we are rapidly rolling up on the solstice and the leigh-on-sea folk festival. the high point of the year/ the maximum amount of sun
this morning was bright and sunny but it seems to have clouded over. wait a minute and horsemouth will refresh his cup of coffee.
yesterday was villa diodati day - the anniversary of the ghost story competition between polidori, byron and percy and mary shelley. mary shelley's actual dream was probably between 2-3am on june 16th. it was during the "year without a summer" of 1816 the world locked in a long, cold volcanic winter (caused by the eruption of mount tambora in 1815). it may be that frankenstein is not the first science fiction story, that there were earlier tales (by lucian of samosata for example - brian aldiss has a whole book full of them). or it may be that it is not science fiction because the genre hadn't been invented yet (we have to wait until gernsback and his golden age scientifiction). and yet it is the first science fiction story - the first examination of the social effects of technology cast in a speculative mode. it is the kind of fiction likely to be made by the daughter of feminist theorist mary wollstonecraft and the anarchist william godwin, and kicked around the writer's workshop of byron, polidori and percy shelley.
yesterday a zoom meeting with howard (two beers and not much on telly afterward).
today a cool cloudy day. horsemouth might be able to get on with some reading. the sheep are back. horsemouth has done the watering (except for the tubs over by the garage). his mum is just off to let out the chickens.
... and meanwhile the politics. ahem. adopts hungarian accent
'one, two, three, FOUR by-elections!'
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