SPRING EQUINOX (the romance of development)

it's a bright and beautiful morning and it's the equinox. 

there's a precise middle point this afternoon 3.33pm sunday 20th march, but it is essentially meaningless at that scale.  the druids will dance (or do whatever it is they do). we exit from the dark half of the year into sunny peace and prosperity, into the bright half of the year.

when horsemouth went for a walk it darkened down (and it felt as if the equinox would be a purely theoretical event) but now that he is back home the sun is out again. he types this with the window open wearing a t-shirt. 

'there is no need for you to leave your house. stay at a table and listen. don't even listen just wait. don't even wait, be completely quiet and alone. the world will offer itself to you to be unmasked, it can't do otherwise, in raptures it will writhe before you.' - franz kafka

this is the dedication of the second story in the georges perec book horsemouth has - a man asleep. 

the seemingly out-of-character kafka quote comes from the zürau aphorisms. 109 aphorisms franz kafka wrote in the period september 1917 to april 1918 when kafka was staying in zürau in west bohemia  with his sister ottla, while suffering from tuberculosis. they were published by max brod in 1931 after kafka's death.

things (the first story in the georges perec book) was great (but depressing). our sociological description of ex-student market researchers resolves into a couple jérôme and sylvie, they become bored and frustrated with their metropolitan life (and with not having enough money to live it as they wish) and move to the colonies (sfax in tunisia, it's the mid 60ies) but it's even more boring there too, there are not the consolations of consumerism. 

'at the café tables people looked like complacent fish.'

then the book (with a curious shift of tenses) seems to allow them to move back to the metropolis and resume their lives there. except that they have been broken of the habits of consumerism, the organising principle of their earlier existence. eventually they allow themselves to be absorbed into the managerial structure and distributed to the provinces so as to earn enough money to indulge their stultified  tastes. 

the book will leave them on the train to their new lives with a quote from marx. 'the means is as much part of the truth as the result...'

in the afternoon horsemouth listened to a truly stultifying discussion on levelling up by a provincial managerial class who wanted to make it work, who failed to understand that inequality and uneven distribution are, if not the lifeblood of capitalism, the standard operating procedure of it. now horsemouth, as you know, is a sucker for the romance of development, for all this holy (being) profaned and all that is solid melt(ing) into air but it was like listening to a lecture on teh need for forward planning from a time capsule.

perhaps those round the table were our modern jérôme and sylvies (or their provincial equivalents now that such a thing can conceivably exist). 

horsemouth has just found a modern version of the orbital tune equinox derived from them doing a version of the theme music to tv documentary series equinox. we are at a point of balance in the year. but it is an unstable point it cannot last

last night horsemouth re-watched all the colours of the dark (tense, nervous, depressed? don't seek help from satanists). it is set in a 70ies london where everyone speaks italian. 

horsemouth has finished off the coffee from yesterday. now the museli. the news (no longer listened to from the radio). the papers (no longer read on paper). the 13 days of nowruz begins. some spring cleaning has been effected and horsemouth should be celebrating. 

yesterday he returned some (physical) copies of the LRB to the general intelligence (the book boxes). but not all. he has a box full of books to get shot of (in fact he has pretty much a roomful of books to get shot of). he played jai guru through. 

apparently the film he is in the fall of the house of fitzgerald will be projected at electrowerkz on 14th may as part of the renaissance festival and there may be photos of horsemouth elsewhere in the photo exhibition (but that's not a definite). still horsemouth is delighted the film will be getting seen (plus he's vain as fuck).