horsemouth - the humanisation of the misanthrope

'what are you doing for the weekend?' question by howard in a recent (drunken) conversation. 

'the underground is the future' - a statement by rob lawson in a recent interview.

so last night horsemouth and howard chatted (by the magic of zoom). horsemouth showed howard various aerial photographs of his parent's home (and narrowly avoided bumping into his dad 'fresh from the bath' on the balcony). 

horsemouth opined that he would be reading, going for walks and er. farting about on the internet. saturday lacks a world at one on radio 4 (so already there is a sizeable hole in horsemouth's day). 

horsemouth could easily adjust to being a work from home person. he didn't mind his commutes (but he's fucked if he's going to be making them in a pandemic) and (before the pandemic) he would have argued he needed to be there to provide a good service. now that nobody is 'there' he thinks he can actually deliver a better service from home - the question is when will people start being 'there' again?  

the problem for horsemouth is that while he is fundamentally anti-social there is a limit to how long he can do this before recognition of his essential condition dawns on him. his project is the humanisation of the misanthrope - it is the delays with this he finds difficult.

despite horsemouth's disparagement of work both horsemouth and howard  have the thing with the necessity of work to stabilise their psychic economies. of course to retire horsemouth needs to free himself of this. 

howard is not a work from home person. he likes the commute (the cycle ride, the train). he likes the structure. 

horsemouth struggled with the working from home lark at the start (mostly with the technical side of it). as a social moment he does not think it is all positive. the worker must now pay for the phonelines and the services bill and the rent/ mortgage repayment on the premises, the 'firm' will soon be free of these expenses. the firm initially loses but it recoups as it reduces expenditure on premises, the worker loses the sanctuary of their home but also the third space between them, the commute, not always a source of joy but not always a source of misery either. 

horsemouth has spent something like 52 days away already. roughly the period from the winter solstice to imbolc. imbolc lies roughly halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox.  

at some point horsemouth has to sneak back to the city so that he can get on with his life again but there has to be some life there to be getting on with. howard says the cops are out checking people's reasons for travel (it becomes like a scene from the great escape or a  french resistance movie). 

next week a little smidgeon of work. 

meanwhile music (that organ of prophecy) having  indicated the future of the  world of work with techno DJs collaborating over the internet is now forced to subsist without physical crowds. horsemouth finds it all a bit strange. it is only the counter of the number of people watching that reassures you. we return from the manufactory to the cottage industry.