'london's ageing!' (to the tune of london's burning).
hmm. the age profile of london has altered. horsemouth was looking at an infographic on it.
when horsemouth first arrived in london and then hackney in 1985 or so the population was in decline -' his usual go to for this is paul harrison's inside the inner city - but then it started filling up again (with immigrants and with the young from elsewhere in the uk). fast forward to 2021 and since 2011 the population has increased by 8% overall. but crucially a lot of these people are older - there's something like 25% more 55 to 64 year olds (so horsemouth's demographic) in the city now rather than in 2011.
horsemouth thinks people of his age moved to the city when it was possible and have stayed ever since
the segments that have gone down between 2011 and 2021 are 16 to 24 year olds and 25 to 34 year olds by roughly 8%. mind you there are roughly 15% more 10 to 15 year olds who will soon filter through (if their parents are not driven out of the city by the cost of it).
a booklists of sorts I
these first four horsemouth has lent to howard at one time or other.
- practicalities by marguerite duras (french title la vie matérielle). from conversations with jérôme beaujour which were then edited and published while the author was still alive (published on the 1st of june 1987).
- christ stopped at eboli by carlo levi. carlo is exiled by the italian fascists to a deprived hilltop town in the south of italy. he describes his time there. the book was written in florence from december 1943 to july 1944 after the author had been released. there's a film (hell there's a four hour italian tv drama).
- love's work by gillian rose. written by rose and published at her death. an autobiography of sorts but the autobiography of a philosopher and a cancer memoir.
- chronicle of the guayaki indians by pierre clastres (translated by paul auster, translation published after clastres death). rescued from oblivion an anthropologist's report on a tribe heading for oblivion.
horsemouth also lent howard matsuo basho's the narrow road to the deep north and edouard louis's a woman's battles and transformations, but he doesn't know if howard read them (he thinks not).
horsemouth regrets that he does not like montaigne's essays better (it would suit him so well if he did).
alternate worlds/ science fiction
- the man in the high castle by philip k. dick. this is the world we live in (haunted by the better world next door).
- ice by anna kavan. the world is dying and we are doomed to make the same mistakes over and over.
- viriconium by m.john harrison. the city is the star. the name of the city changes. its predicament doesn't.
- frankenstein by mary shelley. the runaway girl rules the roost. she invents the creature - a philosophical novel questioning technology and progress, perhaps the very foundation of the genre of science fiction.
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