Max Porter’s Shy has its ‘eyes closed, / waiting for another day’[1]: A blog on Max Porter (2023) Shy London, Faber & Faber. Book cover I was looking forward so much to the new Max Porter work, even more so from the enthusiastic ‘blurb’ commentaries that many writers give to the work, praising its ‘visceral authenticity’ and claiming that … More Max Porter’s Shy has its ‘eyes closed, / waiting for another day’: A blog on Max Porter (2023) ‘Shy’.

‘The leaves of the plane trees were turning, and made faint dry rustling sounds when a breeze passed through them. Strafford found himself longing for the dense, drooping heaviness of summer foliage‘.[1] Reflecting on John Banville’s (2023) ‘The Lock-Up’ London, Faber. Book Cover When novelists you like start writing novels in a serial form, it takes … More ‘The leaves of the plane trees were turning, and made faint dry rustling sounds when a breeze passed through them. Strafford found himself longing for the dense, drooping heaviness of summer foliage‘. Reflecting on John Banville’s (2023) ‘The Lock-Up’.

‘I myself dislike to be dictated to by anybody and am inclined, like Thucydides and others of his time, to be an anarch, or “agin the government” and the lust for, and abuse of, power which invariably goes with it’.[1] Man-made mythic men: the queer case of the ‘rebel without a cause’: an irreverent (and … More ‘I myself dislike to be dictated to by anybody and am inclined, like Thucydides and others of his time, to be an anarch, or “agin the government” and the lust for, and abuse of, power which invariably goes with it’. Man-made mythic men: the queer case of the ‘rebel without a cause’: an irreverent (and possibly scurrilous) case study of Augustus John (4 January 1878 – 31 October 1961) .

The joy of collecting books is the chance find that opens doors that that were  not even left ajar in expectation of those unknown  treasures. This blog reflects on finding a catalogue for an exhibition of  Patrick Procktor’s paintings from 1989. In the light of an earlier blog on Ian Massey’s (2010) fine biography entitled … More The joy of collecting books is the chance find that opens doors that that were  not even left ajar in expectation of those unknown  treasures. This blog reflects on finding a catalogue for an exhibition of  Patrick Procktor’s paintings from 1989. In the light of an earlier blog on Ian Massey’s (2010) fine biography entitled ‘Patrick Procktor: Art and Life’ I reflect on Michael Nixon’s (1989) ‘Patrick Procktor Paintings 1959 – 1989’.

‘Since Rodin’s death, Gwen no longer needed to make an inviting space to entice a lover – this interior sounds as bare as my own’.[1] This blog examines the uninviting space into which only ‘absent presences’ may enter.[2] It is a very subjective reflection on power, sexuality and sex/gender in Celia Paul’s (2022) Letters to … More ‘Since Rodin’s death, Gwen no longer needed to make an inviting space to entice a lover – this interior sounds as bare as my own’. This blog examines the uninviting space into which only ‘absent presences’ may enter. It is a very subjective reflection on power, sexuality and sex/gender in Celia Paul’s (2022) ‘Letters to Gwen John’.

‘Could we all be living in our own fictions?’[1]  This blog deals with a novel that evades identity politics and deconstructs black queer lives as if it were a work of phenomenological, existential, and psychoanalytically inspired philosophy. It is nevertheless a wonderful read. It is a blog on David Santos Donaldson (2021) Greenland: a novel … More ‘Could we all be living in our own fictions?’ This blog deals with a novel that evades identity politics and deconstructs black queer lives as if it were a work of phenomenological, existential, and psychoanalytically inspired philosophy. It is nevertheless a wonderful read. It is a blog on David Santos Donaldson (2021) ‘Greenland: a novel’.

‘Men sprawled over each other. In the hypermasculine atmosphere of war, they were not overly concerned with manliness’.[1] This blog focuses on the treatment of sex and /or love between boys who become men in a time of international war, with a discursion into presentation of those themes as poetry. This blog is on Alice … More ‘Men sprawled over each other. In the hypermasculine atmosphere of war, they were not overly concerned with manliness’. This blog focuses on the treatment of sex and /or love between boys who become men in a time of international war. This blog is on Alice Winn (2023) ‘In Memoriam’.

Reactions to performances of The Merchant of Venice 1936 seen at Theatre 1, HOME on Thursday 16th March 2023 2.00 p.m. in Manchester and Othello by RSC Livestreaming on Thursday 23rd February 2023. Catching up with ‘The Elephants in the Room’. An update of the blog at: https://stevebamlett.home.blog/2023/02/12/the-elephants-in-the-room-racism-in-the-british-artistic-heritage-this-blog-written-to-prepare-me-to-see-new-productions-of-othello-national-theatre-live-str/ This is a catch up on an … More Reactions to performances of ‘The Merchant of Venice 1936’ seen at Theatre 1, HOME in Manchester and Othello by RSC Livestreaming. Catching up with ‘The Elephants in the Room’.

‘He had a sudden strong desire to tell his story to someone, as long as it was to someone without ears. … Billy and June would have different versions. They were sort of uncompleted chapters, and even when he put them together in his own mind it was hard to find where they joined. Even … More ‘He had a sudden strong desire to tell his story to someone, as long as it was to someone without ears. … Billy and June would have different versions. They were sort of uncompleted chapters, and even when he put them together in his own mind it was hard to find where they joined. Even to believe half of it. But he was obliged to believe it. Because in the first instance a witness should be believed. … He felt he should believe – believe himself’. Stories are not evidence of the truth, are they? But if they aren’t why do we need them? This blog is on Sebastian Barry (2023) ‘Old God’s Time’.

A blog: Steven the ballet virgin visits Birmingham Royal Ballet performing Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake at the Sunderland Empire on the 10th of March 2023, 2.00 p.m. performance. Once, long ago my husband Geoff and me visited the Soviet Union (it existed then) on a gruelling but wonderful Intourist programme seeing Moscow and what was then … More A blog: Steven the ballet virgin visits Birmingham Royal Ballet performing Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake at the Sunderland Empire on the 10th of March 2023, 2.00 p.m. performance.

Tom Crewe writes in an ‘Afterword’ to his novel The New Life that ‘I have written a novel, purely with a novelist’s intentions’, despite any other effect of his writing including that of incorporating queer sexual diversity across any supposed binary.[1] I think that not all of what the latter diversity entails is overtly explored … More Tom Crewe writes in an ‘Afterword’ to his novel ‘The New Life’ that ‘I have written a novel, purely with a novelist’s intentions’, despite any other effect of his writing including that of incorporating queer sexual diversity across any supposed binary. This blog queries what  Tom Crewe might ‘intend’ in his novel and what that says about what makes a novel a good novel? It is about Tom Crewe’s (2023) ‘The New Life’

Mark McGurl asks what he believes is a new question in querying the ontology of the novel ‘when intermixed with the rough-and-tumble of real-time global communication and social media’. It is, in brief, no longer an issue to talk about the commodification of the novel, since we need instead to focus on the ‘progressive commoditization … More Mark McGurl insists it is no longer an issue to talk about the commodification of the novel, since we need instead to focus on the ‘progressive commoditization of the novel. The commodification of the novel by contrast is an old story, a given, as important as the fact remains: novels are offered for sale’. This blog attempts to come to terms with Mark McGurl’s (2021) ‘Everything and Less: The Novel in the Age of Amazon’.