Tag: dailyprompt

Making your mark from the offset: the fallacy of control. This blog is a reflection on Benjamin Myers’ new work, ‘Jesus Christ Kinski: A Novel about a Film about a Performance about Jesus’.

November 8, 2025

Making your mark from the offset: the fallacy of control. This blog is a reflection on Benjamin Myers’ new work, ‘Jesus Christ Kinski: A Novel about a Film about a Performance about Jesus‘. A quiet man reflects on a loud one, whose mouth is full of hubristic pretension and loudly scored swear words. How does … More Making your mark from the offset: the fallacy of control. This blog is a reflection on Benjamin Myers’ new work, ‘Jesus Christ Kinski: A Novel about a Film about a Performance about Jesus’.

My favourite subject was ‘Fainting in Coils’, of course!

November 7, 2025

The saddest character in Lewis Carroll’s repertoire of tragi-comic characters is the Mock-Turtle. While his friend the Gryphon carries his working-class aura abroad with him, making him feel himself  to be the equal of tyrannical Queens, the Mock-Turtle tries to blame his education for never rising from the great unwashed because ‘Washing’ was an ‘extra’ … More My favourite subject was ‘Fainting in Coils’, of course!

To the memory of John Burnside and in dear friendship for Joanne, I contemplate. the poet’s posthumous lines: ‘and everything they loved / is erstwhile, in the empire of forgetting: / …’

November 6, 2025

To the memory of John Burnside and in dear friendship for Joanne, I contemplate. the poet’s posthumous lines: ‘and everything they loved / is erstwhile, in the empire of forgetting: /  …’ [*] There is nothing that once were the objects of our lives that can be remembered in their entirety, hence the fact that … More To the memory of John Burnside and in dear friendship for Joanne, I contemplate. the poet’s posthumous lines: ‘and everything they loved / is erstwhile, in the empire of forgetting: / …’

‘Anticipating time with starting courage’. Lines from ‘Troilus and Cressida’ Act 4, Scene V woven into a dialogue between an old man (Chronos) and his son (Kairos).

November 4, 2025

‘Anticipating time with starting courage’. Adapted lines from ‘Troilus and Cressida‘ Act 4, Scene V woven into a fantasy dialogue between an old man (Chronos) and his son (Kairos). AN OLD MAN TO HIS QUEER SON ABOUT TAKING ON A HUSBAND:These things take time, young man. It’s not for you,Anticipating time with starting courage.THE YOUNG … More ‘Anticipating time with starting courage’. Lines from ‘Troilus and Cressida’ Act 4, Scene V woven into a dialogue between an old man (Chronos) and his son (Kairos).

In a historical novel, you can ‘meet’ people supposed in those fictions to be famous AND those who are or ‘were’ so in ‘real’ life simultaneously. In Neil Blakemore’s 2025 novel ‘Objects Of Desire’, the character named Christopher Isherwood says that people want fame: ‘So that they can become monsters and make others feel bad, and no one will dare challenge them’.

November 3, 2025

In a historical novel, you can ‘meet’ people supposed in those fictions to be famous AND those who are or ‘were’ so in ‘real’ life simultaneously. In Neil Blakemore’s 2025 novel Objects Of Desire, the character named Christopher Isherwood says that people want fame: ‘So that they can become monsters and make others feel bad, … More In a historical novel, you can ‘meet’ people supposed in those fictions to be famous AND those who are or ‘were’ so in ‘real’ life simultaneously. In Neil Blakemore’s 2025 novel ‘Objects Of Desire’, the character named Christopher Isherwood says that people want fame: ‘So that they can become monsters and make others feel bad, and no one will dare challenge them’.

The ubiquitous phenomenon of the unreliable narrator in the novel is an admission that the only truth in human hearts is its tendency to ambivalence; knowing, feeling and sensing opposite ideas , emotions and sensations to be true and possible at the same time. Why  should we ‘know’ this? I use a reading of John Banville’s ‘Venetian Vespers’ (2025) as a test case.

