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 skills and lessons that assist us are usually old ones we later ‘learn’ to disregard or fail to respect: recently, via a blog I am preparing about the artistry of Maurice Sendak, I have begun to relearn the value of reading looks using, let’s call it, ‘primal vision’.

December 23, 2023

What skills or lessons have you learned recently? When I taught literature at the Roehampton Institute, I once composed a lecture on Jane Austen’s Persuasion, my favourite of her novels, about the agency of ‘looks’ in that story. It matters because it is a novel of total concern with both how you look (the vanity … More The skills and lessons that assist us are usually old ones we later ‘learn’ to disregard or fail to respect: recently, via a blog I am preparing about the artistry of Maurice Sendak, I have begun to relearn the value of reading looks using, let’s call it, ‘primal vision’.

Wake me up when it’s yesterday. Nostalgia revisited because tomorrow should not WAIT.

December 22, 2023

Below is a starter on our nostalgia trip. This is a brilliant photo-collage showing triggers to possible nostalgia and I suppose it is things like these pictures or the objects in them that this question looks for us to name – and what is amazing is that they all, as photographs at least, sort of … More Wake me up when it’s yesterday. Nostalgia revisited because tomorrow should not WAIT.

Can horror-genre films really ever ‘say some serious things about mental illness’? This blog uses as a test case, the cult horror film ‘Daniel Isn’t Real’.

December 21, 2023

Can horror-genre films really ever ‘say some serious things about mental illness’? This blog uses as a test case, the cult horror film Daniel Isn’t Real (directed by Adam Egypt Mortimer 2019 and written by Mortimer & Brian DeLeeuw, using Brian’s original story from the novel In This Way I was Saved. It is in … More Can horror-genre films really ever ‘say some serious things about mental illness’? This blog uses as a test case, the cult horror film ‘Daniel Isn’t Real’.

Can a novel really deal with stories that dive deep into a consciousness of things that likens its progress to motion in “a mazed labyrinth, devoid of pattern or meaning”? This is a blog on John Williams’ (1948) debut ‘Nothing But The Night’.

December 20, 2023

Can a novel really deal with stories that dive deep into a consciousness of things that likens its progress to motion in “a mazed labyrinth, devoid of pattern or meaning”? This is a blog on John Williams’ (1948) debut Nothing But The Night. The edition used was published in 2016 by New York Review Books, … More Can a novel really deal with stories that dive deep into a consciousness of things that likens its progress to motion in “a mazed labyrinth, devoid of pattern or meaning”? This is a blog on John Williams’ (1948) debut ‘Nothing But The Night’.

If the city that promised you love has closed its gates on you, is there any other city to which you can go: My heart in longing for some Jerusalem the Golden.

December 18, 2023

What cities do you want to visit? Jerusalem the Golden by Avram Graicer – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36291082 An earlier prompt question and my response helps me to situate myself in relation to this question. The old question was: ‘Do you have a favorite place you have visited? Where is it?’ I wrote … More If the city that promised you love has closed its gates on you, is there any other city to which you can go: My heart in longing for some Jerusalem the Golden.

“Nothing will come of nothing. Speak again”. (‘King Lear’ Act 1, Scene 1, line 99).

December 17, 2023

What we create from all creation comes, No something from some nothing comes at all And brightest lights still travelling from suns Long after their death, engendered fall. Though we do not see that act of making It depends upon those many at work To make it; source material faking Its absence and worker’s struggle … More “Nothing will come of nothing. Speak again”. (‘King Lear’ Act 1, Scene 1, line 99).

‘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.