a writer's notebook
…(I) thought of them as someone might think of an astronaut’s footprints, but not a pioneer astronaut like Neil Armstrong, for example, but an astronaut for the end of something, an astronaut for an ending.
THE THINGS WE’VE SEEN, Agustin Fernandez Mallo (link)
Comments closedBosch closes his eyes and focuses on this feeling, so he’ll remember it when it’s gone. For it will be gone, will it not? That is the way of things, that is time, and time is a fucker, and except for this one time in all his life he’d never cared about the boot-sludge drone of time, and suddenly it is everything, isn’t it?
VERGE, Lidia Yuknavitch (link)
Comments closedDuring the winter months, the only route in and out of the remote valley of Zanskar in the Indian Himalayas is along the ice-path formed by a frozen river. The river passes down through steep-sided valleys of shaley rock, on whose slopes snow leopards hunt. In its deeper pools, the ice is blue and lucid. The journey down the river is called the chadar, and parties undertaking the chadar are led by experienced walkers known as ‘ice-pilots’, who can tell where the dangers lie.
THE OLD WAYS, Robert Macfarlane (link)
Comments closedShe took one look at Poe and said, ‘When was the last time you slept? You have eyes like a racing dog’s bollocks.’
THE BOTANIST, MW Craven
Comments closedReigen Eto (1721-1785) was a student of the renowned Zen Master Hakuin. At one point, Reigen left Hakuin’s temple to pursue the solitude of the mountains as a hermit. He remained in mountain solitude for ten years, pursuing the teaching and practice of his master. One day, he learned that Hakuin was giving a lecture at a nearby retreat. Reigen Eto left the mountains to attend, and was so inspired by the talk that he resumed his studies with Hakuin.
Hakuin was also a painter, and Reigen Eto became one, too. Painting was a precise art suited to Zen single-mindedness of expression. Reigen pursued standard themes, depicting Bodhidharma, Hotei, Mount Fuji, and natural objects like crows and pine trees. A lesser known work and its object, however, may be his most persuasive.
In 1543, the Western world intruded upon Japan. A Portuguese warship landed on the island of Tanegashima, and two sailors armed with guns alighted. Eventually, the island became the chief stopoff for Portuguese trade — the Westerners concept of trade being extortion, violence, and force then visited on hapless Japan. The Japanese remembered the metal objcect that was the source of the intruders’ power: the gun. Having no knowledge or experience with this weapon, the name of the island — the word “tanegashima” — became synonymous with “gun.” And this is the topic of Reigen Eto’s painting titled “The Gun,” a work strangely obscure among his own works and among historical Zen paintings.
The work, which is not reprinted on the Web at this writing — was painted in stylized form, with a haiku at the top and an object (in this case a gun) at the bottom. The gun is painted in swift brushstrokes, quick enough to represent the streaks of faded black ink called “flying white.”
The haiku reads: “The sound of the gun / is the entrance / to hell.”
From Hermitary. Apologies for the extended quote, but I wanted to ensure I didn’t lose this.
Comments closedAs a writer, looking for evidence of readership and engagement on Twitter makes you into the drunk looking for your lost keys under the street light.
I still remember that – remember being sent to quantify it by publishers and other entities, even — and I wish someone had said the above to me then.
Comments closedInside, Jackson Lamb squatted in an armchair like a yeti in a biscuit tin: spilling over its edges, but not seeming to care.
BAD ACTORS, Mick Herron
Comments closedÉPIGRAMME
A dish consisting of two cuts of lamb, both cooked dry. These two pieces are a slice of breast and a cutlet (rib chop) or chop, dipped in egg and breadcrumbs and grilled (broiled) or fried. Philéas Gilbert explains the origins of the term épigramme as follows:
‘It was towards the middle of the 18th century. One day a young marquise overheard one of her guests at table remark that when he was dining the previous evening with the Comte de Vaudreuil, he was charmingly received and, furthermore, had had a feast of excellent epigrams. The marquise, though pretty and elegant, was somewhat ignorant of the meaning of words. She later summoned Michelet, her chef. “Michelet,” she said to him, “tomorrow, I shall require a dish of épigrammes!” ‘The chef withdrew, pondering the problem. He looked up old recipes, but found no reference to anything of the kind. None of his colleagues had ever heard of the dish. But no French master chef is ever at a loss. Since he could discover nothing about the dish, he set about inventing one. Next day, inspiration came and he created a most delicate dish. ‘At dinner, the guests fell into ecstasies over the dish put before them and, after complimenting the lady of the house, desired to know its name. The chef was called. With perfect composure he replied, “Épigrammes of lamb à la Michelet”. ‘ Everyone laughed. The marquise was triumphant, though she could not understand the amusement of her guests. From that moment, the culinary repertoire of France was enriched by a name still used to this day.
New Larousse Gastronomique (UK) (US)
(obtained on a flash Kindle sale for 99p!)
Comments closedCarl Jung had an interesting theory about creative fiction and its relationship with an audience. He called it ‘participation mystique’, and in essence it was this: A writer or an artist writes something intense and creative, and the reader understands it as if he or she were the actual writer.
It’s as though the writer has projected all kinds of unconscious material onto the fiction. Jung goes on to say that fiction becomes fact, and that the most bizarre experiences can take place within the narrative because the reader is experiencing it directly. There is no need to suspend disbelief because the reader is ‘in’ the story.
THE THIRTY-SIX DRAMATIC SITUATIONS, Mike Figgis (UK) (US)
Comments closedThe interesting thing about present-day events is not the events themselves, but this state of intellectual turmoil into which minds are plunged, this extreme tension, for they unendingly plunge us into a state of conscious confusion. That all this disturbs the mind without making it lose its balance is a moving way of expressing the innate pulse of life.
THE THEATRE AND ITS DOUBLE, Antonin Artaud, 1938 (UK) (US)
Comments closed