waiting for the barbarians (threefold cord)

'disgrace is his best imho... of the ones I've read...' opined a friend. 

disgrace is good (replied horsemouth) j.m. coetzee gives his disgraced academic a hard time and dumps everybody in the middle of an insoluble situation (the republic of south africa post apartheid). horsemouth has also read his book on animals, elizabeth costello, and waiting for the barbarians (but not for a long time).  

there is a concern for animals that runs through these books. the 'john coetzee' of summertime is a vegetarian (as is elizabeth costello). in disgrace the central character ends up taking the bodies of the stray dogs put to sleep to the incinerator week after week because he doesn't trust anyone else to dispose of their bodies with dignity and respect. 

in summertime coetzee makes his academic a fan of the cape town writer alex la guma. (horsemouth has la guma's somewhat neglected and a threefold cord somewhere).

yesterday a rainy day. horsemouth got nothing of importance done. today the discussion of the tasks for next week. 

six years ago horsemouth was reading laurie lee's as I walked out one midsummer morning. sten came out into the back garden to find evidence of horsemouth being there but no actual body - had he done a reggie perrin? had he been raptured? the back garden is currently rendered unusable (and indeed horsemouth is not there to use it) as is the living room (horsemouth guesses). he's back september for a bit (he guesses). 

kilvert is leaving cornwall (this morning of 1870) they miss the first train at 7.35 and have to return to tullimaar to wait for the 11.35. later he's back in langley burrell with his family in the evening. he's not back to clyro until about the 8th.  boswell has left london.  kafka (in 1914) has just watched a patriotic parade.

'what will be my fate as a writer is very simple. my talent for portraying my dreamlike inner life has thrust all other matters into the background...'

today it looks like it will be a good day. sunny and a pleasant temperature. 

blah blah paper versus digital/ blah blah records versus CDs/ blah blah CDs versus downloads

here's a torygraph article on journals. youngster versus oldster. you can probably winkle it out for free fit for a while but you know roughly what it will say. blah blah paper versus digital/ blah blah records versus CDs/ blah blah CDs versus downloads. 

horsemouth sides with the oldster (physical paper diaries) but he realises it's rubbish (he hardly writes anything in his physical paper diary. 

and of course that's not where he is typing this... (first facebook then blogger).

on this day

boswell has departed london (he'll be back). kilvert is saying goodbye to cornwall 'the last pleasant excursion. the last happy day.' kafka battles the landlord. 

thirteen quarto notebooks make up kafka's diaries. there are three travel diaries also and there are also the 'blue octavo notebooks' for working up literary ideas (though these sometimes occur in the diary proper also). 

the battle to retrieve boswell's papers from oblivion we have described before. kilvert's diaries were 'a collection of 22 old notebooks, variously shaped and bound' so plommer (his literary executor) tells us. 

some friends are releasing a book and a cassette. horsemouth has purchased it (he has no idea what he will do with the cassette).  the book will join the shelf of books published/ self-published by horsemouth's friends (minty's comics, max's photography, dave social control and robert lawson's poetry etc.).  another friend has purchased a sproatley smith CD - horsemouth is pleased to have been able to facilitate the connection. 

so endeth bandcamp friday for august. here it is rainy and grey in texas however books are spontaneously combusting (hence horsemouth's playing fahrenheit 451 a posthumous bob calvert/ hawkwind collaboration). 

today (judging by what he can see out of the window) horsemouth will not be up to a lot. (reading the torygraph and farting about on the internet horsemouth suspects).  in about half an hour breakfast, in the afternoon a beer with his mum and then a beer over zoom with howard. howard has bought a dulcimer (it sounds great). howard is currently engaged in recording more music and musicians themselves will reconvene at some point soon.  

over on the world at one yesterday about 22 minutes of the best discussion horsemouth has heard yet about net zero and decarbonisation. it is (as one respondent puts it) 'not all upside'. a lot of infrastructure (and infrastructure of fairly epic proportions) has to be built - all that new generating capacity has to be linked to the grid and the grid itself has to be vastly upgraded to handle the extra juice if people are going to switch from burning fossil fuels to using air-source heat pumps to heat their homes. these are not problems for horsemouth fortunately, all he has to do is get some insulation slapped in or on the houses and flats of the communal endeavour. 

the film, the book, the tie-in (bandcamp friday)

it is bandcamp friday (or it will be by the time you read this). horsemouth thinks you own everything by musicians of bremen already but if you don't you could buy some more of that. please download it when you do buy it (just in case it should vanish at some point in the future). failing that please consider buying something from one of horsemouth's many friends who make music - robert lawson's excellent lunaphone zither music from far off riogordo for example. 

on yesterday's walk on the common horsemouth was paused at the fussell bench (he had taken the kafka diaries out with him). there he met robert. robert was out walking his two dogs - an elderly  black lab and a (sort of) scottie of multiple provenance (called scruffy). they had a brief chat (about whether horsemouth was local, about the litterers of the common, about robert's belated discovery of walter scott, he had read ivanhoe first and was now reading kenilworth). 

it would probably go well with the young queen elizabeth drama series horsemouth is watching with his mum. (dastardly deeds and the young queen). 

there's plenty of john le carré about his parents' house too (that would probably go well with the philby, burgess, maclean thing that is on).  horsemouth is always on the look out for stuff he can watch with his mum that he will find interesting. 

