Tag: books

Obviously, for me, most of screen time is taken up by WordPress, and sister app Jetpack (on my mobile): ‘feeling bad’ is often its subject because it is about using my time for registering or reflecting, consolidating, and furthering personal learning.

July 20, 2026

As always, the title is the only way the answer to this prompt will get expressed. The rest becomes a test case and example of what that title’ means in practice. The aim is to extend my learning to state how I prepare to use time in that process – by planned theatre or arts … More Obviously, for me, most of screen time is taken up by WordPress, and sister app Jetpack (on my mobile): ‘feeling bad’ is often its subject because it is about using my time for registering or reflecting, consolidating, and furthering personal learning.

The ease of modern ‘travel’ can hardly be inspired. Only when ‘travel’ equates to ‘travail’ (hard labour and unforeseen difficulty) does it require that input of strong breath from without.

July 19, 2026

For some travel will always be made to include hard work and uncertainties If you test an AI searcher like Co-Pilot on the origins of the word ‘travel’ these days, you get something like this (what I got today): The validity of some of those sources used by the AI tool can be queried but … More The ease of modern ‘travel’ can hardly be inspired. Only when ‘travel’ equates to ‘travail’ (hard labour and unforeseen difficulty) does it require that input of strong breath from without.

This blog uses Elizabeth Strout (2026) ‘The Things We Never Say’ as a test case for a thesis based on the difficulty of erasing trends from history. In it, the narrator says that Artie Dam, thinks his despair at the ‘state of the world’ relates to the hopeless hope that a dangerous right-wing demagogue does not win an American election fought(and won by the wrong person)  in the background of the narrative yet influential within it. However: ‘because he had studied history. He was aware that in all human existence there had never been a time where people were not killing one another, and why he had not been affected by this as strongly throughout his life as he was these days he could not understand’. As he gets home and removes his sailing boots he suddenly understands that his despair had another more primary cause: ‘It was an accretion of loneliness; …’.

July 12, 2026

This blog uses Elizabeth Strout (2026) The Things We Never Say London, Viking / Penguin as a test case for a thesis based on the difficulty of erasing trends from history. In it, the narrator says that Artie Dam, thinks his despair at the ‘state of the world’ relates to the hopeless hope that a … More This blog uses Elizabeth Strout (2026) ‘The Things We Never Say’ as a test case for a thesis based on the difficulty of erasing trends from history. In it, the narrator says that Artie Dam, thinks his despair at the ‘state of the world’ relates to the hopeless hope that a dangerous right-wing demagogue does not win an American election fought(and won by the wrong person)  in the background of the narrative yet influential within it. However: ‘because he had studied history. He was aware that in all human existence there had never been a time where people were not killing one another, and why he had not been affected by this as strongly throughout his life as he was these days he could not understand’. As he gets home and removes his sailing boots he suddenly understands that his despair had another more primary cause: ‘It was an accretion of loneliness; …’.

Let’s assume that ‘who we are’ can release an agency that shapes us beyond ‘who we are and were’ into some refined or reconfigured version of that self in the near or distant future. However, it can only do this by its response to experience. Do novelists deal with the kind of problem any more?

July 7, 2026

Let’s assume that ‘who we are’ can release an agency that shapes us beyond ‘who we are and were’ into some refined or reconfigured version of that self in the near or distant future. However, it can only do this by its response to experience. Do novelists deal with the kind of problem any more? … More Let’s assume that ‘who we are’ can release an agency that shapes us beyond ‘who we are and were’ into some refined or reconfigured version of that self in the near or distant future. However, it can only do this by its response to experience. Do novelists deal with the kind of problem any more?

This blog reflects on why I enjoyed Geoff Andrews’ 2026 book ‘Radicals: The Working Classes and The Making of Modern Britain’, and why, perhaps it is a as deeply flawed a book as my enjoyment of it.

July 6, 2026

This blog reflects on why I enjoyed Geoff Andrews’ 2026 book Radicals: The Working Classes and The Making of Modern Britain, New Haven & London, Yale University Press, and why, perhaps it is a as deeply flawed a book as my enjoyment of it. I did, despite its portentous title, Radicals: The Working Classes and … More This blog reflects on why I enjoyed Geoff Andrews’ 2026 book ‘Radicals: The Working Classes and The Making of Modern Britain’, and why, perhaps it is a as deeply flawed a book as my enjoyment of it.

The answer to whether one is a ‘lifelong learner’ is the title of the latest novel by Kae Tempest, namely ‘Having Spent Life Seeking’: as for what we seek to learn is it this? – ‘How to get by without ever getting anywhere, when getting through a minute was infinite; but every ending achieved was still only the beginning’.

