Tuesday, January 10, 2006

The mark


mark

I seem to be going through a literary phase. So, the photograph I took reminds me of one of the great writing experiments of the early 20th Century – Virginia Woolf ‘The mark on the wall’. That was published in 1917. And, more or less at the same time, Pirandello wrote ‘Shoot!’ (1915), a novel which explores the early days of moving image (he was writing about ‘affordances’, but I don’t think that word was in his lexicon). Anyway, ‘Shoot!’ has just been republished.

The other literary thing is a celebration of the remarkable Helen Simpson who is an impressive short story writer. I read her story ‘Constitutional’ which is in her new collection of the same name. It makes really effective use of the affordances of the short story form.

Tomorrow I may be forced to comment on Tony Blair’s ‘Respect’ agenda, and particularly media reports of the problems of teenagers in hoodies and the horrors of graffiti, which is probably why today it seems better to bury one’s head in a book.

4 comments:

Kate said...

Guy we are so in synch.
I read Constitutional on the way back from Sheffield eysterday and loved it.
What is more, I am about to do a post on what is on the walls.
Strange eh.
Thank you for always doing interesting posts!

Guy Merchant said...

Yes, Helen Simpson writes beautifully and weaves together so many themes in a short space - just write for reading when you're travelling.

Look forward to your post on walls. I have another one on its way!

Joolz said...

OMG when do you find time to READ??
I love teenagers in hoodies.

Guy Merchant said...

About reading, the solution's simple. Just spend less time blogging!