2022 is the centenary year of TS Eliot’s modernist masterpiece The Waste Land. It is one of the 20th century’s greatest and most influential poems, and yet seethes with such profound imagic, linguistic, cultural and religious references that it appears intimidatingly impenetrable to the lay reader. That’s the modernist way. But let’s not be temptedContinue reading “Literature Long Read: This World Is On Fire – Mysticism, Rejuvenation and Peace in The Waste Land”
Category Archives: literature
The Rings Of Saturn – Chapter 6
Last week Em began work as the amanuensis of Edourado del Bosques, and meditated upon the horrors of growing old, and how the old view the young. Would even the great ones be resentful to those in the flushes of youth? This week, Emmanuel joins his mentor at a dinner in Madrid, where he seesContinue reading “The Rings Of Saturn – Chapter 6”
The Rings Of Saturn – Chapter 5
Last week Emmanuel told of the first tentative steps he was taking with his work with Bosques. Work is proving difficult, so Emmanuel walks through the heart of the city of Madrid at night to try and capture some of the darkness missing from the work. ~ Em, Slept in the studio last night. BosquesContinue reading “The Rings Of Saturn – Chapter 5”
Aiming High Part 1: Write For The Stars
I made the conscious decision to make a serious go at writing around about ten years ago, during a holiday with my wife (then fiancée), and set about pulling together an epic fantasy that was pretty much 100% ideation, and 0% planning. I had no idea how I was going to approach the task, soContinue reading “Aiming High Part 1: Write For The Stars”
The Rings Of Saturn – Chapter 4
Last week our correspondent Emmanuel, writing to the woman he abandoned in London, was invited by the artist Edouardo Del Bosques to be his amanuensis. All of a sudden, Emmanuel finds a reason to live. ~
The Rings Of Saturn – Chapter 3
Last week, Emmanuel pondered why the esteemed artist Edouardo Del Bosques had left his business card in Room 67 at the Museo Del Prado, until at last he gets a message asking to reunite. At Room 67 of the Museo Del Prado, of course.
The Rings Of Saturn – Chapter 2
Last week Emmanuel, a failed artist, began a series of epistolary correspondence to a woman from a previous life in London. His letters related his abandonment of London for Madrid, where he planned to drink himself to death. His plans were stalled when he ran into his artistic hero, Edourado del Bosques, in Room 67Continue reading “The Rings Of Saturn – Chapter 2”
Literature Long Read: Utter Dismemberment in House Of Leaves
There is a very strange and small subgenre of literature that is so esoteric and self-reflexive that conventional attempts at categorisation seem to be powerless to define it. The Norwegian academic Espen Aarseth, in attempting to define the outer limits of literary potential made possible by advances in electronic media, noted such texts as ergodicContinue reading “Literature Long Read: Utter Dismemberment in House Of Leaves”
The Rings Of Saturn – Chapter 1
After publishing two novellas last year I’ve been encouraged to serialise another here on the blog. This novella was concocted after one of my visits to Madrid, one of my favourite places. I’ve visited Madrid around a dozen times, and I almost always get the hankering to visit the magnificent Museo Del Prado, especially asContinue reading “The Rings Of Saturn – Chapter 1”
Literature Long Read: You Better Watch Yourself
In the Quentin Tarantino film Kill Bill 2 the titular character Bill, played by David Carradine, delivers a withering critique of Superman, saying that Clark Kent – a clumsy, skittish, slightly nerdy and shy figure – is Superman’s critique on the human race; that that personality is what’s needed to fit in. It’s a flawedContinue reading “Literature Long Read: You Better Watch Yourself”
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