Yesterday, 21C. Today, 15 at best. The clocks went back and the long Indian summer went away. Today is for bacon sandwiches and coffee, roasting sausages and making mashed potato.
The newsletter went out this morning, and if you’re not subscribed, you can catch up and add yourself to the list at this link right here. As noted therein, I’ve been derelict in this space, due to factors including really enjoying the long and difficult thing I’m writing right now. But I do need to knock this place into shape, and that’s going to be one of my winter projects.
The advent of winter feels really good. I know that in four months I’ll be cursing the sky, and I am frankly dreading the Xmas time-crush.
Am beginning my winter reading projects, and I suspect the next book I take off the digital pile will be WAR AND WAR by Laszlo Krasznahorkai (link), of whom WG Sebald wrote “The universality of Krasznahorkai’s vision… far surpasses all the lesser concerns of contemporary writing” and who wrote several films with Bela Tarr, which is how I became aware of his work.
Speaking of the great wanderer himself: Sebald, author of the transformative THE RINGS OF SATURN (link), taught creative writing, and two of his students compiled a fascinating list of his writing tips. That right there is your essential reading of the day.
Fiction should have a ghostlike presence in it somewhere, something omniscient. It makes it a different reality.