October 30, 2025

The ubiquitous phenomenon of the unreliable narrator in the novelin the novel is an admission that the only truth in human hearts is its tendency to ambivalence; knowing, feeling and sensing opposite ideas , emotions and sensations to be true and possible at the same time. Why should we ‘know’ this? I use a reading … More The ubiquitous phenomenon of the unreliable narrator in the novel is an admission that the only truth in human hearts is its tendency to ambivalence; knowing, feeling and sensing opposite ideas , emotions and sensations to be true and possible at the same time. Why  should we ‘know’ this? I use a reading of John Banville’s ‘Venetian Vespers’ (2025) as a test case.

Innocence is not the condition of childhood- rather it is inability to control the heart or stop it from being overwhelmed. This blog is an attempt to prepare myself to see a revival of Chekhov’s ‘The Seagull’ at The Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh on Wednesday 29th October at 2.30 p.m.

October 28, 2025

Innocence is not the condition of childhood- rather it is inability to control the heart or stop it from being overwhelmed. This truth is embedded in the reflexive nature of Chekhov’s great play The Sea-Gull. In Act IV of The Sea-Gull, we hear of the stage in a country estate’s garden that in Act I … More Innocence is not the condition of childhood- rather it is inability to control the heart or stop it from being overwhelmed. This blog is an attempt to prepare myself to see a revival of Chekhov’s ‘The Seagull’ at The Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh on Wednesday 29th October at 2.30 p.m.

Those events within the period of my life that I can not remember and claim not to be my historical experience need committing to memory more than anything else. How else do we become whole persons and communities? Geoff and I see a performance of contemporary Indian classical dance at Bishop Auckland Town Hall. Family and distance is a theme that applies to personal and cultural experience, yet we shun the relevance of migration stories to our ‘entitled’ Britishness.

October 16, 2025

Geoff and I see a performance of a contemporary version of Indian classical dance at Bishop Auckland Town Hall on Wednesday 15th October, 7.30 p.m. It is on a vitally important theme of the moment: family and distance in migrant experience Fatherhood Imagine a performance in which one man invests himself in the personality of … More Those events within the period of my life that I can not remember and claim not to be my historical experience need committing to memory more than anything else. How else do we become whole persons and communities? Geoff and I see a performance of contemporary Indian classical dance at Bishop Auckland Town Hall. Family and distance is a theme that applies to personal and cultural experience, yet we shun the relevance of migration stories to our ‘entitled’ Britishness.

If once you haven’t been able to take that risk, let’s face it is not because you could not (or ‘were not able to’) but because you are risk averse and don’t wish to admit it. Naming that risk without taking it is just a way of dealing with your risk-aversion by indulging in a projected and insubstantial self-image.

October 15, 2025

Risk is universal in all engagements with life. It is impossible to act or even to stay passive in any prompt to action without incurring risk, for even disengaging from activity has risks involved, increasingly serious as the degree of disengagement increases. To harbour the wish to take a risk is merely a denial of … More If once you haven’t been able to take that risk, let’s face it is not because you could not (or ‘were not able to’) but because you are risk averse and don’t wish to admit it. Naming that risk without taking it is just a way of dealing with your risk-aversion by indulging in a projected and insubstantial self-image.

What happens when artists are asked: “What have you been working on?”

October 13, 2025

What happens when artists are asked: “What have you been working on?” What have you been working on?” is a catch-all question? Does it ask what task are you currently working towards completion. It might mean that and it might at the same time refer to a task in at your paid work role. Alternatively, … More What happens when artists are asked: “What have you been working on?”

If pride comes before a fall, then admire the ‘fallen’ who remain proud of what is to be learned in the process.

October 11, 2025

Whatever the meme above was meant to signify in its original use, it speaks volumes about the ethical nature of pride as mode of self-congratulation. Pride is an error only when divorced from an object in which to be proud, when it refers not to some achievement in actual time and space that will lose … More If pride comes before a fall, then admire the ‘fallen’ who remain proud of what is to be learned in the process.

Malevich’s ‘Taking in the Rye’, looks like the dissection of a rainbow! Aim to be lazy!

October 10, 2025

I suppose the key word here – the one that should set warning bells ringing is ‘unproductive’, for as a word it has long differentiated from what seem to be a synonym, non-productive. Yet since the words are often confused the term ‘counter-productive’ has been invented to show that their scale of the unproduction from … More Malevich’s ‘Taking in the Rye’, looks like the dissection of a rainbow! Aim to be lazy!