horsemouth and his old life (none of the above)

nicholas royle confessions of a book collector goes well but it is horsemouth's old life. 

horsemouth's old life

go to this second hand book shop walk over to that second hand bookshop, visit this or that charity shop along the way. read this book in translation or that book in translation. earwig this or that conversation and write it down, or write a quotation down in the diary from a book found in a college library. 

work day - fit in the book shop visits before or after bookings. 

leisure day - do the bookshop visits when boredom strikes. 

alternatively go into a library to check out the book sale. 

(later check local book-boxes)

and still more recently none of the above (or at least very little). 

horsemouth's accessions diary for the year is pitiful - whole months go buy without him buying or collecting a single book. he visits town and returns with a mere handful. 

at least his collection is still there in the shed on the side of the garage. it has not succumbed to damp. all this collecting is why he has such a big collection (this is perhaps unsurprising).  

where is kilvert?

on the 10th of july 1872 kilvert has travelled to abergaveny by train (via hereford) and is currently walking back from there to hay-on-wye via the black mountains. at llanthony kilvert and his friends meet a trainee monk from the monastery. they then proceed up the gospel pass 'into wales' (as kilvert puts it). 

it's been a busy time for kilvert. he's been to see the solitary of llanbedr, there's been a flood, he's been up to liverpool. 

meanwhile

'the sun determines everything that grows, while water becomes an all important symbol...' 

- lawrence durrell,  ceasar's vast ghost. 

horsemouth has been back out in the garden. he's finished picking the gooseberries and even picked some more runner beans. (there will be lots of runner beans this year). 

today

up to 33C. gradually cooling off from there. possibly some rain in the evening. possibly some rain sunday evening. no real rain until thursday. 

horsemouth wants rain so it can fill up the water butts so he can feel less guilty about using commons water to water the garden/ greenhouses etc. 

hacking back the nettles (at the harvesting of the broad beans)

in the morning a go at hacking back the nettles where they had grown up through the gooseberry bushes. as those were cleared picking the few remaining gooseberries that the birds hadn't snaffled or knocked off and left to rot on the ground. then the bins and the egg delivery.  (waste bin horsemouth thinks this time)

in the evening more of the same. but first horsemouth did some watering and harvested the broad beans. 

in between the hiding indoors and more writing (that is good). 

the pulling up the nettles went well (much better than horsemouth expected). he going to be able to get on with the gooseberry picking much more easily than he thought. 

picking the gooseberries resulted in several spikings of his fingers (most annoying). 

the broad beans and the gooseberries have gone into the freezer. it looks like there's some tomatoes to be had in the green house (woo hoo). 

this morning it looks like it's going to be sunny and hot again. 

horsemouth and the 'I'm a published author' dance

 'the night looks different  

already on july the sixth, 

for tomorrow, once a year, 

the weaver (vega) meets her lover (altair)...' 

- masuo basho in the narrow road to the deep north. 

this story forming the basis of the star festival which will have started last night. 

alfred watkins

meanwhile while he was in hereford horsemouth saw a blue plaque for alfred watkins, early photographer and ley-line theorist author of the old straight track. apparently hereford museum has extensive holdings of his works and photographs. 

horsemouth should have a hunt through his books on photography to see if he has any of watkins' work already. watkins supplied the photographs for d.r. chapman's hereford, herefordshire snd the wye.

the far future village band

so horsemouth got his fourth installment written (and very pleased he is with it too). meanwhile in far off riogordo rob has been printing out trial copies of the chapbook to go with it featuring the photos of the band and horsemouth's writings. 

... and horsemouth will be doing his 'I'm a published author' dance again. 

there will be a far future village band IV horsemouth will be practicing his whistling. 

will horsemouth write more? we shall see.

of course the return to the world of physical art objects solves some problems with the sheer overproduction of digital kipple (and its so-called 'ease of distribution) and replaces it with problems of its actual physical production and distribution. 

today 

another warm day. egg delivery and bin down the drive. the birds look to have snaffled all the berries. 

confessions of a book collector (the sun behind cloud cover)

so horsemouth is up to three stories/ character studies for the far future village band.

will he write a fourth? we shall see.

yesterday

nothing in the charity shops but after that a walk on great western way and then back across the river by the bridge used by the original hereford to abergavenny rail route. 

he dived into the oxfam near hereford cathedral before getting the bus out to pick up some books he had spotted earlier.

