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Mar. 1st, 2020
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Well, what a lovely sunny if a cold day. I am in town today as I had received four pounds in vouchers from Unilever for an online complaint I did sometime last year for one of my companies. I had forgotten about it until I received an email from them followed by the letter with the vouchers and an apology for the delay.
Well, better later than never.
Well, better later than never.
Richard Holmes "Dr.Johnson & Mr.Savage" (Flamingo)
Dr. Johnson & Mr. Savage is what might be referred to as a micro biography: author Richard Holmes offers full portraits of neither title character, but rather an examination of the short period when the lives of Samuel Johnson - lexicographer, author, poet, and biographical subject extraordinaire - and Richard Savage - poet, rogue, and murderer - converged for a time. Savage, Johnson's first biographical subject himself, made Johnson's acquaintance soon after that young provincial arrived in London, and their companionship lasted for just about two years until Savage departed for "retirement" in Wales.
Holmes has little to go on: while it's known that Johnson and Savage knew each other, "there are no authenticated letters between the two men, no mention of each other in private journals, not even a single surviving account from an eyewitness of seeing the two men in each other's company." And yet he's done quite a lot with what few scraps of evidence that do exist, creating an interesting web of the narrative around a skeleton of knowable facts. While I am afraid that his speculatory meanderings (particularly in the realm of psychology) get the better of him at times (I felt the same about Greenblatt's recent biography of Shakespeare), Holmes generally at least informs the reader of his upcoming leaps, which is comforting if not exculpatory.
As the author notes, the Johnson we meet cavorting with Savage is not the frumpy but majestic old fellow that Boswell has left us, but a young, desperate man out to make his way in the world, captivated by this strange, conflicted, down-and-out poet. It's another side to Johnson that is interesting to find, even within Holmes' imperfect framework.
Dr. Johnson & Mr. Savage is what might be referred to as a micro biography: author Richard Holmes offers full portraits of neither title character, but rather an examination of the short period when the lives of Samuel Johnson - lexicographer, author, poet, and biographical subject extraordinaire - and Richard Savage - poet, rogue, and murderer - converged for a time. Savage, Johnson's first biographical subject himself, made Johnson's acquaintance soon after that young provincial arrived in London, and their companionship lasted for just about two years until Savage departed for "retirement" in Wales.
Holmes has little to go on: while it's known that Johnson and Savage knew each other, "there are no authenticated letters between the two men, no mention of each other in private journals, not even a single surviving account from an eyewitness of seeing the two men in each other's company." And yet he's done quite a lot with what few scraps of evidence that do exist, creating an interesting web of the narrative around a skeleton of knowable facts. While I am afraid that his speculatory meanderings (particularly in the realm of psychology) get the better of him at times (I felt the same about Greenblatt's recent biography of Shakespeare), Holmes generally at least informs the reader of his upcoming leaps, which is comforting if not exculpatory.
As the author notes, the Johnson we meet cavorting with Savage is not the frumpy but majestic old fellow that Boswell has left us, but a young, desperate man out to make his way in the world, captivated by this strange, conflicted, down-and-out poet. It's another side to Johnson that is interesting to find, even within Holmes' imperfect framework.
Michael Moorcock "Behold The Man" (Gollancz)
This book will offend deeply committed Christians, although it should be seen as " What if...?" rather than an assault on faith. Strangely, it aroused much less controversy (probably due to the more open zeitgeist prevailing when it was published) than movies such as "The Last Temptation of Christ", whose seeming-blasphemies are actually the sensitive and honest questions of a man of deep faith, seeking to explore more the human nature of Jesus.
Karl Glogauer, a man for whom the term "negativity" might have been created, is befriended by the erratic inventor of a time machine. Haunted by rather than prideful of his Jewishness, he has for a long time been fascinated by the figure of Christ and the symbol of the Crucifixion; the chance to travel back to witness the event seems too good to be true. Unfortunately, the machine is irremediably damaged on landing in the desert, and Karl's condition is little better; he is nursed back to health by the Essenes and is befriended by their spiritual leader, John the Baptist. John is keen to find a Messiah figure around whom -- or, if necessary, around whose martyrdom -- he can foment a revolution against the hated Roman oppressors and their toady, Herod. Karl tells John the man he wants is Jesus of Bethlehem, but when he goes there he finds that Jesus is an imbecile and is seduced by Jesus's nymphomaniac mother, Mary; he discovers it's the town joke that only a simpleton like Joseph would have believed Mary's tale of having been impregnated by an angel. It takes Karl some while to realize that John is grooming him for the role, and when he does so he accepts this resignedly as his inevitable fate.
Moorcock's book is a psychological study: no coincidence that his protagonist is a Jew, obsessed with Christianity though no convert himself. The book, though superficially a time-travel 'alternate history' story, deals with topics of faith, belief, obsession, fantasy, myth & legend, wish-fulfilment.
