able to take that risk, let’s face it is not because you could not (or ‘were not able to’) but because you are risk averse and don’t wish to admit it. Naming that risk without taking it is just a way of dealing with your risk-aversion by indulging in a projected and insubstantial self-image.

October 15, 2025

Risk is universal in all engagements with life. It is impossible to act or even to stay passive in any prompt to action without incurring risk, for even disengaging from activity has risks involved, increasingly serious as the degree of disengagement increases. To harbour the wish to take a risk is merely a denial of … More If once you haven’t been able to take that risk, let’s face it is not because you could not (or ‘were not able to’) but because you are risk averse and don’t wish to admit it. Naming that risk without taking it is just a way of dealing with your risk-aversion by indulging in a projected and insubstantial self-image.