Category: Education, Art & Writing

We ingest self-sustaining comfort so that we might forget our emptiness in a world that starves others.

July 25, 2025

What’s your go-to comfort food? I think C. Lewis thought he might go one up on Milton in describing the role of food in temptation. But let’s start with Milton. Here is Eve having tasted the apple from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden: …………., for Eve [ … More We ingest self-sustaining comfort so that we might forget our emptiness in a world that starves others.

What act suffices as an ‘act of kindness’? Or is that the wrong question? This is a blog that is partially about Simon Armitage’s ‘Give’, first published in a collection in ‘Dead Sea Poems’ (1995).

July 24, 2025

From a film made to support schools teaching the poem Give by the BBC. See: https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/class-clips-video/articles/znd7t39 I happened upon a word on a wallThat said just ‘Give’: Give what? I thought, I giveEnough in taxes, in support of those Who claim to suffer more than me. Who knows?If someone could write on walls can’t they … More What act suffices as an ‘act of kindness’? Or is that the wrong question? This is a blog that is partially about Simon Armitage’s ‘Give’, first published in a collection in ‘Dead Sea Poems’ (1995).

A sonnet ‘stolen’ from Shakespeare: Mine is called ‘You with such power in sight, see nothing’.

July 23, 2025

The following sonnet uses all the rhymes (nearly) and much of the iambic line of metre that still work with modern pronunciation of the words – dignity for instance just won’t make sense today if pronounced ‘dignit-eye’ – from William Shakespeare’s ‘Sonnet 94: They that have power to hurt and will do none‘ (see it … More A sonnet ‘stolen’ from Shakespeare: Mine is called ‘You with such power in sight, see nothing’.

New directions in the queer novel. In a recent example from those written by the ‘best novelists’ of our time, William Rayfet Hunter’s debut novel ‘Sunstruck’ (2025), the story is often about the dual function of telling stories in society.

July 22, 2025

The job of the novel is not only to tell a story but to edit it to fit some kind of purpose that is its raison d’être. Yet simultaneously questioning its own purpose has also been a feature of the novel since its inception in the best novelists. In a recent example from those written … More New directions in the queer novel. In a recent example from those written by the ‘best novelists’ of our time, William Rayfet Hunter’s debut novel ‘Sunstruck’ (2025), the story is often about the dual function of telling stories in society.

Change isn’t that easy or that quick. Let’s start by realising that.

July 21, 2025

Word cluster images try to plot the frequency of the associations to concepts. like the one above (there are many variants) for the term ‘social change’. It is clear that the associations show no consensus about the nature of social change, its incidence – is a one-off event or constant, the methods of its occurrence … More Change isn’t that easy or that quick. Let’s start by realising that.

Today was a typical day: a gust of wind sort of upset everything.

July 20, 2025

Félix Vallotton Le Coup de Vent 1894 A coup in French is literally a ‘blow’ or ‘gust’ but, of course, we know it best in the term ‘Le Coup d’État‘, such as that event on 18 Brumaire where Napoleon took control of French revolutionary forces and thus the state. it has been forever after the … More Today was a typical day: a gust of wind sort of upset everything.

If only I could make food that feeds the inner mechanisms that validate the role of feelings as well as thought in evaluating the world we live in.

July 19, 2025

What foods would you like to make? To sustain the body, we need to feed it, and in order to sustain it optimally, we need to select and pace the amount, degree, and type of food we use to feed it. So far everyone will agree! However, the excerpt from the Alice books of Lewis … More If only I could make food that feeds the inner mechanisms that validate the role of feelings as well as thought in evaluating the world we live in.

Let’s answer this prompt as if Thomas Mann were justifying his last novel: the ultimate game – of confidence tricks and roleplay. This blog holds my thoughts on  Thomas Mann (trans. Denver Lindley) [1997 Minerva Paperback from ed. of 1954] ‘Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man: Memoirs Part 1’.

July 18, 2025

Let’s answer this prompt as if Thomas Mann were justifying his last novel: the ultimate ‘game’ – of confidence tricks and roleplay. In a diary entry from 25th November 1950, Thomas Mann calls his final and unfinished picaresque novel Felix Krull ‘my homosexual novel’. Yet the case for seeing it as that perhaps reduces to … More Let’s answer this prompt as if Thomas Mann were justifying his last novel: the ultimate game – of confidence tricks and roleplay. This blog holds my thoughts on  Thomas Mann (trans. Denver Lindley) [1997 Minerva Paperback from ed. of 1954] ‘Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man: Memoirs Part 1’.

‘The pursuit of health is a symptom of unhealth’, don’t you think?

July 17, 2025

Do poets revel in the ways and means of attaining health? The Royal College of Surgeons’ Sarah Gillam, in a piece published in 2019 points us to the fact that Keats spent his years as a student rather dissolutely and ‘unhealthily’ by the standards of maintaining optimal lasting health, even then: Keats apparently enjoyed his … More ‘The pursuit of health is a symptom of unhealth’, don’t you think?

If we assume that ‘work’ is something we can do whilst our attention is divided in listening to something quite unrelated to it, what really is the value of our work? This blog reflects on the exhibition ‘With These Hands’ at the Laing Gallery Newcastle seen on 15th July 2025.

July 16, 2025

If we assume that ‘work’ is something we can do whilst our attention is divided in listening to something quite unrelated to it, what really is the value of our work? This blog reflects on the exhibition ‘With These Hands’ at the Laing Gallery Newcastle seen on 15th July 2025. Raing at the Laing yesterday … More If we assume that ‘work’ is something we can do whilst our attention is divided in listening to something quite unrelated to it, what really is the value of our work? This blog reflects on the exhibition ‘With These Hands’ at the Laing Gallery Newcastle seen on 15th July 2025.

Future plans are a kind of ‘bridging project’ for  possible migrations. It reflects on visiting the exemplary exhibition at Tate Modern, London Bankside, on 9th July 2025.

July 15, 2025

Future plans are a kind of ‘bridging project’ for possible migrations. This blog is about naming the space we travel through in the art of Do Ho Suh. It reflects on visiting the exemplary exhibition at Tate Modern, London Bankside, on 9th July 2025. “But what exactly do you mean by space?” I remember the … More Future plans are a kind of ‘bridging project’ for  possible migrations. It reflects on visiting the exemplary exhibition at Tate Modern, London Bankside, on 9th July 2025.

Retrospecting on Edward Burra: This blog reflects on visiting the wonderful exhibition at Tate Britain, London Millbank, on 9th July 2025.

July 14, 2025

Retrospecting on Edward Burra: This blog reflects on visiting the wonderful exhibition at Tate Britain, London Millbank, on 9th July 2025. I am building a large Edward Burra library. Though some items are rather shabby reading copies such as the Andrew Causey Edward Burra: Complete Catalogue  and the Jane Stevenson biography of the artist, the content … More Retrospecting on Edward Burra: This blog reflects on visiting the wonderful exhibition at Tate Britain, London Millbank, on 9th July 2025.