July 4, 2026

The answer to whether one is a ‘lifelong learner’ is the title of the latest novel by Kae Tempest, namely ‘Having Spent Life Seeking’: as for what we seek to learn is it this? – ‘How to get by without ever getting anywhere, when getting through a minute was infinite; but every ending achieved was still … More The answer to whether one is a ‘lifelong learner’ is the title of the latest novel by Kae Tempest, namely ‘Having Spent Life Seeking’: as for what we seek to learn is it this? – ‘How to get by without ever getting anywhere, when getting through a minute was infinite; but every ending achieved was still only the beginning’.

Invited to imagine ‘your life’ as a book, the convenient thing about what you’d call a ‘chapter’ in it, is that it ends and pauses before another chapter begins. Is that because your life changed at some point or because, after the event, you want to write it as if it had?

July 2, 2026

One of the great beauties of writing an autobiography, a written story of the life you have passed thus far, is that, in writing it, you have the advantage of interpreting it, or any part of it, with a different view of what it all means now, or should as far as you are concerned … More Invited to imagine ‘your life’ as a book, the convenient thing about what you’d call a ‘chapter’ in it, is that it ends and pauses before another chapter begins. Is that because your life changed at some point or because, after the event, you want to write it as if it had?

Did Thomas Carlyle ever say: ‘Tennyson was a man solitary and sad, dwelling in an element of gloom, carrying a bit of chaos about him’.

June 28, 2026

Alfred Tennyson and Thomas Carlyle in a good representayion of the walled garden to 5 Cheyne Road the home of Thomas and Jane Carlyle., now visitable as ‘Carlyles’s House’ Thomas Carlyle, so little read today, was thought a Sage by those of his own time, and whether the quotation given above (from the usual dodgy … More Did Thomas Carlyle ever say: ‘Tennyson was a man solitary and sad, dwelling in an element of gloom, carrying a bit of chaos about him’.

Édouard Louis shows us that ‘happiness’ may be the result only of ‘social determinism’ succeeding in its function to ‘condition the person’ you are. This is a blog on Édouard Louis (2026) ‘Collapse’, London, Harvill.

June 18, 2026

Édouard Louis shows us that ‘happiness’ may be the result only of ‘social determinism’ succeeding in its function to ‘condition the person’ you are. [1] This is a blog on Édouard Louis (2026) Collapse [Trans Tash Aw], London, Harvill. This piece probably relates to what I have tried to say in blogs about earlier books. The … More Édouard Louis shows us that ‘happiness’ may be the result only of ‘social determinism’ succeeding in its function to ‘condition the person’ you are. This is a blog on Édouard Louis (2026) ‘Collapse’, London, Harvill.

Memes are sometimes nothing more than rhythms in the memory. John Dyer, the hero of Nicholas Shakespeare (2026) ‘Frame 37’, uses the phrase, ‘… nothing ever disappears completely, and when it returns it does so in exaggerated form’.  This blog considers whether it is the purpose of ‘good stories’ to locate the source of truth of an incomprehensible universe, but to continually suggest that this truth runs like ‘a non-verbal poetry’ with a ‘rhythm that feels fresh’ and might wake us up ‘to the unspoken part of the universe’ around us.

June 12, 2026

John Dyer, the hero of Nicholas Shakespeare (2026) Frame 37, London, Harvill, uses the phrase, ‘… nothing ever disappears completely, and when it returns it does so in exaggerated form’.  It is so very nearly an echo of the many ways in which Sigmund Freud described ‘the return of the repressed’.[1] However, it would be … More Memes are sometimes nothing more than rhythms in the memory. John Dyer, the hero of Nicholas Shakespeare (2026) ‘Frame 37’, uses the phrase, ‘… nothing ever disappears completely, and when it returns it does so in exaggerated form’.  This blog considers whether it is the purpose of ‘good stories’ to locate the source of truth of an incomprehensible universe, but to continually suggest that this truth runs like ‘a non-verbal poetry’ with a ‘rhythm that feels fresh’ and might wake us up ‘to the unspoken part of the universe’ around us.

Self-confidence is an illusion, as the best novels tell you. Try for resilience and the drive to move on. First of all think more deeply about what selves are. ‘The Guardian’ entitles its review of Douglas Stuart (2026) ‘John of John’ with the sentence ‘No man is an island’, but the reference to John Donne belittles a work in which islands are not only a metonymy for alienated isolation and loneliness but also a container for non-communicating multiple selves of the same kind.

June 9, 2026

Self-confidence is an illusion, as the best novels tell you. Try for resilience and the drive to move on. First of all think more deeply about what selves are. The Guardian entitles its review of Douglas Stuart (2026) John of John, London, Picador with the sentence ‘No man is an island’, but the reference to … More Self-confidence is an illusion, as the best novels tell you. Try for resilience and the drive to move on. First of all think more deeply about what selves are. ‘The Guardian’ entitles its review of Douglas Stuart (2026) ‘John of John’ with the sentence ‘No man is an island’, but the reference to John Donne belittles a work in which islands are not only a metonymy for alienated isolation and loneliness but also a container for non-communicating multiple selves of the same kind.