It horrified Bumble the Beadle when Oliver asked for ‘More’. The very word turned his face to burning coals; his heart, so hard for so long, crumbled as if for a moment it were becoming ash and falling away. But return it did to its ancient, petrified state: the kind of fear that is as … More More! But isn’t it true that less is more! Hardly! And here’s why. LOL.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received? Perhaps the best advice about how to act next in any complicated human situation is to be wary of acting in the way you are told to act, however respectfully one listens to and hears out the advisor. Keep in mind too that the advice will … More The best advice is to, by all means, listen to advice but be wary of acting as it prescribes that you do.
What things give you energy? Philosophers tell us that Aristotle used the term ἐνέργεια (it transliterates as ‘energeia’ – the possible root of the work ‘energy’) in a very different way to the use of the word in modern science, whether that be in physics, chemistry or biology, where it names various kinds of measurable … More If we thought as much about what energy is for as about seeking selfishly for the ideal sources of it for our individual selves, a world that is going bad might get better.
‘It seems very stupid to miss a piece of wood and yet I do’.[1] Can anyone, even a horse called Diego whose consciousness is imagined in this statement, ever convince us that it is possible to love someone ‘absolutely and forever’? A reflection on the driving ideas in Rose Tremain (2023) Absolutely and Forever London, … More ‘It seems very stupid to miss a piece of wood and yet I do’. Can anyone, even a horse called Diego whose consciousness is imagined in this statement, ever convince us that it is possible to love someone ‘absolutely and forever’? A reflection on the driving ideas in Rose Tremain (2023) ‘Absolutely and Forever’.
Which topics would you like to be more informed about? The TV Series of Ragnarök (Netflix) On Norwegian TV it made sense to call a series Ragnarök that was based on a community on the fjords that learn the hard and irreversible way the effects of climate change, and environmental / ecological degradation on them … More Is Ragnarök on its way? It is but if we ‘knew’ that and were fully informed by that knowledge, we would be urging Governments to act – and now!
What would your life be like without music? The sound of the concord or discord of the world are only unheard in the cold of a tomb. There is no life where music does not happen, for the nervous system is attuned to the to a range of sounds that align with feelings of security … More “The man that hath no music in himself,/ … Let no such man be trusted”. We can’t escape the ambiguous personal politics of music.
In a seminal conversation in Alice Diop’s great film Saint Omer, the mother of a woman who killed her own daughter says to Rama, a young female novelist witnessing the daughter’s trial in order to obtain material for her next novel, that she will not discuss her daughter’s motivation because there are things that “we … More Alice Diop’s great film ‘Saint Omer’ makes it as clear as such a thing can be that there are things that “we can’t be clear about”.
How do you celebrate holidays? Given I am retired, I have to redefine the term ‘holiday’. But, why not start with the term holiday itself. The Word Press question-setter follows precise grammar (though that precision is rather dishonoured in everyday use I think) by using the plural ‘holidays’ in this question here to refer to … More A celebrant of the holy days of retirement. Some thoughts about the fate of ritual in a world defined by scheduled work.
This blog reflects on the fate of ‘the Word’ (text and books) as an element of ‘Art’ in post-religious subcultures or cultures where religion is displaced from having a central authority over authenticity of the the non-material, spiritual or conceptual forms we venerate. It follows up thoughts from my earlier blog (at this link) based … More This blog reflects on the fate of ‘the Word’ (text and books) as an element of ‘Art’ in post-religious subcultures or cultures. It follows up thoughts from my earlier blog (at this link) based on reading Michael Petry (2018) ‘The Word is Art: Text and The Written Word in Contemporary Art’.
Write about your most epic baking or cooking fail. I was a student at UCL in the early 1970s and in my first year had a room at a single-sex University of London residence near Kings Cross (it’s lost to history now in lots of ways and replaced by a glossy privatised version of student … More If the way to a straight guy’s heart is via his satisfied stomach, this was some failure to woo. A student day’s tale.
Share a lesson you wish you had learned earlier in life. It is almost certain that Socrates never said, as people sometimes believe, anything like, ‘All I know is that I know nothing’, but then can we we truly ever be certain about anything. How people came to believe he said this is explained in … More I wish I had believed about myself what Socrates was said to believe about himself when Plato quotes him as saying, “I neither know nor think I know”.
‘The swirling bonfire of change of the “sixties” put down for all of us to see’.[1] Another book found (at the PBFA Bookfair at the Knavesmire Suite at York Racecourse on the 15th of September 2023. Further thoughts on the meaning of male beauty in painted images, using this re-found treasure: Patrick Kinmonth (1985) Patrick … More ‘The swirling bonfire of change of the “sixties” put down for all of us to see’. Further thoughts on the meaning of male beauty in painted images, using this re-found treasure: Patrick Kinmonth (1985) ‘Patrick Procktor’.
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