Sometimes, landslides kill hope slowly. Getting the dark Cassandra promptings  out there!

July 5, 2024

The British electoral system has delivered another bizarre result, where a political party has secured only about a third of the national vote and holds the biggest majority in the UK Parliament of any party in recent ‘democratic’ history. In no sense has it a democratic mandate understood by people at large, yet it will … More Sometimes, landslides kill hope slowly. Getting the dark Cassandra promptings  out there!

The fragile harmony of consonance without intervals of dissonance. In praise of the role of conflict.

July 4, 2024

Ernst Krenek‘s classification, from ‘Studies in Counterpoint’ (1940), of a triad’s overall consonance or dissonance through the consonance or dissonance of the three intervals contained within. Created by Hyacinth (talk) 17:07, 25 September 2010 using Sibelius 5. We can’t get far with this question without reference to music (and I am hampered by a total ignorance of musical … More The fragile harmony of consonance without intervals of dissonance. In praise of the role of conflict.

Ageing on its own makes nothing better; if anything, it makes it much more difficult, and in more than one way, ‘harder’ to achieve authenticity as a person aiming for ‘a way to the Better’.

July 3, 2024

Currently, I am reading the five volumes of Leonard Woolf’s autobiography. I am on the third crucial volume in which his concern for the oncoming suicide of his wife Virginia is first talked about and explanations that as they increase still don’t suffice to accumulate more than genuine understanding of that tortured, but infinitely great, … More Ageing on its own makes nothing better; if anything, it makes it much more difficult, and in more than one way, ‘harder’ to achieve authenticity as a person aiming for ‘a way to the Better’.

Learning to be grateful: ‘teach me to see it, to see it / with you, and to offer somebody / uncomprehending, impudent thanks’.

July 2, 2024

I found I had nothing to say to this question and I looked for something where someone had something to say. We look for soothsayers and truth-tellers. We need help most to say that we have experienced that which we lack. We feel most the lack of something to feel grateful for, for we cannot … More Learning to be grateful: ‘teach me to see it, to see it / with you, and to offer somebody / uncomprehending, impudent thanks’.

‘Where It was, I shall be’: occupying the future.

July 1, 2024

What are you most worried about for the future? ‘Wo Es war, soll Ich werden‘ is one of the most famous summaries of the role of psychoanalytic treatment by Sigmund Freud and in the James Strachey Standard Edition in English of the works of Freud is translated as “Where id was, there ego shall be.”, It … More ‘Where It was, I shall be’: occupying the future.

A great teacher must be a great learner, for a great teacher facilitates learning and teaching everywhere, including in themselves and their great learners.

June 30, 2024

Most teachers are not ‘great teachers’, or not yet great teachers, because most teachers feel they are, or desire to be, satisfied by being seen as a teacher and that alone, their boundaries strengthened by borrowed authority. They borrow this authority from the role description of the teacher – a description of what a teacher … More A great teacher must be a great learner, for a great teacher facilitates learning and teaching everywhere, including in themselves and their great learners.

‘Blogging is a ‘daily habit’ that is justified by the humdrum habitual experience it makes you see anew ?

June 29, 2024

What are your daily habits? I took up blogging in response to a course I took with The Open University in 2015 called Technology-enhanced learning as part of a MA in Open and Distance Learning. Sceptical at first, I persevered with its encouragement to use available technologies, even ones not primarily geared to that end, such as social … More ‘Blogging is a ‘daily habit’ that is justified by the humdrum habitual experience it makes you see anew ?

This blog is a queer take on Matthew Brown’s film ‘Freud’s Last Session’. 

June 28, 2024

This blog is a queer take on Matthew Brown’s film Freud’s Last Session.  In one of the fast shifting moments of the fragmented discussions between the two men (supposedly about the source of love and meaning in the face of human mortality), Anthony Hopkins as Freud asks C.S. Lewis, played by Matthew Goode: ‘Does homosexuality … More This blog is a queer take on Matthew Brown’s film ‘Freud’s Last Session’. 

Let us practise to ‘Sing the song of sorrow, but let good prevail’. Advice from Edith Hall (2024) ‘Facing Down The Furies: Suicide, The Ancient Greeks, and Me’.

June 27, 2024

‘Sing the song of sorrow, but let good prevail’. The terrible beauty of a book that while looking for the ‘perfect therapeutic mantra in the face of suicidal despair’, sometimes finds itself ‘somehow taking over from the central actors the role of communicating a tragic subjectivity and trying to find relief in psychological candour’.[1] This … More Let us practise to ‘Sing the song of sorrow, but let good prevail’. Advice from Edith Hall (2024) ‘Facing Down The Furies: Suicide, The Ancient Greeks, and Me’.

This blog attempts to articulate what it is to be and feel ‘in-between’ in ‘The In-Between’ (2024, 2023 in Australia) by Christos Tsiolkas.

June 26, 2024

In a profound new novel of queer romantic and sexual love between older men, a Serbian landscape-gardener, Ivan, talks, in a plush flat rented for the night, with a young sex-worker called Troy, also rented for the night, about the latter’s father. Ivan imagines Troy’s father must be older than him but only just, but … More This blog attempts to articulate what it is to be and feel ‘in-between’ in ‘The In-Between’ (2024, 2023 in Australia) by Christos Tsiolkas.

The contradictions of the freedom that poses as choice. A reflection and a brutal stanza.

June 25, 2024

If you were forced to wear one outfit over and over again, what would it be? This question hurts. The terms used are difficult to get your head round. That you are ‘forced’ suggests coercion, perhaps  backed by possible sanctions for not obeying the rule implied in donning the outfitting of yourself. After aĺ, one … More The contradictions of the freedom that poses as choice. A reflection and a brutal stanza.

Wasted time is the time you spend not appreciating having time to live life with varied pace and productivity, including the unproductive moments of rest and recuperation.

June 24, 2024

How do you waste the most time every day? This gif is, as it is intended to be, funny because it takes a number of negative clichés that get said in moments of stress  and knots them together in a way that, all together, the effect is comic. This gif is, as it is intended … More Wasted time is the time you spend not appreciating having time to live life with varied pace and productivity, including the unproductive moments of rest and recuperation.