working notes from the textual underground
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There are two kinds of stories: the ones you tell about yourself, and the ones so large you’ve forgotten anyone is telling them. Every so often I catch one of the first kind halfway out of my mouth. “I’m not the kind of person who…” The rest of the sentence hardly matters. The interesting part ... Read more
I am sitting in Bonnie, our caravan, with my morning coffee while the campsite begins to wake around me. A rook is cleaning up the empty pitch next to ours. One of his companions joins him. A little later, on my way to the shower block, I pass a chicken picking crumbs from another camper’s ... Read more
I have been thinking about Alan Kay’s idea of the fantasy amplifier, partly because I have begun to suspect that the thing he was imagining has arrived. Or perhaps: it is arriving. Howard Rheingold, writing about Kay in Tools for Thought, described his ambition as building a “fantasy amplifier”, a dynamic medium for creative thought ... Read more
You finish a conversation and realise the other person learned nothing about you. They spoke, you listened, and somewhere along the way your role became clear: hold the space, ask the follow-up question, keep the exchange moving. Later, you replay the conversation and wonder whether they were uninterested or simply unaware. Claire Lester describes the ... Read more
A practical experiment in calling forward a larger human pattern when the usual character is too small for the scene.
The life and afterlife of Austin Osman Spare In photographs, Austin Osman Spare often looks as if he has been caught halfway between worlds. As a young man, he appears pale, beautiful and theatrical, with dark hair swept from his forehead and the wary expression of someone who already suspects that ordinary reality is a ... Read more
I took a different street home the other day. There was no great expedition in it. I was walking back through Southam by a route I know too well, heading toward the familiar turn that gets me home with the least fuss. Then I thought: I could go that way instead. I had no errand ... Read more
There is a short scene near the beginning of The Matrix that has stayed with me for years. Thomas Anderson is sitting in the office of his manager, Mr Reinhart. Anderson has arrived late again. He has a problem with authority, the manager tells him. He believes he is special, that somehow the rules do ... Read more
Last night I stood at the front of the house and watched a red moon. This morning, after waking, I looked towards the bedroom mirror at the back and saw the full moon again, bright in the glass. I don’t need the moon to issue instructions. I’ve spent enough years around symbols to know that ... Read more
I arrived in Worcester with time to spare before a family lunch. We were all coming from different points on the map. My son, his partner and my granddaughter had travelled from Ludlow. My wife and daughter were on their way from Southam. My in-laws and brother-in-law were coming up from Bristol. I had parked ... Read more
