Category: Education, Art & Writing

‘The Fugitives’ (1962) by John Broderick tells stories of people who flit around at the margins of a world they resist and would like to change: ‘A world in which death slipped easily, like one of those midland corner-boys edging through a pub door, dead of foot, buried of hand, mortified of mind; a familiar sight. / It was a waiting world. … Something indefinable, far back in their blood, derived from the flat passive fields that bred them, told them to wait’.

October 9, 2023

The Fugitives (1962) by John Broderick tells stories of people who flit around at the margins of a world they resist and would like to change: ‘A world in which death slipped easily, like one of those midland corner-boys edging through a pub door, dead of foot, buried of hand, mortified of mind; a familiar … More ‘The Fugitives’ (1962) by John Broderick tells stories of people who flit around at the margins of a world they resist and would like to change: ‘A world in which death slipped easily, like one of those midland corner-boys edging through a pub door, dead of foot, buried of hand, mortified of mind; a familiar sight. / It was a waiting world. … Something indefinable, far back in their blood, derived from the flat passive fields that bred them, told them to wait’.

Passing time is no trivial thing: how to respond to the ‘uncertainty of one’s existence’.

October 9, 2023

What is your favorite hobby or pastime? In a neglected novel called The Fugitives by John Broderick, he writes: But just as people will live on in houses demolished by a bomb, going through the ritual movements of everyday life; so Lily adapted herself to the uncertainty of her existence’. This is probably a strong … More Passing time is no trivial thing: how to respond to the ‘uncertainty of one’s existence’.

‘It was this detachment, even more than his facelessness and the white coiling hand, that made Mrs Whitaker linger …’. Can it be that a novel and an artist can get forgotten even though they write at least one novel that is, in the words of David Norris, ‘in particular a masterpiece’.

October 7, 2023

‘It was this detachment, even more than his facelessness and the white coiling hand, that made Mrs Whitaker linger … / Suddenly Mrs Whitaker caught her breath. The white hand, so strangely contrasted with such coarse clothes, stopped twisting the button and reached out towards her. But the man was not beckoning. He was holding … More ‘It was this detachment, even more than his facelessness and the white coiling hand, that made Mrs Whitaker linger …’. Can it be that a novel and an artist can get forgotten even though they write at least one novel that is, in the words of David Norris, ‘in particular a masterpiece’.

Make the whole of space and time that is available into your place: it’s okay to feel anxious as you replace yourself, of course.

October 6, 2023

Tell us about a time when you felt out of place. The rich man in his castle,The poor man at his gate,God made them, high or lowly,And ordered their estate. The third verse of the hymn All Things Bright and Beautiful is rarely sung now unsurprisingly and perhaps we did not sing it thus during … More Make the whole of space and time that is available into your place: it’s okay to feel anxious as you replace yourself, of course.

Life before the spread of  personal computer technology was once a fact but can it even be imagined now.

October 5, 2023

Your life without a computer: what does it look like? The prompt today contains, of course, its own bias. First, it speaks to people who are first asked to imagine life without a computer as if that absence could occur to one individual, regardless of the rest of the globe. Second, it sort of presumes … More Life before the spread of  personal computer technology was once a fact but can it even be imagined now.

If all skills were active skills, learning would stop. Indeed, perhaps the fact is some active skills need unlearning. Relearning passive skills.

October 4, 2023

What skill would you like to learn? If you search the internet for the term ‘passive skills’, the likelihood is that the majority of returned sites will be on the use of the concept in computer gaming (they were on Bing anyway). These skills have a dark side: in their purest form we compare them, … More If all skills were active skills, learning would stop. Indeed, perhaps the fact is some active skills need unlearning. Relearning passive skills.

Attend not to the intention but to the accident of your presence having an effect.

October 3, 2023

What details of your life could you pay more attention to? I think the idea of paying attention to your life down to each detail is problematic. Were it possible to attend consciously to each detail of my life, I would still not be in control of these details since so often they are details … More Attend not to the intention but to the accident of your presence having an effect.

‘We raised him and we saved him and when he was old enough he accused us of keeping him from becoming his … true self’. This blog  is a preparation to see Lemn Sissay’s ‘Kafka’s Metamorphosis’, an adaptation of Kafka with more than a glance at Sissay’s memoir ‘My Name Is Why’, for that book underlies the drama too. I shall be seeing it at York Theatre Royal on Thursday October 12th at 2.00 p.m.

October 2, 2023

‘We raised him and we saved him and when he was old enough he accused us of keeping him from becoming his … true self’.[1] This blog  is a preparation to see Lemn Sissay’s Kafka’s Metamorphosis, an adaptation, retelling (and more) in a new dramatisation of Kafka’s Metamorphosis with the company Frantic Assembly with more … More ‘We raised him and we saved him and when he was old enough he accused us of keeping him from becoming his … true self’. This blog  is a preparation to see Lemn Sissay’s ‘Kafka’s Metamorphosis’, an adaptation of Kafka with more than a glance at Sissay’s memoir ‘My Name Is Why’, for that book underlies the drama too. I shall be seeing it at York Theatre Royal on Thursday October 12th at 2.00 p.m.

Facing 😈demons and slaying 🐉 dragons: the power of being counselled.

October 2, 2023

What’s your #1 priority tomorrow? Tomorrow, as it happens, is the second session of a seven week counselling session I have started to try and reconfigure a life gone awry and an emotional economy in crisis. Sometimes, you start these things with a sense of how an episode like this in your life has been … More Facing 😈demons and slaying 🐉 dragons: the power of being counselled.