We evaluate both a belonging and the feeling of belonging with or by principles of rightful exclusion for ownership and membership thereof respectively.

May 24, 2025

What personal belongings do you hold most dear? In a blog on  novel called, and in some degree about, the wider implications of what we mean by Theft (see it at this link), I found myself considering associations with two different kinds of entitlement: the entitlement of ownership of things (and sometimes people) one calls … More We evaluate both a belonging and the feeling of belonging with or by principles of rightful exclusion for ownership and membership thereof respectively.

Heather Christle‘s (2025)  ‘In The Rhododendrons’: thank you Kaveh Akbar for your recommendation on the book’s jacket that made me buy this. You have great friends.

May 22, 2025

In Heather Christle‘s (2025)  In The Rhododendrons many people (with effects of pleasure and pain or hope and despair) continually strike ‘the same pose’ that made images of a possible past recur. Christle tells us that is what family albums do, but that recurrence or repetition within them can, and perhaps should,  be perceived ‘differently’. … More Heather Christle‘s (2025)  ‘In The Rhododendrons’: thank you Kaveh Akbar for your recommendation on the book’s jacket that made me buy this. You have great friends.

Putting Love and Death on the screen in the context of the greatest of the dead Masters. A tentative new beginning with WordPress blogs.

May 21, 2025

I am returning to WordPress blogging after a break, including a short break in Amsterdam, which I will no doubt make many blogs about in the near future. But I, like the wedding guest in Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, felt that my taking leave of WordPress was not unlike … More Putting Love and Death on the screen in the context of the greatest of the dead Masters. A tentative new beginning with WordPress blogs.

The end of a streak means relaxing into my Amsterdam trip with my wonderful husband tomorrow.

May 11, 2025

There is something rather neurotic about daily blogging. Well, there you go. I am free at last. WordPress has, or had, a function by which it congratulated people each time they increase the number of days of continuous daily blogs. You were given a streak number corresponding to the number of days you continued your … More The end of a streak means relaxing into my Amsterdam trip with my wonderful husband tomorrow.

Personal, institutional, or collective. What is Malpractice?

May 11, 2025

Personal, institutional, or collective. What is Malpractice? Tom Hughes as Dr. James Ford in the midst of a hospital discharge mental health assessment, which becomes the focus of the first malpractice claims levelled against him I started watching the series Malpractice only in its second series, and then because I had heard that its focus was on mental … More Personal, institutional, or collective. What is Malpractice?

Why does Simon Armitage dwell on dwelling? A blog on Simon Armitage (2025) ‘Dwell’ London, Faber & Faber.

May 9, 2025

Why does Simon Armitage dwell on dwelling? A blog on Simon Armitage (2025) [with illustrations by Beth Munro} Dwell London, Faber & Faber. The new poems by Simon Armitage that were published yesterday are inextricably linked to  the Lost Gardens of Heligan, ‘Europe’s largest garden restoration project’, in Cornwall. They will also be ‘manifested physically … More Why does Simon Armitage dwell on dwelling? A blog on Simon Armitage (2025) ‘Dwell’ London, Faber & Faber.

Children Processing the Hard Stuff in Dying County Durham Mining Communities

May 9, 2025

Geoff brought me a gift from his day volunteering at Oxfam to include in my mining books. It is a pamphlet published in 1990 by Durham Arts Association.  It charts encounters by a retired miner, of 40 years work down pits, who was dedicating the time released to his lifelong wanting to produce art with … More Children Processing the Hard Stuff in Dying County Durham Mining Communities

Redundant beauty: excess of signification and resurrected narratives of desire. This is a blog on the brilliant book by Michael Sappol (2025) ‘Queer Anatomies: Aesthetics and Desire in the Anatomical Image 1700 – 1900’, Bloomsbury Publishing PLC.

May 8, 2025

Gaze on the picture above and any anatomical learning, or at least a good proportion of it, gets absorbed in gazing at the beauty of the head and face of the model, which though logic (and that ‘little knowledge that is a dangerous thing’) tells us that this is the head and face of a … More Redundant beauty: excess of signification and resurrected narratives of desire. This is a blog on the brilliant book by Michael Sappol (2025) ‘Queer Anatomies: Aesthetics and Desire in the Anatomical Image 1700 – 1900’, Bloomsbury Publishing PLC.

Communication between the diverse: the benefits of modelling conflictual consensus.

May 7, 2025

What do you do to be involved in the community? In an article by the American Public Power  Association [APPA], called ‘Dissecting the True Meaning of Community’, some things are said about unpacking the meaning of the word  ‘community’ from its origins as a word. I have no knowledge of the real politics of APPA, though … More Communication between the diverse: the benefits of modelling conflictual consensus.

I think it must be being a film critic for I surely could not do a worst job than some! LOL. Malcolm Bradshaw, the film critic for ‘The Guardian’, I am told, says he thinks ‘Sinners’ would be a better film without the ‘supernatural element’. Yet this is the first film ever to understand the beauty of the mythology of the vampire in a way that matters. This blog tries to say why.

May 6, 2025

I think it must be being a film critic for I surely could not do a worst job than some! LOL. Or perhaps a comedian! Have you heard the one about the old man who in his youth survived a vampire attack that turned his friend into a vampire? One night in a bar, his … More I think it must be being a film critic for I surely could not do a worst job than some! LOL. Malcolm Bradshaw, the film critic for ‘The Guardian’, I am told, says he thinks ‘Sinners’ would be a better film without the ‘supernatural element’. Yet this is the first film ever to understand the beauty of the mythology of the vampire in a way that matters. This blog tries to say why.

Freedom has little use for those who prefer to be bound without choosing and committing to the bonds that matter.

May 5, 2025

My convoluted title is meant to avoid the sense that bonds are unimportant and contrary to what freedom is. Freedom and bondage are only binary contraries either to: Freedom is oft best experienced and compromised in relationships. The death of love of any kind is usually the accompaniment of the plea of one person on … More Freedom has little use for those who prefer to be bound without choosing and committing to the bonds that matter.