Steve_Bamlett_blog

On Paul Cartledge’s (2020) Thebes: The Forgotten City of Ancient Greece London, Picador. Reflecting again on why and how and to what effect certain versions of cultural history get lost or dispersed. The cover A little time ago I became fascinated by Judith Herrin’s 2020 book on the Italian city of Ravenna. I wrote a … More On Paul Cartledge’s (2020) ‘Thebes: The Forgotten City of Ancient Greece’. Reflecting again on why and how and to what effect certain versions of cultural history get lost or dispersed.

Reflecting on art, masculinity, pornography and sexual violence. Can these ideas be separated? Examining Sebastian Munôz’s film The Prince (El Principe).  Note that this film is rated suitable only for people over the age of 18 because it contains sexual violence, strong sex, nudity and ‘gory injury details’. Do not read this if you are … More Reflecting on art, masculinity, pornography and sexual violence. Can these ideas be separated? Examining Sebastian Munôz’s film The Prince (El Principe). Do not read this if you are offended by references to sexual or violent content in films.

Photography of Faces: What does ‘fame’ look like in 1960? L. Fritz Gruber (ed.) (1960) FAME: Famous Portraits of Famous People by Famous Photographers London and New York, The Focal Press. First of all: this blog speaks of a select gallery of images from a book I found in Oxfam at Darlington that largely attempt … More Photography of Faces: What does ‘fame’ look like in 1960? L. Fritz Gruber (ed.) (1960) ‘FAME: Famous Portraits of Famous People by Famous Photographers’ London and New York, The Focal Press.

A personal but critical reflection on Wendy Hitchmough’s The Bloomsbury Look New Haven, CT & London, Yale University Press. Some thoughts, based also on having left an OU History of Art MA, about why the History of Art fails to justify itself as a distinct academic discipline? I found this book on an independent bookshop’s … More A personal but critical reflection on Wendy Hitchmough’s ‘The Bloomsbury Look’ New Haven, CT & London, Yale University Press.

‘…. have always been very unmanly in my strivings to get things all compact and in good train’.[1]  ‘For all which idle ease I think I must be damned. I begin to have dreadful suspicions that this fruitless way of life is not looked upon by satisfaction by the open eyes above’.[2] Queering the need … More ‘…. have always been very unmanly in my strivings to get things all compact and in good train’. ‘For all which idle ease I think I must be damned. I begin to have dreadful suspicions that this fruitless way of life is not looked upon by satisfaction by the open eyes above’. Queering the need to work in works of art in Edward Fitzgerald’s ‘Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam’.

Visualizing the Male Erotic: Art, Pornography and Psychiatric Labelling There is for me an iconic scene in Steve McQueen’s Shame where the hero Brandon, played so often wordlessly but brilliantly and intensely by Michael Fassbender, and ever on the look for his next high on sexual experience, cruises the corridors of a gay club’s sex … More Visualizing the Male Erotic: Art, Pornography and Psychiatric Labeling

Moral vision and autobiography: Seeing selves differently for the first time. @TheCleggAgency. Reflecting again on the nature of complex moral empathy in Bill Clegg’s (2020) The End of the Day London, Jonathan Cape. What do we learn from examining the author’s two volumes of memoirs: Bill Clegg (2012a.,b.) Portrait of an Addict as a Young … More Moral vision and autobiography: Seeing selves differently for the first time. @TheCleggAgency

For further reflection based on Clegg’s autobiographical work see https://stevebamlett.home.blog/2020/11/28/moral-vision-and-autobiography-seeing-selves-differently-for-the-first-time-thecleggagency/ Reflecting on the moral life of Joe Lopez. ‘She thinks how lonely his life must have been, how few skills he had to interact with people he loved or to navigate a world where he was, if not invisible, translucent enough that people looked through … More Being ‘a necessary interaction for most of the people she encountered each day, not a desired or chosen one’. Reflecting on a thought on the nature of complex moral empathy in Bill Clegg’s (2020) ‘The End of the Day’ London, Jonathan Cape. @TheCleggAgency

‘Rougetel scratches his ankle in sleep. As vulnerable and exposed as the corner of a book’ (my emphasis).[1] Reflecting on Nicholas Shakespeare’s (2020) The Sandpit London, Harvill Secker. Andrew Taylor, a considerable writer of well-known detective thrillers, disputes the high praise of William Boyd cited on this books back cover, saying: ‘When it comes down … More ‘Rougetel scratches his ankle in sleep. As vulnerable and exposed as the corner of a book’. Reflecting on Nicholas Shakespeare’s (2020) ‘The Sandpit’.

‘There is a great deal of losing and forgetting about Ravenna as well as physical dismantling, which is also a form of forgetting.’[1] Reflecting on the ways and means of history as a form of remembering the lost body of the past’s being. Judith Herrin’s (2020) ‘Ravenna: Capital of Empire, Crucible of Europe’ London, Allen … More ‘There is a great deal of losing and forgetting about Ravenna as well as physical dismantling, which is also a form of forgetting.’[1] Reflecting on the ways and means of history as a form of remembering the lost body of the past’s being. Judith Herrin’s (2020) ‘Ravenna: Capital of Empire, Crucible of Europe’

 ‘“You poor man – … . We must seem like the characters in one of those novels about mad people in country houses.” She laughed again, …’.[1] Reflecting on John Banville’s ‘Snow’ London, Faber. This is a novel like no other by John Banville, in that it’s status vis-à-vis the role and status of the … More ‘“You poor man – … . We must seem like the characters in one of those novels about mad people in country houses.” She laughed again, …’. Reflecting on John Banville’s ‘Snow’.

Art Deco By the Sea: Reflecting on class, sex and the arts of the shaped environment. A blog on an exhibition (seen at Laing Gallery Newcastle) & catalogue: Ghislaine Wood (ed.) (2020) Art Deco By The Sea Norwich, Sainsbury’s Centre for Visual Arts. Exhibitions like this one make an important contribution to how we understand … More ‘Art Deco By the Sea’: Reflecting on class, sex and the arts of the shaped environment. A blog on an exhibition (seen at Laing Gallery Newcastle) & catalogue: Ghislaine Wood (ed.) (2020)