Although I have no conceit that this alternate history has any grounds in possibility, it is sobering to reflect on how myths arise, often very quickly: the Woodstock Festival of 1969, though containing a few ultra-sublime moments, was apparently dismissed immediately after by many of those attending, as a disaster; the lack of sanitation, facilities, and adequate food and drink, the power failures, the weather, and the lengthy delays between acts... Yet the success of Joni Mitchell's "Woodstock" song ("we are stardust, we are golden"), written soon afterwards by someone who wasn't even there, laid the foundation for a modern myth that still prevails even today. How much of Christianity owes its origins to the same effect? We will never know, but Moorcock is not afraid to ask the question.
I don't know what Moorcock's personal religious beliefs are (if any), but this short book , a nebula award winning novella, should not be read as anything other than a very interesting exploration of one of the most startling SF ideas ever conceived.
This book will offend deeply committed Christians, although it should be seen as " What if...?" rather than an assault on faith. Strangely, it aroused much less controversy (probably due to the more open zeitgeist prevailing when it was published) than movies such as "The Last Temptation of Christ", whose seeming-blasphemies are actually the sensitive and honest questions of a man of deep faith, seeking to explore more the human nature of Jesus.
Karl Glogauer, a man for whom the term "negativity" might have been created, is befriended by the erratic inventor of a time machine. Haunted by rather than prideful of his Jewishness, he has for a long time been fascinated by the figure of Christ and the symbol of the Crucifixion; the chance to travel back to witness the event seems too good to be true. Unfortunately, the machine is irremediably damaged on landing in the desert, and Karl's condition is little better; he is nursed back to health by the Essenes and is befriended by their spiritual leader, John the Baptist. John is keen to find a Messiah figure around whom -- or, if necessary, around whose martyrdom -- he can foment a revolution against the hated Roman oppressors and their toady, Herod. Karl tells John the man he wants is Jesus of Bethlehem, but when he goes there he finds that Jesus is an imbecile and is seduced by Jesus's nymphomaniac mother, Mary; he discovers it's the town joke that only a simpleton like Joseph would have believed Mary's tale of having been impregnated by an angel. It takes Karl some while to realize that John is grooming him for the role, and when he does so he accepts this resignedly as his inevitable fate.
Moorcock's book is a psychological study: no coincidence that his protagonist is a Jew, obsessed with Christianity though no convert himself. The book, though superficially a time-travel 'alternate history' story, deals with topics of faith, belief, obsession, fantasy, myth & legend, wish-fulfilment.
Although I have no conceit that this alternate history has any grounds in possibility, it is sobering to reflect on how myths arise, often very quickly: the Woodstock Festival of 1969, though containing a few ultra-sublime moments, was apparently dismissed immediately after by many of those attending, as a disaster; the lack of sanitation, facilities, and adequate food and drink, the power failures, the weather, and the lengthy delays between acts... Yet the success of Joni Mitchell's "Woodstock" song ("we are stardust, we are golden"), written soon afterwards by someone who wasn't even there, laid the foundation for a modern myth that still prevails even today. How much of Christianity owes its origins to the same effect? We will never know, but Moorcock is not afraid to ask the question.
I don't know what Moorcock's personal religious beliefs are (if any), but this short book , a nebula award winning novella, should not be read as anything other than a very interesting exploration of one of the most startling SF ideas ever conceived.
Art Rock Sunday
Mar. 1st, 2020 07:21 pmTime for some art-rock and other discontinuities -
Art Bears - In Two Minds
Cassiber - A Screaming Comes Across The Sky
The (EC) Nudes - O Pastor
Slapp Happy - Casablanca Moon
Enjoy
Art Bears - In Two Minds
Cassiber - A Screaming Comes Across The Sky
The (EC) Nudes - O Pastor
Slapp Happy - Casablanca Moon
Enjoy
More weirdly wonderful excursions into the bricolage of sonic splintering.
Lutz Glandien - Es Lebe
Recorded May 1989 at the Studio of the Academy of Art, Berlin, GDR.
Tuba -- Michael Voight
Steve Moore - Tykan's Rift
Jaroslav Krček - Sonáty Slavíčkové [excerpt]
Richard Trythall - Omaggio a Jerry Lee Lewis
Classic plunderphonic track from the compilation CMCD (ReR Records)
Enjoy
Lutz Glandien - Es Lebe
Recorded May 1989 at the Studio of the Academy of Art, Berlin, GDR.
Tuba -- Michael Voight
Steve Moore - Tykan's Rift
Jaroslav Krček - Sonáty Slavíčkové [excerpt]
Richard Trythall - Omaggio a Jerry Lee Lewis
Classic plunderphonic track from the compilation CMCD (ReR Records)
Enjoy
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