The Big Question 5/5 The End of the Beginning

Fifteen years of thought and reding led me to the conclusion that I drew in the last instalment. Should I ever run into Petunia (from the first instalment) again. And, should we talk long enough for the subject to come up, I will be ready to pounce like a theoretical puma in a forest of hypothetical trees. Unfortunately, I don’t have several years to wait in the hope of bumping into her so about a week ago, in the interest of rounding off this introduction, I looked her up on Facebook. To my absolute horror, I discovered she had become an English teacher. I would have been happier if she was working developing chemical weapons or testing cosmetic products on animals. I would like to elaborate on her Saul-like conversion to literature: explaining in detail how my earlier, much less though out, defence of literature had sparked a passion for literature in her that was only rivalled in intensity by the unending physical pain she felt at the regret of dumping me. However, she ignored my friend request so I am on very shaky ground.

I am currently burried in reading through Shakespeare and the publishers keep putting out quality book after quality book, so I'm behind on my this year's fiction. But I will try to keep updating this as much as I can.

Until then, keep asking: is literature what makes us human?

Anyway, until the next installment...

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The Big Question 3/5 - Why we still need storytelling

In the end, even preternaturally large gorillas must face their mortality. Having touched briefly on the Christian creation myth in the last instalment, I would like to return to it just as briefly to talk about storytelling. Storytelling seems to have been what our ancient ancestors used in lieu of information. Creation myths exist almost universally throughout human culture and they are a good example of how literature fills the gaps of human knowledge. Certain things within the human experience are simply unknowable and, it tends to be those unknowable elements of our existence that stop us from sleeping properly. As a man who prides himself on having moved past the Eighteenth century regretting only the loss of cottage industry I am able to see creation myth for what it is - literature. In The Bible, we are given the following information: that God created the world from the word. However, there is no explanation of what force created God. Most of the important back-story is absent...

All the Bloody Shakespeare - All's Well That Ends Well

Disguise isn't necessary for a certain type of man . All’s Well That Ends Well is one of the more interesting Shakespearean comedies, at least philosophically speaking – the plot does drag a little in parts. One thing you might notice about it right off the bat is that it doesn’t read like Shakespeare. It is more grammatically modern than most Shakespeare plays and a little bit easier to read. This has led some very, very clever people to argue that it is written by Thomas Middleton. This may or may not be true, it would be difficult to prove without at least secondary evidence. For sure, the subject matter is way off from Shakespeare’s usual woman-hating, Jew bating, servant kicking provender and a lot of critics actively dislike this play. I don’t, to be clear, it’s one of the better ones. Anyway, to get this out of the way, the main claims to it being at least co-written by Middleton are as follows: Firstly: The grammar tends towards clarity and simplicity of meaning and the rh...

Going to work is just awful

See, Bukowski gets it. I've just seen the #thingsIwillmissaboutlockdownhashtag trending. So, I'll say this, I will miss not having to go to work. Look, I know people have it bad. This Covid-19 thing is kicking the world’s economy right in the ass and taking down a lot of good people, both physically and financially. And yes, this post is coming from a place of privilege; because, if I were about to miss a meal I know I’d be happy to get back to work. Over the years, I’ve done some pretty humiliating stuff to make ends meet: from cleaning bottles of piss left by workmen on construction sites to lining up at an agency at 4am in the hope they might send me out for the day. Thankfully, that’s all a while behind me, and right now, in a usual year, I would be marking exams for 14 hours a day seven days a week to top up my meagre teaching wage. So, let’s be honest, work is shit. The average person with an average job, on average, earns below the a...

Thomas Ouphe

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