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.

Should the modern queer novel be still concerned about what we hide or conceal from others? This blog is a reflection on secrecy in queer novels based on having read Alan Bratton (2024) ‘Henry Henry’.

May 31, 2024

‘ “The point is if you’re going to do things other people don’t like, you’ve either got to put up with them not liking it, or you’ve got to hide it” … “…maybe you just don’t know … about all the things I’ve hidden, because I’ve hidden them” ‘, says Hal, the main character of … More Should the modern queer novel be still concerned about what we hide or conceal from others? This blog is a reflection on secrecy in queer novels based on having read Alan Bratton (2024) ‘Henry Henry’.

Hoary thoughts on whether friends last forever; with good news from Emily Dickinson.

May 30, 2024

What quality do you value most in a friend? Friendship coming like a surprise upon you in order to remind you of its capacity to be present may well feel to us as the contents of a witch’s cauldron feel, stirred by some witch’s huge and magic ladle. The poem I tried to bring together … More Hoary thoughts on whether friends last forever; with good news from Emily Dickinson.

Olivia Laing thinks the answer to this question is to ‘cultivate your garden’. But she shows us what a political act that is!

May 29, 2024

Olivia Laing tells us as her book The Garden Against Time closes that she loves a line  from the fourteenth-century Psalter by Richard Rolle: This boke is cald garden closed, wel enseled, paradyse full of appils’. In contrast she goes on to say that her ‘book is a garden opened and spilling over. The common … More Olivia Laing thinks the answer to this question is to ‘cultivate your garden’. But she shows us what a political act that is!

It is joyful to visit mutual interests with friends. A rolling description of visiting The Laing Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, to see ‘Turner: Art, Industry & Nostalgia’, on Tuesday, 28 May 2024.

May 28, 2024

A ‘rolling description’ is where I post early on the day of an event and keep updating it as the experience I am trying to recount occurs. It is now 6.30 a.m on the 28th May and I am looking forward to friends Rob and Linda Goffee arriving(about 11 a.m. we think, to leave for … More It is joyful to visit mutual interests with friends. A rolling description of visiting The Laing Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, to see ‘Turner: Art, Industry & Nostalgia’, on Tuesday, 28 May 2024.

Visiting the Discovering Degas exhibition at the Burrell Collection in Pollok County Park, Glasgow on its opening day on 24th May 2024 at 12 noon.

May 27, 2024

Visiting the Discovering Degas exhibition at the Burrell Collection in Pollok County Park, Glasgow on its opening day on 24th May 2024 at 12 noon. This blog supplements one done preparatory to my visit and before I had access to the catalogue and hence a list of te exhibited works. You can read that blog … More Visiting the Discovering Degas exhibition at the Burrell Collection in Pollok County Park, Glasgow on its opening day on 24th May 2024 at 12 noon.

There is no way that you can read through a memoir like ‘Slum Boy: A Portrait’ by following one unbending line of narrative that you expect to unfold in one direction only, for lives full of deep ruptures in personal experience, and maybe all lives, don’t work that way. Reading Juano Diaz (2024) ‘Slum Boy: A Portrait London’.

May 26, 2024

There is no way that you can read through a memoir like Slum Boy: A Portrait by following one unbending line of narrative that you expect to unfold in one direction only, for lives full of deep ruptures in personal experience, and maybe all lives, don’t work that way. How do we reconcile that with … More There is no way that you can read through a memoir like ‘Slum Boy: A Portrait’ by following one unbending line of narrative that you expect to unfold in one direction only, for lives full of deep ruptures in personal experience, and maybe all lives, don’t work that way. Reading Juano Diaz (2024) ‘Slum Boy: A Portrait London’.

Erich Fromm distinguishes a healthy culture of ‘being’ from the diseased cultures created by capitalist ideology, obsessed by individuals dreaming of ‘having it all’. However you define ‘all’ in that phrase, it is the acme of a diseased culture ruled by individual greed alone.

May 25, 2024

Erich Fromm distinguishes a healthy culture of ‘being’ from the diseased cultures obsessed by ‘having it all’. However you define ‘all’ in that phrase, it is the acme of a diseased culture ruled by individual greed alone. The psychoanalyst Erich Fromm was an iconoclast of amd from many traditions in which he was nevertheless embedded, … More Erich Fromm distinguishes a healthy culture of ‘being’ from the diseased cultures created by capitalist ideology, obsessed by individuals dreaming of ‘having it all’. However you define ‘all’ in that phrase, it is the acme of a diseased culture ruled by individual greed alone.

Poetry is a dialogue with everything. The sooner we do that, the better. Communing with John Burnside’s latest volume, ‘Ruin Blossom’.

May 24, 2024

Who would you like to talk to soon? I wrote and put online the blog below on he 24th May. John Burnside died on the 29th May, announced by his publisher on 31st May. Never to see the hero again and talk to him, even if at a book signing. I mourn for him, his … More Poetry is a dialogue with everything. The sooner we do that, the better. Communing with John Burnside’s latest volume, ‘Ruin Blossom’.

A play, and a pint and a play about a deaf young queer man loving for the first love he neglected to find before at Òran Mór, Glasgow.

May 23, 2024

Dungeons, Dragons, and the Quest for D*** It’s  a wet day in Glasgow today. It was wet when we travelled up yesterday and stopped at Gretna Green on the way. Unfortunately, it was a stop for a pub lunch and my husband hid behind his menu. But here we are in a flat a few … More A play, and a pint and a play about a deaf young queer man loving for the first love he neglected to find before at Òran Mór, Glasgow.

An Atlantic of a difference in ‘How I Practise as a person following a religion’ or ‘Practicing religion’. And then my answer!

May 22, 2024

“Strictly speaking,” said Mr. Strict DyasDust, who spent his life correcting others, “this question is nonsense because it uses the word ‘practice’ as a verb whereas it is only a noun. Ask me, if I practise religion, or do not ask at all”. In the UK there probably are people who still care about the … More An Atlantic of a difference in ‘How I Practise as a person following a religion’ or ‘Practicing religion’. And then my answer!

Reflection on sex/gender in painting before seeing ‘Discovering Degas’ at the Glasgow Burrell Collection.

May 21, 2024

Degas in 1859, as a young artist scoping and sketching the European art on a Continental grand tour, said that: ‘Nobody ever rendered the charm and finesse of woman, the elegance and chivalry of man, nor the distinction between the two, like Van Dyck’.[1] He also, in 1891, according to Daniel Halévy, said in response … More Reflection on sex/gender in painting before seeing ‘Discovering Degas’ at the Glasgow Burrell Collection.

When I am cold / the world feels  old/ My heart’s in hiding!/ The train buffered at a siding.

May 20, 2024

How do you feel about cold weather? Snow, snow, snowis how the snow speaks,Is how the page reads. Snow, from Simon Armitage’s (2020) Magnetic Field: The Marsden Poems  London, Faber & Faber. It must be different reading Simon Armitage’s poem Snow outside on Pule Hill near Mardsen in Yorkshire, inscribed in stone, than in a book. And maybe even … More When I am cold / the world feels  old/ My heart’s in hiding!/ The train buffered at a siding.