upon hearing robinson crusoe being read aloud

oh halcyon(andon) enablers of horsemouth's book addiction:

horsemouth has started on john hillaby journey through love - previously he read his journey through britain that minty lent him, a great solitary walk from land's end to john o' groats. here hillaby is on his home turves (if that is the plural of turf) - yorkshire, highgate, kilburn, his eckchens - his little points from which he understands the world. he worries that by telling us about them he will curse them - but he does so anyway.

he starts one evening by breaking into the old reading room, a disused hut near thorgill, there he finds the remnants of a few old adventure books, stevenson, conrad, scott that the farmers and iron miners used to read. he tells us the story of an illiterate welsh blacksmith who upon hearing robinson crusoe being read aloud in welsh decided to learn to read. he notes that those who read these adventure did not then go away but stayed (at last the ones still around to talk to).

in april the snow comes, unable to journey he reads the 'wise, dispassionate' letters of chekov (like lillian hellman he's a fan). there's the possibility of a walk and talk tv series - but the stakes are higher, we know (from reading the back cover) that his wife is about to get ill and die.



the lyke walk - the walk of the dead celebrated in the lyke wake dirge runs nearby, an old dear solemnly threatens the locals that if she's not treated right she'll come back. it's a harsh pre-christian landscape, or maybe post-christian one, a world of eco-systems and botany, of death and life intermixed.



yesterday horsemouth made some progress with the worldes blisse dirge - he's playing it on the steel string guitar with a capo cunningly placed to give a buzzing noise - perhaps it's a runner. the writer, some 12th century miserablist, honestly states that life is a crock of shit and better when it's gone. it's at least mercifully brief - the song that is. (horsemouth learnt it from edward lee's music of the people - there's a version on his myspace page).

horsemouth is interested to note that cheviots being an upland sheep (and a kind of sheep increasingly popular near horsemouth's parents) are prone to scatter rather than bunch together in a flock when threatened. horsemouth wishes to surprise (and impress) the locals with his knowledge.

yesterday (bright, sunny, warm for the time of year) horsemouth walked down to greenwich (he visited the chip shop and halcyon(andon) - and then out to woolwich (via the thames barrier, seeing it from the other side as it were, turning to the river when he could), the lorries queued to use the ferry - a knackered and footsore horsemouth took the dlr home.

those books in full;
 journey through love - john hillaby - one quid
tout ubu (with illustrations livre de poche edition) - alfred jarry -one quid
pages from the goncourt journal - jules and edmond de goncourt -one quid
capitalism and material life 1400-1800 - fernand braudel - one quid.