Yes, I have gone mad… but I’m starting to plan something along these lines over next summer, followed by more travelling overseas. There’s a couple of projects in mind I want to develop on the road. When they become clearer in my mind, I’ll share them here. They’ll be pretty exciting, these coming months. Anywhere out of this world!
No revolt has so far been theorised into being. Action instead functions rather as the exercise or the excretion of anger and devastation, to be understood in its process and exercise rather than its origin or its consequent readings. The theory happens en-route, in the boredom and the malcontent of the anger, in the cheeky swipes, lunges and well-placed torches. Anyway, that’s where a predictable knee-jerk snooze #occupymay post ends. I was there yep. I’m fairly sure that protests have been theorised to death already. Follow the map instead. Try this too:
‘Zeus once ordered Prometheus to show mankind the two ways: one the way of freedom and the other the way of slavery. Prometheus made the way of freedom rough at the beginning, impassable and steep, with no water anywhere to drink, full of brambles, and beset with dangers on all sides at first. Eventually, however, it became a smooth plain, lined with paths and filled with groves of fruit trees and waterways. Thus the distressing experience ended in repose for those who breathe the air of freedom. The way of slavery, however, started out as a smooth plain at the beginning, full of flowers, pleasant to look at and quite luxurious, but in the end it became impassable, steep and insurmountable on all sides.’
– Aesop, Fable 535, Prometheus and the Two Roads.
“Today I am bewildered, as one who wondered and discovered and forgot.
Today I am divided between the loyalty I owe
To the outward reality of the Tobacco Kiosk of the other side of the street
And to the inward real feeling that everything is but a dream.
I have missed everything.
And since I had no aims, maybe everything was indeed nothing.”
– from Pessoa, Tobacco Kiosk…
After ten years, I now have the time again for Chess. And like relearning to play piano, I’ve had to go through the old books I had from childhood. Here above are some photos from the excellent Junior Chess puzzles, which as well as captivating conundrums, also deserves praise for the occasionally very excited language the authors use. I’ve hopefully captured a couple of examples above which do attend the drama of chess with the seriousness it deserves, but elsewhere Bott and Morrison offer “It must move away to a more friendly square – but where? Although the White Queen may move to a number of squares, there is no safe haven. The Queen is trapped!” There is much talk of violence and deathly skewers for impressionable youth.
I worry a lot about our poverty, but of all places – Croydon – brought to me that things are going well. We may not be able to afford next year, but I’ve now met others with far worse situations. I want to travel back to Stockholm and Berlin, see other places. When I want to travel, I know I am feeling something. Things are ok. I want to write about John Gray, a curious figure who seems a little overlooked, but will wait to enrol next week when I can get a copy of his recent selected writings. I hope things are fine with you reader. Will post some fashion tips from Michel De Montaigne tomorrow.
Dan Taylor 