4th august 1870 kilvert is still in cornwall but the holiday is coming to an end 'in the afternoon I walked about the grounds taking a farewell of all my favourite places.'  

4th august 1763 boswell is also taking leave 'this is now my last day in london before I set out on my travels, and makes a very important period in my journal.' he will be back (but he doesn't know it yet). 

kafka is not leavetaking. he has stuck and now has to deal with this. 'you've made your bed, now lie in it.' 

yesterday was hot and sunny. it looked like a storm was going to hit but it never quite did. yesterday evening horsemouth got the scanner and the laptop working together and scanned some photos of his dad that his mum had chosen. this afternoon he has to get on with phoning the relatives and letting them know about the funeral arrangements (his brother has done some emailing round for those with emails). he has shaved off his moustache (and succeeded in cutting his nose and had to put a plaster on it to stop it bleeding everywhere).  

horsemouth will probably get out for another walk as soon as he has had breakfast. he has been out to water the plants in the greenhouse already (the tomatoes are doing well, the cucumbers horsemouth is less interested in, there's a solitary basil plant that is rapidly going to seed). himself and his mum spent some time clearing where the broad beans and the first row of peas had been (preserving the occasional self-seeded tomato plant just in case). 

next friday horsemouth is in a meeting on zoom (hopefully) to roll the rock of decarbonisation up over the hill of bureaucracy. horsemouth has not reached the point where he thinks it is a lost cause. he always recognised that it was going to be difficult. 

the alternative is for the members of the communal endeavour to pay for all of it themselves out of their rent money. it would be good to get ahead of the curve of climate change and decarbonisation. last year's blazing summer and stinging heating bills over winter were good motivation. this years rainy summer and falling bills are perhaps less motivating.  but then the TV (record breaking heatwaves, forest fires, floods) should help. 

the bbc weather says possibly sunny this afternoon, rainy day (off and on) saturday, possibly decent sunday and monday. horsemouth will endeavour to get out for a wander this morning and get on with various tasks in the afternoon. 

horsemouth will now have to find something else to read

3rd august 1914. kafka is staying in his sister's house. he's depressed. he was going to be married (but not any more). 

3rd august 1763. things are going better for boswell 'I should have mentioned that on monday night coming up the strand, I was tapped on the shoulder by a fine fresh lass...'

1870 and kilvert is still down in cornwall (and having so much fun he does not make diary entries, or at least ones his editor thinks worth recalling). 

ok so horsemouth's fence appears still to be standing (no break ins by the sheep, no break outs by the chickens). a greyish morning (but difficult to tell). bbc weather reckons rain later (from midday) possibly a decent tomorrow. horsemouth may try getting out for a quick walk early. 

horsemouth has found two talking heads discussing carlo levi's christ stopped at eboli. they are showing the 4 hour italian tv version and there's an exhibition. the man who did the subtitles talks - if it was dialect they left it untranslated so as not to crowd the screen and hide the images and so as to show carlo levi's own perplexity, as a man of the north he cannot necessarily understand what is being said by the locals much of the time.

the second guy does a great job of situating levi politically. it's obvious that he's a part of some group of leftists, but the question is which particular lot (if that matters). 

a chunk of one of horsemouth's teeth has snapped and fallen out. fortunately it seems without any particular pain or infection. at some point horsemouth is going to have to get that bit of his mouth sorted (there are other niggling health things he is going to have to pay attention to). he has been doing odd bits of cycling on the exercise bike and (of course) going for regular walks up on the common (or down into the village if his mum has an errand that needs running). 

having finished the coetzee horsemouth will now have to find something else to read. there are brod's comments on the chronology of kafka.  

today a visit to the garage to pick up the hereford times (and a few days back supply of the daily torygraph). horsemouth's dad was very keen on the crossword (and to be frank the politics of it). 

films, gigs, books, events july 2023

films

- i vampiri (1957) co-directed by mario bava

- the mad executioners (1963)

- bookpilled/ thrift-a-life live from mexico, spain speaks live from madrid and portugal, novara media (lots)

- the sixth commandment (TV)

- a daniel lewis philby, burgess, maclean thing (TV)

- a.n.other 'queen elizabeth - the early years' thing (TV)

- a youngster reviews lampedusa's the professor and the siren

- jem bendell in retreat in indonesia (ecological doomers)

- throwing shade robbie basho special (again)

- iris murdoch interviewed (paris review interview series)

- various tommy bolin clips

- betty wright 'shoorah! shoorah!', lata mangeshkar 'lag ja gale' elgar 'nimrod'.

books

- london journals (james boswell), kilvert's diaries (william plomer ed. and intro), the diaries of franz kafka (ed. max brod, paul klee cover)

- paris review article on kafka's diaries

- summertime (j.m. coetzee) begins with journal entries

- the rubiayat of omar khayyam (fitzgerald 'translation')

- essay 'rereading jacques attali's bruits' (eric drott, 2015, critical inquiry) and subsequently horsemouth's piece on attali 'lost in translation' (metamute, 9 September 2004)

- the seductions of declinism by william davies, LRB in 2022

- brief investigation of martin wong

- a little of terry eagleton's introduction to pierre macherey's theory of literary production.

