Is thinking differently, doing something differently? Or is thought a means of doing nothing? ‘We are all of us born in moral stupidity, taking the world as an udder to feed our supreme selves’ says George Eliot magisterially with perhaps this issue in mind. If we are born thus, the emergence of independent moral understanding is painful as a result, for in that emergence we begin to know the otherness of others beneath the barriers set by our thick skins. (Cue George Eliot’s ‘Middlemarch’ from the end of Book 1, Chapter XXI).

Is thinking differently, doing something differently? Or is thought a means of doing nothing? Can thinking become its own object rather an an eternally self-reflecting subject seeing itself repeated infinitely in a Hall of Mirrors. A Yayoi Kusama Infinity Mirror Room. ‘We are all of us born in moral stupidity, taking the world as an … More Is thinking differently, doing something differently? Or is thought a means of doing nothing? ‘We are all of us born in moral stupidity, taking the world as an udder to feed our supreme selves’ says George Eliot magisterially with perhaps this issue in mind. If we are born thus, the emergence of independent moral understanding is painful as a result, for in that emergence we begin to know the otherness of others beneath the barriers set by our thick skins. (Cue George Eliot’s ‘Middlemarch’ from the end of Book 1, Chapter XXI).

‘Stop saying words, my sister whispered back. I want to hear the story’. This is a blog  on Ali Smith (2024) ‘Gliff ‘.

‘Stop saying words, my sister whispered back. I want to hear the story’.[1] The paradox may be that we express our identity in words and names not in the process of telling and hearing our stories. I think Ali Smith thinks that may be true of the configuration of sex/gender too. This is a blog  … More ‘Stop saying words, my sister whispered back. I want to hear the story’. This is a blog  on Ali Smith (2024) ‘Gliff ‘.

If mine own self contains multiples then night does not follow day, they are simultaneous and not necessarily in contest.

The idea that the surest thing on earth is that night follows day in indubitable sequence is so often invoked that it is the stock-in-trade of politicians, especially those involved of the hubris of building and defending nation states within expanding imperial boundaries and in the belief that might is right: note the words of … More If mine own self contains multiples then night does not follow day, they are simultaneous and not necessarily in contest.

This blog ponders on the latest John Banville crime novel:  John Banville (2024) ‘The Drowned’ London, Faber.

Do we guess when Detective St. John Strafford’s consciousness notices that there ‘was something odd about him today’  with regard a long standing character in the Quirke stories by Benjamin Black and the Quirke and Strafford stories of John Banville, Chief Inspector John Hackett,  that Hackett is about to depart his place in the series … More This blog ponders on the latest John Banville crime novel:  John Banville (2024) ‘The Drowned’ London, Faber.

Thoughts Before my Seventieth Birthday on Thursday 24th October 2024: An Acrostic: ‘Does Steven Fear Being Seventy‘

Thoughts Before my Seventieth Birthday on Thursday 24th October 2024: An Acrostic: ‘Does Steven Fear Being Seventy‘ Do larks ascending raise up such volumeOf song as the rich racket in his heartEach time Steven’s shaken with sonic boomSome tolling bells of time, seem to shock-start;Surprised, that such a sage and serious Timorous soul has reached an … More Thoughts Before my Seventieth Birthday on Thursday 24th October 2024: An Acrostic: ‘Does Steven Fear Being Seventy‘

A performance of Pat Barker’s art in ‘The Voyage Home’ merges the voice of the Durham working class and rich music.

A performance of Pat Barker’s art in ‘The Voyage Home’ merges the voice of the Durham working class and rich music. I have blogged on The Voyage Home in preparation for this event (see the blog at this link) and had it been for the fairly run-of-the mill interview with Barker conducted by Adelle Stripe … More A performance of Pat Barker’s art in ‘The Voyage Home’ merges the voice of the Durham working class and rich music.

Alan Hollinghurst says that even if the first person narrator has a ‘testifying force’, it ‘is also filled with the omission of not knowing everything’. This is a blog on Alan Hollinghurst (2024) ‘Our Evenings’.

Alim Kheraj of GQ magazine starts his interview regarding Our Evenings (2024) with novelist Alan Hollinghurst with a question about  the ‘distinct first-person narrator’, asking: ‘How did that voice develop?’ Hollinghurst’s answer gives the reason why he thought a first person narrator was ‘inevitable’ because the events must be seen by someone ‘racially distinct from … More Alan Hollinghurst says that even if the first person narrator has a ‘testifying force’, it ‘is also filled with the omission of not knowing everything’. This is a blog on Alan Hollinghurst (2024) ‘Our Evenings’.

A note about ‘Bajazet’ by Racine and translated by Alan Hollinghurst and featuring in ‘Our Evenings’

Alan Hollinghurst’s newest novel opens with the memoirist, who is the novel’s focus, Dave Win, thinking about his present life in his 80s. He is ‘two weeks into rehearsals for Bajazet at the Anvil’, where he is ‘playing old Acomat, the grand Vizier, a gift of a part, …’. This blog is a starter before … More A note about ‘Bajazet’ by Racine and translated by Alan Hollinghurst and featuring in ‘Our Evenings’

‘Maybe it wasn’t true that there were no arts of living’. This is a blog on Garth Greenwell (2024) ‘Small Rain’.

There are no answers in this novel about ‘how to live’ other than the possibility that there might be, but possibly  too there aren’t,  ‘provisional truths’. Sometimes wisdom looks like the realisation that: ‘Maybe it wasn’t true that there were no arts of living’.[1] In this novel Garth Greenwell leaps from the queered description of … More ‘Maybe it wasn’t true that there were no arts of living’. This is a blog on Garth Greenwell (2024) ‘Small Rain’.

I need a plan for doing daily blogs. The task gets harder as my capacity for invention diminishes.

I need a plan for doing daily blogs. The task gets harder as my capacity for invention diminishes. Verses about how the daily blogs started ‘A blog a day Keeps blues away’. At first it was a need To find in chaff a seed Through diversion of that rumination Into futures planned by my creation. … More I need a plan for doing daily blogs. The task gets harder as my capacity for invention diminishes.

“Much depends on it being a story that people will listen to greedily and be desperate to pass on”. This is a blog on Mark Haddon’s ‘Dogs and Monsters’ (2024).   

In the first story of Mark Haddon’s Dogs and Monsters (2024), named The Mother’s Story, a wily inventor and engineer, capable perhaps of only inventing dangerous fictions says of a story he is in the process of telling: “Much depends on it being a story that people will listen to greedily and be desperate to … More “Much depends on it being a story that people will listen to greedily and be desperate to pass on”. This is a blog on Mark Haddon’s ‘Dogs and Monsters’ (2024).