goremenghast style rituals where the replacement is enthroned (why do you write?)

horsemouth has said it before and he'll say it again, strange women, lying in ponds, distributing swords is no basis for a system of government..it is, of course, important to rush the succession through, before some raises a just cause or impediment. 

marguerite duras on her deathbed (typing away or her comments recorded)

'all my life I have written

like a sausage out of a grinder

that's what I've done...'

the scan of the book flips over (into the untranslated french), in a  documentary her voice can be heard in french beneath her speaking we can read the spanish subtitles beneath her image. we have the illusion we can ponder the differences between the languages. 

horsemouth watched a south bank show documentary on her, then another on paul bowles (it may even be the bbc film crew he complains about in two years beside the strait: tangier journal 1987-9). for bowles the world has got worse. 

'I looked through Liberation's questionnaire of two years ago: pourqoui ecrivez-vous? - this time to see what was the most usual answer. very few writers claimed financial necessity as a reason for exercising their profession. many admitted they had no idea why they wrote. but the majority responded by implying that they were impelled to write by some inner force which could not be denied. the more scrupulous of these did not hesitate to admit that their principal satisfaction was in feeling that they were leaving a part of themselves behind - in other words writing was felt to confer a certain minimal immortality. this would have been understandable earlier in the century when it was assumed that life on the planet would continue indefinitely. now that the prognosis is doubtful, the desire to leave a trace behind seems absurd ..'

horsemouth had not realised quite how much work bowles had done as a composer. he was aware of him only in connection with his novels and short stories and for his connection with morocco and its music. he has read two years in a night (it's a book of stass's). there's a mention of richard horowitz (the compiler of night spirit masters an album of gnawa moroccan music). horsemouth has the sheltering sky,  he has stories, he did have let it all come down (he thinks he distributed it back into the charity shop nexus). 

yesterday he made two trips out to various book boxes to get shot of his unread haul. a lot of the george eliot  has to go (he just finds it unreadable) and what is readable (middlemarch, the mill on the floss) it can easily be found again. horsemouth should contribute back to the book box  system. 

it is monday. the start of the week (even if horsemouth is not obliged by reason of  work to participate in this). this morning perhaps a walk with TG. last night he slept under a duvet and a blanket. he missed watching silent running (the missing link SF movie).