Catching time to read and process some of the things I have saved over the last few mad, mad weeks. Months. Well, year, really.
I love this sentence from my mum’s September post, reflecting on childhood trips to Finningley airshow.
“Driving back between stubble fields and smoke, it felt like summertime was folding.”
September, What’s It Like Up There? by Susan Crow, 27th September 2023
Starting today, my brother will be recounting his time on his own on the West Coast of Scotland, referring to his photographs and journals from that time.
“That night, as the sky was beginning to darken, I set up my hammock between two gnarled oak trees, strung my tarp above, ate a quick dinner and fell asleep. I was to stay out in those woods, alone, until December.”
A Fall in Time by Alexander M. Crow.
“I cannot stress enough the perils of your friends marrying or becoming court inventors. One day you are all a society of outlaws, adventurous comrades and companions who will be pushing off somewhere or other when things become tiresome; you have all the world to choose from, just by looking at the map… And then, suddenly, they’re not interested any more. They want to keep warm. They’re afraid of rain. They start collecting big things that can’t fit in a rucksack. They talk only of small things. They don’t like to make sudden decisions and do something contrariwise. Formerly they hoisted sail; now they carpenter little shelves for porcelain mugs.”
Moominpappa’s Memoirs by Tove Jansson
“Enjoy yourself as much as you can, have as many diversions as you can, and remember that what people demand in art nowadays is something very much alive, with strong colour and great intensity. So intensify your own health and strength and life a little; that is the best study.”
Vincent Van Gogh, in a letter to his youngest sister Wilhelmina (via Mason Currey)
There is also a curious aspect I hadn’t thought of – that of writing facing the front of the house again. Our bedroom faces south, to the back garden – I am now adjacent to the north-facing window looking out onto the front garden. And, suddenly, there is a strange mental shift to being part of our village facing the front rather than the back.
Notebook, Lydia Crow, 7th January 2023
One of the mistakes the tech stan makes is assuming more is always an improvement. That we always want more features, more apps, more enhancements. But when you have a well-functioning technology, often what you want is less.
Maybe the Book Doesn’t Need to Be “Disrupted” in the First Place? by Lincoln Michel, 24th January 2023
No longer producing work that might suggest an alternative to established tradition, it is at this point that their work is no longer art and they no longer artists. There might be a great degree of craft involved, a great degree of skill involved, but craft, skill, and art are not one and the same. To be an artist is to be revolutionary.
Ganzeer, 22nd December 2022
It’s always a good day when there’s an update from Robin Sloan in your inbox. The other day I was particularly delighted to read his comments on C.S. Lewis and Donegality. The three books referenced have all been added to my “to read (one day)” list.
There seems to be a direct link here between the consideration of Ward’s analysis and the concept of place theory, specifically sense of place. Having not yet read the book mentioned (“Planet Narnia” by Michael Ward), I imagine there may well be a reference to Edward Relph and Yi-Fi Tuan (and others) and their work on space, place and placelessness, especially given Ward considers in this vein Donegal and London (both, obviously, physical places).
Applying the theory of sense of place to literary works, rather than identifying (a) sense of place in texts, is something I’m interested in considering further, not least because I am currently working on a fiction project where the place(s) mentioned could be said to feature as the main character(s).
I am certain there will be much written on this already in other guises. Please do let me know if you can think of any interesting texts.
The good stuff can’t be named, only sensed; we are like deer desperately licking our snouts out here. Even so, it’s helpful to have some language to throw around. Balancing and patterning. Meshes and nets. Donegality!
TRESPASSERS — There’s room for everybody by Robin Sloan, 6th January 2023