- NLR 142 such as is free, NLR sidecar and LRB blogs and podcasts as noted.

- quietus magazine the releases of the year so far.

- philip leider (how I spent my summer holidays - artforum1970)

- suffragette fascists: emmeline pankhurst and her right-wing followers (simon webb) reviews and introduction (don't buy it)

- the revolution is inside by lawrence kumpf and magnus nygren

- on don and moki cherry's collaborations, from blank forms 06: organic music societies.

gigs none (fail to go to triple negative gig)

events

death of my father after a short illness, spanish elections, islamic new year, everything is going to be alright day, two sevens clash, catsitting in walthamstow, death of jane birkin, anniversaries of various french pharoah sanders' gigs, horsemouth opens up and closes the abbey, anniversary of horsemouth's gig at the beehive 2017.

'to live your life is not as simple as to cross a field'

'2 august. germany has declared war on russia - swimming in the afternoon.' - franz kafka.  

'to live your life is not as simple as to cross a field.' - old russian proverb, quoted in a poem from doctor zhivago by boris pasternak. 

'tuesday 2 august. I should have mentioned yesterday that I dined with coutts, where we were very merry. friday the fifth of this month is now fixed as the day of my departure.' - boswell's london journal 1762- 1763. 

horsemouth is up early. the weather is good out there. boswell will soon be leaving london (he is off on his travels). he will be back. 

horsemouth is on the hunt for poetry and readings and suchlike for his dad's memorial service. his dad had taken to carrying around a copy of the rubaiyat in the truck, there will be something in there, or there will be something in dr. zhivago. 

today horsemouth and his mum go to get the car insured and drop off some clothes for his father to wear in the coffin with the funeral home. yesterday they did the big shop at TESCOs - horsemouth endeavoured to make sure they ordered everything in bulk so as to reduce the number of needed social interactions. this afternoon the man who puts the lawnmowers and strimmers round will come so that he and mum can agree what needs to be done. thursday his mum will handover the tupperware for the change and some table-cloths to assist with the village fête on sunday (but will not be attending). 

horsemouth has to do another round of contacting friends and relatives soon, 

remind horsemouth he's got to post his monthly read, watched, gigs been to list here. 

today's music is paul bley and annette peacock's improvisie.

horsemouth was also taken by an account of patti smith's early days in new york focusing on the bookshops she (or robert mapplethorpe) worked at, brentano's (mid-town and university place), argosy books and, where she worked for a number of years, scribner's bookstore. 

last night a program on achieving net zero/ decarbonisation by 2050 it is, of course, a major challenge (and probably will not be enough).  the government's solution seems to be more nuclear power and more giant cracking plants to produce hydrogen from oil (so it's carbon neutral at point of use but not necessarily in the production of it). the program ably summed up the problems with decarbonising the 15% of UK emissions that come from heating and lighting the housing stock (and then there's the 25% that is transport).  

undated fragment - an idea for a story (lammas day)

'undated fragment.

an idea for a story.

a man, a writer, keeps a diary. in it he notes down thoughts, ideas, significant occurrences.' -  j.m. coetzee, summertime.

horsemouth has just finished summertime by j.m. coetzee (dew but it's grim). there is, of course, a joke here (of the type milan kundera would have appreciated), that the academic in the book is interviewing all 'john coetzee's friends and acquaintances rather than reading his poetry, or diaries or letters. but of course the second layer of the joke is that john coetzee is not (quite) the same as j.m. coetzee. 

bookpilled/ thrift-a-life's escape to mexico seems to be going well (here he is telling us about the 12 best books he's read in the year the man in the high castle, ice, etc. it must be good to have all these books ahead of you). 

'1 August. went to the train to see K off. relatives everywhere in the office. would like to go to valli's.' kafka's war is progressing. he seems to be home back in prague. 

'I have nothing more to record but that dempster and I went upon the thames and saw the watermen row for doggett's badge and other prizes. we saw most excellent sport...' boswell, 1st august 1763. 

from here on in reading the diary entry would require horsemouth to cut the page. he has done it but that is the end of the entry for august 1st. as a bonus he now knows how the diary of boswell's first visit to london will end (and it will end soon). 

'monday. lammas day.

the morning opened with a dense sea fog which turned to great heat during the day close oppressive and sultry...' kilvert is down in cornwall having a whale of a time. pretty girls, poetry, photograph albums, expeditions to tintagel etc. 

here in the wilds of herefordshire it looks like a nice day. some decent sunshine. it is lammas day when the landowners have to be paid and various common land rights can be asserted. in hackney horsemouth thinks there is a beating of the bounds. today the celebrant visits. tomorrow a visit to tescos.