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 Peloponnese to Athens, Thebes, Delphi, (vis Arcadia) Mystra, Sparta, the Mani, Olympia. Return to the East coast

January 12, 2024

This trip involved stops in Athens, Delphi, Mystra, Yithion, and Olympia before a return home.Unforgettable and eventful, I can barely think how to describe it, for the memory is, I think, enough. The highlight remains Athens though Delphi and Olympia absorbed me as they have many others and in may accounts – in novels like … More The Peloponnese to Athens, Thebes, Delphi, (vis Arcadia) Mystra, Sparta, the Mani, Olympia. Return to the East coast

Once we normalise play we ‘Bunbury’ it and it is at last play in Earnest (not fun): Queer play in Christopher Marlowe, Michelangelo & Oscar Wilde

January 11, 2024

Once we normalise play and rid ourselves of ‘Bunbury’, then at last play loses its integrity in order to be just playing Earnest (not fun): Queer play in Christopher Marlowe, Michelangelo & Oscar Wilde I am intrigued by this question and have always been interested as a student of literature, history. art and psychology in … More Once we normalise play we ‘Bunbury’ it and it is at last play in Earnest (not fun): Queer play in Christopher Marlowe, Michelangelo & Oscar Wilde

‘Hector’s Mission Statement’: a parable for a world that never thinks and feels at the same time.

January 10, 2024

What is your mission? Each day he used the same route to work and each evening the same route in reverse back to his home. Each evening, he sat exhausted in front of the TV, and registered very little from its surface. One day, his employer decided that the business needed revamping, and found a … More ‘Hector’s Mission Statement’: a parable for a world that never thinks and feels at the same time.

Why is ‘Saltburn’ such a brilliant film, though it fails the conventional tests, such as integrity of characters, plots, place and design, and even articulable and non-contradictory meanings demanded by the art of the coherent?

January 9, 2024

Saltburn is a film wherein there is no inclusion without exclusion, no love without hate, no owning without being owned, no independence without dependency, no belonging without exile, no entitlement without false claims, no observation without action, or no truth without lies. In a space where no binary satisfies, and acceptance of our debt to … More Why is ‘Saltburn’ such a brilliant film, though it fails the conventional tests, such as integrity of characters, plots, place and design, and even articulable and non-contradictory meanings demanded by the art of the coherent?

This blog looks at a popular version of an old trope of racist cultures in Obioma Ugoala (2022) ‘The Problem With My Normal Penis: Myths of Race, Sex and Masculinity’.

January 8, 2024

Examining coolly and dispassionately a narrative that Fiona Campbell of BBC Three said was without ‘malice’, and was in fact in her view an example of the mainly Black comedians on the show Famalam ‘poking fun at all stereotypes’, Obioma Ugoala says, with all kinds of evidence and witness to back him up, that myths … More This blog looks at a popular version of an old trope of racist cultures in Obioma Ugoala (2022) ‘The Problem With My Normal Penis: Myths of Race, Sex and Masculinity’.

Beware Edward the second you see him: a fictive man of taste. A little story!

January 7, 2024

“I built a stoa leading to the heart Of my dream palace, where I hung the heads Of lovers fooled by words”. Verse satisfied The rhythm of the loss he felt. Meanwhile The hole where once care lived, burnt red and raw, As if with Lightborn’s rod, cooled leather-hard. Edward, the second he knew this, … More Beware Edward the second you see him: a fictive man of taste. A little story!

Do I really ‘want’ to read more books by Naguib Mahfouz? The psycho-cultural limitations in creating and destroying the  desire to read & the ‘vital necessity’ of reading.

January 6, 2024

Do I really ‘want’ to read more books by Naguib Mahfouz? The psycho-cultural limitations in creating and destroying the  desire to read & the ‘vital necessity’ of reading. Prompted by his 1975 novella Heart of the Night (trans Aida A. Bamia, 2011, The American University in Cairo Press). Naguib Mahfouz (2016). “Sugar Street: The Cairo … More Do I really ‘want’ to read more books by Naguib Mahfouz? The psycho-cultural limitations in creating and destroying the  desire to read & the ‘vital necessity’ of reading.

The queer vision at the centre of Tom de Freston’s work (2023) ‘Wreck: A Story of Art and Survival’.

January 5, 2024

‘Homosociality – or even homoeroticism – is the conscious as well as the unconscious underpinning of the almost unbearable build-up of visual and psychic tension. … How is it played out …?’[1] The queer vision in the black hole at the centre of Tom de Freston’s narrative work (2023) in Wreck: A Story of Art … More The queer vision at the centre of Tom de Freston’s work (2023) ‘Wreck: A Story of Art and Survival’.

The fallacy of ‘allow not nature more than nature needs’. The danger of reductionism and a blunt Occam’s razor.

January 4, 2024

Rhetorical questions are those which ask you to assume a lot of meaning before you answer them. ‘Where can you reduce clutter in your life?’ First of all I must assume I accept a common definition of clutter. Yet there is no definition of this word that is culture-free and value-free. It assumes notions of … More The fallacy of ‘allow not nature more than nature needs’. The danger of reductionism and a blunt Occam’s razor.

Men in Lycra (to play Sports of course), it’s time to forget your ‘Macho’: Let ‘The Shiny Shrimps’ Ride Again (in rainbow colours)!

January 3, 2024

If you started a sports team, what would the colors and mascot be? Sports have never been my thing, and to be frank I don’t think, but can’t be sure, that this has anything to do with what people used to see as a masculinity compromised by me being queer. As a student in London … More Men in Lycra (to play Sports of course), it’s time to forget your ‘Macho’: Let ‘The Shiny Shrimps’ Ride Again (in rainbow colours)!

Not seeing ‘the Maidenhead angle’ on stories about the refugees of war and oppression. Is ‘One Life’ a film relevant to today or a prompt to easy emotion about events without current context? I saw this film with Geoff at the Durham Odeon, Monday 1st January 2024, 11.30 a.m.

January 2, 2024

Not seeing ‘the Maidenhead angle’ on stories about the refugees of war and oppression. Is One Life a film relevant to today or a prompt to easy emotion about events without current context? I saw this film with Geoff at the Durham Odeon, Monday 1st January 2024, 11.30 a.m. Geoff and  I saw this film … More Not seeing ‘the Maidenhead angle’ on stories about the refugees of war and oppression. Is ‘One Life’ a film relevant to today or a prompt to easy emotion about events without current context? I saw this film with Geoff at the Durham Odeon, Monday 1st January 2024, 11.30 a.m.