Tag: writing

If a work of art in words is worth reading, you will have never finally or completely read it – you will always be reading it. Deciding to continue reading ‘All My Sons’ by Arthur Miller in preparation for seeing Ivo Van Hove’s version of it live-streamed on 16th April 2026.

April 5, 2026

If a work of art in words is worth reading, you will have never finally or completely read it – you will always be reading it. Deciding to continue reading ‘All My Sons’ by Arthur Miller in preparation for seeing Ivo Van Hove’s version of it live-streamed on 16th April 2026. The reason I am … More If a work of art in words is worth reading, you will have never finally or completely read it – you will always be reading it. Deciding to continue reading ‘All My Sons’ by Arthur Miller in preparation for seeing Ivo Van Hove’s version of it live-streamed on 16th April 2026.

‘… but that was in another country; / And besides the wench is dead.’ Let’s make our diversity our common unity and not ‘other’ those of ‘another country’, if that was ever possible. An answer based on a case study reading of the novel by James Baldwin, ‘Another Country’.

April 3, 2026

… but that was in another country; / And besides the wench is dead.’ Let’s make our diversity our common unity and not ‘other’ those of ‘another country’, if that was ever possible. An answer based on a case study reading of the novel by James Baldwin, Another Country. This will turn into an answer … More ‘… but that was in another country; / And besides the wench is dead.’ Let’s make our diversity our common unity and not ‘other’ those of ‘another country’, if that was ever possible. An answer based on a case study reading of the novel by James Baldwin, ‘Another Country’.

The institutionalisation of social-distancing! Does it make a difference to the kind, quality or measurement of social distance?

April 1, 2026

The two terms in my title are near enough in appearance. However Wikipedia defines and discusses them separately. Social distancing is the name given to a public health measure, called for by government or other authority to prevent the spread of air-borne communicable diseases, practiced widely during the Covid-19 pandemic. Social distance is a descriptive … More The institutionalisation of social-distancing! Does it make a difference to the kind, quality or measurement of social distance?

From rituals to being an effective person in following Rodin’s advice to Rilke: ‘You Must Change Your Life!’?

March 29, 2026

Wikipedia is a good beginning for this prompt question, which specifically asks for a description of ‘my’ morning rituals’. Ritual is, in my selective understanding at least, primarily a social phenomenon that enacts a prescribed means, sometimes to the minutest detail, of expressing the invisible and numinous in a process. It manifests the ways in … More From rituals to being an effective person in following Rodin’s advice to Rilke: ‘You Must Change Your Life!’?

At five, I still wanted to know that I would grow up, period. And not come to a full stop.

March 28, 2026

Whilst we like to think children have no conception of death, the evidence seems to be that from the age of 5 upwards, children begin to develop an idea of death as and end, of worldly life at least, though their views of this still contain elements of magical thinking as to cause of death … More At five, I still wanted to know that I would grow up, period. And not come to a full stop.

Say No! Why should we give way and surrender all of our Delusions for the sake of order! ‘We are not asking for permission to belong any more, not from a silent universe …’ The delusory command to ‘Abandon all Delusions all You who enter here’ and Processing who will ‘Pass’ Examination of their abandonment of delusion is so delusory in Jenni Fagan (2026) ‘The Delusions’.

March 25, 2026

Say No! Why should we give way and surrender all of our Delusions for the sake of order! ‘We are not asking for permission to belong any more, not from a silent universe …’ [1] The delusory command to ‘Abandon all Delusions all You who enter here’ and Processing who will ‘Pass’ Examination of their … More Say No! Why should we give way and surrender all of our Delusions for the sake of order! ‘We are not asking for permission to belong any more, not from a silent universe …’ The delusory command to ‘Abandon all Delusions all You who enter here’ and Processing who will ‘Pass’ Examination of their abandonment of delusion is so delusory in Jenni Fagan (2026) ‘The Delusions’.

The threat of involuntary laughter – a release of tension or a weapon.

March 23, 2026

The threat of involuntary laughter – a release of tension or a weapon. Asked to define the issue in which a person laughs AT another person, or type of person, my AI Co-Pilot comes up with two categories, one a symptom of mental disturbance (katagelasticism) , the other a supposedly common emotional strategy for managing … More The threat of involuntary laughter – a release of tension or a weapon.

The meaning of the weather depends on what its changes mean to you, your community, your present and your future. This blog is about seeing the Opera North production of ‘Peter Grimes’ at the Theatre Royal Newcastle at 7.00 p.m Friday 20th March 2026.

March 22, 2026

The meaning of the weather depends on what its changes mean to you, your community, your present and your future! This blog is about seeing the Opera North production of ‘Peter Grimes’ at the Theatre Royal Newcastle at 7.00 p.m Friday 20th March 2026. Theatre Royal. Awaiting the performance I prepared myself as always to … More The meaning of the weather depends on what its changes mean to you, your community, your present and your future. This blog is about seeing the Opera North production of ‘Peter Grimes’ at the Theatre Royal Newcastle at 7.00 p.m Friday 20th March 2026.

And yet, in humans, I know my love as rare / As any they belied with false compare.

March 18, 2026

I am fairly sure I have never received a ‘compliment’ in which I believed that formed itself in words and metaphors, for these things are essentially fictive and their truth at the same remove from simple belief as anything else significant that is still composed of fictions. We can’t live without fictions but we should … More And yet, in humans, I know my love as rare / As any they belied with false compare.

Each day I wish I could find the will to write things ‘technically harder’ than is the norm in order to give me significantly ‘better practice’ in writing. This blog examines as a case study: Rupert Brooke’s one-act play: ‘Lithuania’ to show whether he could, as Maurice Bowra claims he wanted to in writing it, forefront ‘the expression of character, not of personal feeling, …’.

March 17, 2026

Each day I wish I could find the will to write things ‘technically harder’ than is the norm in order to give me significantly ‘better practice’ in writing. This blog examines as a case study: Rupert Brooke’s one-act play: ‘Lithuania’ to show whether he could, as Maurice Bowra claims he wanted to in writing it, … More Each day I wish I could find the will to write things ‘technically harder’ than is the norm in order to give me significantly ‘better practice’ in writing. This blog examines as a case study: Rupert Brooke’s one-act play: ‘Lithuania’ to show whether he could, as Maurice Bowra claims he wanted to in writing it, forefront ‘the expression of character, not of personal feeling, …’.

I wish for that ‘extent of subtleties’ Virginia Woolf discerned in Vita Sackville-West’s ‘Passenger to Teheran’: ‘the sly, brooding thinking, evading Vita. The whole book is full of nooks and crannies, the very intimate things one says in print’.

March 16, 2026

I wish for that ‘extent of subtleties’ Virginia Woolf discerned in Vita Sackville-West’s Passenger to Teheran: ‘the sly, brooding thinking, evading Vita. The whole book is full of nooks and crannies, the very intimate things one says in print’. [1] You glance at the photograph of Vita Sackville-West, taken on her own camera en route … More I wish for that ‘extent of subtleties’ Virginia Woolf discerned in Vita Sackville-West’s ‘Passenger to Teheran’: ‘the sly, brooding thinking, evading Vita. The whole book is full of nooks and crannies, the very intimate things one says in print’.