Iam rubescebat stellis aurora fugatis
This single line of the Aeneid sounded several times in my mind while I was writing the previous sentences. I believe the English equivalent of the Latin to be: The stars had now been put to flight, and the dawn was reddening.
BORDER DISTRICTS, Gerald Murnane
Zuihitsu is a genre of Japanese literature consisting of loosely connected personal essays and fragmented ideas that typically respond to the author’s surroundings. The name is derived from two Kanji meaning “at will” and “pen.” The provenance of the term is ultimately Chinese… the native reading of which is fude ni shitagau (“follow the brush”). Thus works of the genre should be considered not as traditionally planned literary pieces but rather as casual or randomly recorded thoughts by the authors.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zuihitsu
I have long had the notion that zuihitsu is, in fact, the sort of writing that weblog software best enables. That these are not diaries but fragments. Zuihitsu and fragment writing has fascinated me for a long time. I created the jotter category here to try and give myself permission for “casual or randomly recorded thoughts.”
I tend to re-read HOJOKI and ESSAYS IN IDLENESS once every year or two. A previous writing location of mine, Morning Computer, was intended as a home for this kind of fragment writing, but I found myself constrained by a place that was just that. I may be Full Hermit Forever, but I still need to be able to send signals out into the world, and it gives me pleasure to be able to draw your attention, reader, to the things in the world that I like.
We in the Isles of Blogging should consider ourselves allowed to follow the brush more.
I have all the meat. You may not have any. Wild Game Meat provide excellent service and everything is delicious. DO YOUR WORK, DAILY STATIN
I fell in love with Elegi’s VARDE years ago, because how can you not love a record that starts with the sound of someone digging a grave in packed snow? So I’ve been filling in gaps in Elegi’s catalogue. The CD of this arrived the other day, and I’m just getting around to playing it tonight. It is a magnificently devastated sound, and has been haunting the office marvellously tonight as I sit here and think about the past and the future.
Just to make a shitty day even more difficult, Gmail on web seems to have gone down in the UK, so here’s a photo of the sky right now while I lay down and wait for the earth to reclaim my minerals
My vision is so fucked up today I have no idea if this photo is blurry or not:
The øjeRum, WITHOUT BLOOD THE SUN DARKENS, is an hour-long landscape-soundscape, and it’s helping.
The MUUR, entitled BOD, is also an hour long, and is far more like listening into a weird ritual under a mystery cult temple. One for late nights when I’m trying to think.
Both available through Cyclic Law.
What we have here this morning is the complete works of Christina Vantzou sans the remix collections. All available via her Bandcamp page, where you can also stream them all and decide for yourself that she’s a genius. Oops, guess I just decided that for you. Oh well.
A sample, from NO. 4.
It’s been fully The Week From Hell over here, but this turned up this morning and improved things no end:
It’s a CD and 44-page book, from Aurota Borealis Recordings here in Britain. Link. “A concept compilation based on the invasion of the moon 50 years ago on 20th July 1969.”
Like I wasn’t going to buy a record with Hawthonn and Anji Cheung on it. No brainer. It is, as I expected, towering and rippling with the power of the lunar and numinous. I am delighted, and recommend it to you.
