‘Books are difficult to tidy. … They resist’.[1] In this blog I say that in his latest book, Ian McEwan returns to form by asking as directly as a novel can how significant art might be attained out of the mess of the politics, ethics and socio-cultural and individual lives of generations of people of … More ‘Books are difficult to tidy. … They resist’. Ian McEwan returns to form by asking as directly as a novel can how significant art might be attained out of the mess of the politics, ethics and socio-cultural and individual lives of generations of people of our current time and age. This is a blog on Ian McEwan (2022) ‘Lessons’ as, perhaps, a new ‘spirit of the Age’[2].

Source: By http://www.smith.edu/libraries/libs/rarebook/exhibitions/images/penandpress/large/15c_bta.jpg, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19429923 In Virginia Woolf’s Between the Acts (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Between_the_Acts), the crisis of the life of Miss La Trobe, the creator of a pageant of English life that ends by turning a literal mirror of their life takes place in reflection afterwards in the village pub of the events in and between … More Between the Blogs

‘On not finishing. … Like the person who does not say goodbye, but instead exits untainted by valediction. Of course they could finish but they choose simply to stop. And only afterward do you come to realize the transitory was in fact the terminus, the passage the limit, the process the finale. Little did you … More ‘On not finishing. … Like the person who does not say goodbye, but instead exits untainted by valediction.’ This is a blog on Christopher Neve (2023) ‘Immortal Thoughts: Late Style in a Time of Plague’.

untitled f*ck m*ss s**gon play is a very intense examination of the images and stereotypes that justify the Western racist values we name orientalism and which lodge in the memory, especially of women, but it is also a very funny play in which some of the victims of the sexual imperialism of the West impacts … More This is a blog-review on Lee Kimber (2023) ‘untitled f*ck m*ss s**gon play’ performed at Manchester Royal Exchange.

An update based on actually seeing the exhibition of Yayoi Kusama at Factory International Manchester on Tuesday 4th July at 11.15 a.m., as part of a selection of the items from the Manchester International Festival. The original blog available at this link. It could not have been a worse morning. Suddenly deep in a low … More An update based on actually seeing the exhibition of Yayoi Kusama at Factory International Manchester on Tuesday 4th July at 11.15 a.m., as part of a selection of the items from the Manchester International Festival.

An update based on actually seeing the production of The Faggots & Their Friends Between Revolutions (based on the cult book of that name by Larry Mitchell & illustrated by Ned Asta. A brilliant show at Home Theatre 1 in Manchester on Sunday 2nd July at 3.00 p.m., as part of a selection of the … More An update based on actually seeing the production of ‘The Faggots & Their Friends Between Revolutions’ (based on the cult book of that name by Larry Mitchell & illustrated by Ned Asta). A brilliant show at Home Theatre 1 in Manchester on Sunday 2nd July at 3.00 p.m., as part of a selection of the items from the Manchester International Festival.

‘The pain of his childhood was of such a common source that it embarrassed him. … they all had the same pain, the same hurt, and he didn’t think anyone should go around pretending it was something more than it was: the routine operation of the universe. Small common things – hurt feelings, cruel parents, … More This is a blog on using art to build a culture within queer communities. It’s also a blog about Brandon Taylor (2023) ‘The Late Americans’, a great novel IMO.

‘… . Infinitely more grisly than actual pain is the danger of being excluded from the collective adventure. To be an outsider is the one unbearable humiliation. … In puerile fantasies I tried to deny and to overcome the intrinsic law of my nature which forever prevents me from belonging to the enviable, if pain-stricken, … More This is a speculative blog based on the Klaus Mann’s play ‘Siblings’ and novels/novellas: namely, ‘The Pious Dance’, ‘The Children’s Story’, ‘Alexander’, ‘Pathetic Symphony’, and ‘Mephisto’ (1936).  The blog refers to his autobiography and to the fine biography by Frederick Spotts (2016) ‘Cursed Legacy: The Tragic Life of Klaus Mann’.

This second of two linked blogs relates to my current thinking of about the ‘personal-is-political’ movements and their slogans. As I reflect back on my life from the 1960s (I was born in 1954), I recall how fluid were the attachments we referred to as a ‘rainbow alliance The boundaries different kinds of identity, and … More This second of two linked blogs relates to my current thinking of about the ‘personal-is-political’ movements and their slogans. The second part of this blog reflects on looking towards seeing a production of ‘The Faggots & Their Friends Between Revolutions’ (based on the cult book by Larry Mitchell. To be seen at ‘Home’ in Manchester on Sunday 2nd July at 3.00 p.m.