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.

‘When he became an adult, people loved his beard and his brown eyes. He also grew to have broad shoulders and a big back. …. When you have dark, brown eyes and a big back, you tend to almost forget your past self’. When a friend writes stories, you see him everywhere. A blog on J.P. Cline-Márquez’s story ‘The Witch of Nordisk’.

December 15, 2023

‘When he became an adult, people loved his beard and his brown eyes. He also grew to have broad shoulders and a big back. …. When you have dark, brown eyes and a big back, you tend to almost forget your past self’.[1] When a friend writes stories, you see him everywhere. A blog on … More ‘When he became an adult, people loved his beard and his brown eyes. He also grew to have broad shoulders and a big back. …. When you have dark, brown eyes and a big back, you tend to almost forget your past self’. When a friend writes stories, you see him everywhere. A blog on J.P. Cline-Márquez’s story ‘The Witch of Nordisk’.

I hope people say he had a fascination of what’s difficult’.

December 14, 2023

Tell us one thing you hope people say about you. Jack B. Yeats (the poet’s brother) Man in a Room Thinking 1947 The immediate temptation with a question like this is to imagine what people gathered around your grave at your funeral would say. I hope that they might say ‘he had a fascination of … More I hope people say he had a fascination of what’s difficult’.

This is a blog on understanding why there is an impersonal and public politics of variations of intimacy in relationships and attachments that feel private. It is also on why this blogger feels inadequate to review, other than as a distant voice in a desert, Matt Colquhoun. ‘Postcapitalist Desire: The Final Lectures’ (2021) and ‘Egress: On Mourning, Melancholy and Mark Fisher’ (2020).

December 13, 2023

In the wake of the passing of Mark Fisher which Matt Colqhoun describes in their books, Matt finds significant meaning in words from the funeral address  of Mark’s colleague and friend, Kodwo Eshun, which describe Mark’s ability ‘to “gather people into gatherings”; his talent for “making movement”’. Both Kodwo and Matt link this to Mark’s … More This is a blog on understanding why there is an impersonal and public politics of variations of intimacy in relationships and attachments that feel private. It is also on why this blogger feels inadequate to review, other than as a distant voice in a desert, Matt Colquhoun. ‘Postcapitalist Desire: The Final Lectures’ (2021) and ‘Egress: On Mourning, Melancholy and Mark Fisher’ (2020).

To ‘judge character’ is easy. The difficult thing is to appreciate a person.

December 13, 2023

A ‘judge of character’ is a tautology. Sometimes we go to great lengths to harmonise the various supposed signals of the notion of character, as we adjudge it, to persons, assuming for sake of control of a world that can seem to be unreadable, I think, that we can even assume a correspondence in inner and outer … More To ‘judge character’ is easy. The difficult thing is to appreciate a person.

‘O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms’: Stevie’s returning to Kokoschka.

December 11, 2023

Oskar Kokoschka ‘Knight Errant’ c. 1914 https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/2224 The Guggenheim is very insistent on the meaning of Kokoschka’s painting, which it owns but which so fascinates me, though never seen in the flesh. They say in the record to their online entry to it it that ‘is to this day read as an expression of the … More ‘O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms’: Stevie’s returning to Kokoschka.

I admire those that are ‘careful and troubled about many things’ and do what they can as they can and try to be their best in many things.

December 10, 2023

There are so many things that the figure of Jesus Christ in the New Testament says that even a non-believer like myself has to applaud. However, just as I do not accept that there is ONE God that is the repository of all truth whether I or anyone else understands it, I also cannot accept … More I admire those that are ‘careful and troubled about many things’ and do what they can as they can and try to be their best in many things.

‘These words that sculpt us from nothing but silent matter into monsters’. The art of Gary Indiana in ‘To Whom It May Concern’ (2011): a co-production with Louise Bourgeois.

December 9, 2023

‘These words that sculpt us from nothing but silent matter into monsters’. The art of Gary Indiana in To Whom It May Concern (2011) London, Violette Editions (still available it seems) a co-production with Louise Bourgeois. Louise Bourgeois with that phallic monstrosity of a sculpture, ‘Fillette’ (‘little girl’)  she carried with her frequently, and Gary … More ‘These words that sculpt us from nothing but silent matter into monsters’. The art of Gary Indiana in ‘To Whom It May Concern’ (2011): a co-production with Louise Bourgeois.

Making an ass of myself: Playing Bottom (in ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ of course)

December 8, 2023

Making an ass of myself: Playing Bottom (in ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ of course. When I taught English Literature at the Roehampton Institute I played Bottom in a perambulating production in the grounds of the then Froebel College, a constituent part of the Institute. It started off in a grove in the gardens and ended in … More Making an ass of myself: Playing Bottom (in ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ of course)

Pauline Boty once characterised female desire in the following terms: “… a glimpse of future delight, a suggested violent pleasure. A life full of promise, fulfilling all those vague longing wanting feelings. You’ll never feel lost, alone, unwanted again – …”. This blog examines how that idea is reflected, as well as other things, in Marc Kristal (2023) ‘Pauline Boty: British Pop Art’s Sole Sister’.

December 7, 2023

Pauline Boty once characterised female desire (on the BBC Light Programme in 1963) in the following terms: “… a glimpse of future delight, a suggested violent pleasure. A life full of promise, fulfilling all those vague longing wanting feelings. You’ll never feel lost, alone, unwanted again – …”.[1]  This blog examines how that idea is … More Pauline Boty once characterised female desire in the following terms: “… a glimpse of future delight, a suggested violent pleasure. A life full of promise, fulfilling all those vague longing wanting feelings. You’ll never feel lost, alone, unwanted again – …”. This blog examines how that idea is reflected, as well as other things, in Marc Kristal (2023) ‘Pauline Boty: British Pop Art’s Sole Sister’.

Ask yourself, not only ‘why’ do I want to see contained wild animals but ‘what’ needs in me does that covering need suggest.

December 6, 2023

Definitions aren’t always necessary but here I think they are, for the idea of the ‘wild’ has always has problematic associations because it only has meaning in contrast with its antonyms (words with an opposite meaning) and hence is easily absorbed into binary thinking. That is more obvious in contexts set by specialist synonyms of … More Ask yourself, not only ‘why’ do I want to see contained wild animals but ‘what’ needs in me does that covering need suggest.

That was a place. If I was a good-enough writer or painter I could recreate it in ways in which its ‘placeness’ found itself in a much larger context. But I am not an artist. .

December 5, 2023

That was a place. If I was a good-enough writer or painter I could recreate it in ways in which its ‘placeness’ found itself in a much larger context. But I am not an artist. <sigh>. (My title is an edited quotation from my text below, in want of other inventive power.) At first blush … More That was a place. If I was a good-enough writer or painter I could recreate it in ways in which its ‘placeness’ found itself in a much larger context. But I am not an artist. .