On Sunday, I went to the William Blake 1809 exhibition at Tate Britain, reviewed here in The Guardian. It’s absolutely fascinating; it restages his first and only public display of prints and paintings, and sets them in a context which helps explain their abysmal critical reception. I wanted to do a video review of it,Continue reading “William Blake understood as a West London Shopping Mall”
Category Archives: Modernity
Reviewing ‘The City and The City’
Well, I’ve just finished China Miéville’s superb new book, ‘The City and The City’. It’s utterly gripping, a noir-ish police procedural with an Eastern European feel that both builds on, reacts against and moves beyond the concerns and achievements of his previous novels. So you’ve probably worked out that I’d recommend it to anyone whoContinue reading “Reviewing ‘The City and The City’”
Crash
More from Ballard; a 1971 short film about ‘Crash’, written by JGB and directed by Harley Cokeliss.
J. G. Ballard, 1930-2009
What is there to say? He showed us strange, alien worlds, and then we’d look around and realise that we already lived in them. It was a bleak privilege to be a part of the culture he was dissecting, and thus receive his writing in the most direct, most living way possible. There’s much moreContinue reading “J. G. Ballard, 1930-2009”
Friedman, Capitalism and Fantasy
Fantasy’s often condemned for ignoring reality; but much supposedly rational, descriptive writing can have a tenuous relationship with reality, and with the fundamental structures of reality, too. Stories of the fantastic at least have the virtue of being honest about their fictive nature. Take Milton Friedman, for example. I’ve just been reading ‘Capitalism and Freedom’Continue reading “Friedman, Capitalism and Fantasy”
Dispatches from a moving time
Well, the process of moving continues – silence for the last week or so as I’ve been deep in final moving and decorations (with hugely invaluable help and support from H) before the new carpets go in at Allumination Central. More busy-ness continues – furniture ordering, sorting estate agents, etc, before the upcoming move toContinue reading “Dispatches from a moving time”
Relating to Gandalf
Well, it’s interesting times at Allumination Central, as at the moment I’m a full time writer. That – combined with Gary Lachman’s fascinating delve into 60s occult culture, ‘Turn Off Your Mind’, and related ponderings about Gandalf – has set me pondering self determination, external determination, and the relationship between the two. It’s the selfContinue reading “Relating to Gandalf”
We’re the Shoggoths now
Well, there hasn’t been much weird pondering for a bit – but now, I’m back, and thanks to China Mieville’s excellent introduction to the Modern Library edition of ‘At the Mountains of Madness’, once again I’ve been a-pondering H. P. Lovecraft. China sees him as a kind of crazed pulp modernist, breaking out of traditionContinue reading “We’re the Shoggoths now”
Luke comes in colours
Just happened to turn on Blade the TV series, and there was a character who looked just like Hillary Clinton, in intensive care, which seemed oddly apt. Anyway, that’s enough reading American political commentary from random pulp gleanings; instead, I’m going to turn to reading the future from random SFnal conversations, which I suspect willContinue reading “Luke comes in colours”
Breaking the past, escaping the past
What to say, what to say? The perennial problem of blogging – but sometimes, an entry writes itself, and tonight is one of those nights, because I’ve been reading Steve Cockayne’s marvellous, green-haunted novel, ‘The Good People’. It’s about a boy called Kenneth Storey, who – it seems – either has a rich fantasy life,Continue reading “Breaking the past, escaping the past”