- nicholas royle, confessions of a book collector £3.99 (fake picador)

- teffi; memories from moscow to the black sea  £4.99 (nyrb)

the royle is good and enjoyable (horsemouth started reading it while waiting for the bus). royle namechecks some important bookshops for horsemouth - halcyon and skoob, and some important books and writers -anna kavan's sleep has his house and ice for example). he's good on inclusions in books (letters, photos, ticket stubs etc.), multiple copies, different covers etc. 

the teffi horsemouth will start on soon. (he has to admit he has never heard of it before). 

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ok written in the morning.

horsemouth was up early (or at least he thought about it from an early hour). the royle goes well (p. 85 so far). a greyish cool morning (the sun behind cloud cover). 

ok (phew) horsemouth has got the next part of the far future village band written. he thinks the solution is the correct one (wouldn't want to make it too maudlin). 

monastic trio day (was last month)

an entirely written in the morning blogpost (and maybe a brief one) 

so horsemouth has written two (short) fictional far future village band pieces (maybe he should get on and do a third). 

his plan is to go into town today (because it's there, because he hardly ever goes). the second hand book buying is not marvellous and there's no concessions yet for the old mule for the bus journeys in and out. consequently it will not be cheap. 

really it is for the thrill of the chase. he has enough books already (more than enough). and there are plenty of books in the house he could develop and interest in if he so chose. 

he should try abergavenny again. (the selection is better).  hay is just too far. 

he has practically finished reading the ice monkey by m.john harrison (and very good it was too).  this shows that he can sit down and read when the material grabs him. 

today is monastic trio day. the anniversary of alice coltrane being in the studio and recording some of the tracks from the LP release of monastic trio this day in 1968. alice coltrane on harp (mostly) and rashied ali on drums. ok no horsemouth has got this wrong it was june 6th but let's enjoy them anyway - broadly from gospel train onwards excluding altruvista. 

severed connections

so horsemouth has started reading the ice monkey a collection of stories by m. john harrison. 

he wanted to start on pavane by keith roberts but he couldn't find it in the stacks.

it starts with the story the ice monkey. like climbers, m. john's later novel about climbers and climbing, he shows that he really gets the absurd nature of the risk and the reward. 

the new rays is that uncanny valley cancer treatment as horror. could be robert aickman. the incalling is more squalid horror. 

settling the world has one of the greatest (and most misleading) opening sentences,

'with the discovery of god on the far side of the moon...' 

friends from university, ex-wives (severed connections). the quarry and running down an almost perfect story for the GB75 era (and originally published in 1975 but subsequently revised for this edition).

it ends with egnaro which also finishes up the viriconium series of stories. there is another world somewhere that you can gain access to (if you just know where to look). 

horsemouth is looking forward to re-reading it all. egnaro he re-read recently. 

--------------------

yesterday horsemouth did some writing (well typing things in on the laptop). this will appear in another place. he had a zoom beer with howard. movies, books, exhaustion (on howard's part) rather than work and plans. 

today

the weather is mild. more writing (typing). probably a walk. the continued hunt for pavane. make a list of possible far future village band bits of work. 

the world of the far future village band

a very british apocalypse.

there is the apocalypse of john wyndham, of j.g. ballard, of m. john harrison's running down. for all the utopias there are dystopias but also apocalypses where the new world cannot yet be made, but the old world can be destroyed. 

of course 1970ies tv was rife with it - the changes, survivors, practically every episode of dr. who because in the 70ies collapse was all around.

the three day week, GB75, a fairly secret army...

the 80ies and 90ies there were tedious years of progress (during which, strangely, the material bases of peoples lives were systematically undermined). in 2008 yet another financial crisis hit, followed by brexit, followed by covid, all symptoms of a shrinking malaise. 

and here we are...

horsemouth's far future village band reading list

pavane (keith roberts)

to be frank horsemouth can remember next to nothing about this book. other than it features a world where the protestant reformation never happened and the catholic church maintained a stranglehold on the development of technology (this may not be as factually correct as people imagine it to be). 

anyway it is set in modern times - but modern times where the best technology available is the steam-driven traction engine. 

horsemouth is pretty sure he has it somewhere in the garage. he's had a look. he can't see it. he'll try again later. there's always a danger he has returned it to the commonweal (to the book boxes).

the world of the far future village band

well it's hot. hot and dry or hot and luxuriant. kind of a cross between the dark ages and shogunate japan. rice is the main crop grown around the inland lakes (such as remain uncontaminated by saltwater). the sea-levels have risen but rivers have silted up (or been dammed also) creating inland lakes and seas. 

kind of like richard jefferies after london. 

a strangely accented french seems to be the lingua franca (or perhaps that's just for puppet shows). 

there seem to be lots of dances. lots of animal based dances. lots of flute ensembles.