Category: Books
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Existence
That in-the-midst-of sense… Time recently past: too much stress since about the first of June – some of which twisted at me such that my guts started to react: I felt relatively calm but my body didn't. I'd still like to ascribe this – partly – to current liver damage; which will hopefully be cured…
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Gastronomic, hypothetic, erotic
Barcelona… So, history: frequently, between about 2003-4 and 2008-9, Susan and Rob and I spent some time each summer in Barcelona, or Sitges, which is nearby enough. Changing circumstances, the deaths of Chris and then Dennis, and my increasing preoccupations in Zürich broke that pattern… And: a few years ago, Susan gave a seminar at…
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Of Pratchett
Terry Pratchett has died… media are stating it quite carefully; it seems possible, given that he valued the right to die, that it could have been a voluntary act in the face of early-onset Alzheimer's, rather than any kind of medical inevitability. Which is absolutely his decision – I don't, myself, feel there is any…
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To Züri
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by
A busy, rapidly moving ten days or so, resulting in numerous things done – patients, classes, editing, emails – and also at some points just stopping, almost startled that I didn't want to work on the next thing. My new version of procrastination, I think: something barer, simpler – with far less anxiety. Perhaps this…
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Solstice
In the dark of the year, I had the task of introducing one of our series of movie musicals at a local café. We'd chosen Meet Me in St. Louis – always an odd one: sentimental, structured – but at the same time there are strange, dark eruptions into the story: the youngest daughter in…
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Trains • Perelandra • Complex
[Fragments from several days, several locations. A certain connectedness – but be ready for jumps in continuity: like a student film.] A lot of train trips the past few months: my analyst lives (fortunately very near the train station) in Leicester, about three and a half hours away… my 'local' supervisor in York (i.e. closer…
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The party
And so… a birthday party for Andrew, thrown mostly by his partner Michael and a number of helpful friends, in their large house. With many people from different places, who have different styles… lots of fun, the usual rambunctious cheer in some rooms, quieter and more relaxed in others, and a lot of talking and…
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Mid–
Solstice night, nadir of the year. In the middle of the long night: the point where our day goes down to seven hours, then the direction reverses and the day rapidly lengthens… This winter I seem to be waking in the middle of the night – not a new thing: since my 2009 stroke I…
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Vision
Not much to say here… four days of an intermittently really nasty cold, and cold medicines (stopped taking them a day ago). (If someone sneezes in a room where you are, leave immediately, then text them with a made-up appointment – you absolutely don't want to get this one.) And the last day or so…
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The Invention and Dissemination of the Printing Press, and its Wider Effects on Culture
Astounding, last night, to discover: there are e-books, well-edited, clean and professional, of both the great James McCourt's amazing Mawrdew Czgowchwz and the great Hermann Broch's amazing The Death of Virgil. If these two are available, then… no real barriers remain. Everything is changing, utterly… (I'm not worried about Finnegans Wake – despite a lifelong attachment…
Paul Attinello 