Being rescued by the French
Apparently Hilary Mantel said that a writer should aim to make the reader feel “acknowledged, and yet estranged”.
So, hello, and yet, WFT?
Some things:
I’m not a car fan, but I love car cultures. They’re mostly beautiful enthusiasm. This is a magnificent 8 min video about the love of classic BMWs among a community of punjabi women in Southall. “Even if you buy a shitty E30, just do it, you’ll fall in love with it.”
From Zero At The Bone by Christian Wiman:
“There is a wrenching moment near the end of Marilynne Robinson’s novel Lila when the title character and her husband, John Ames, are discussing, almost arguing, issues of faith and prayer. Ames finally throws up his arms and says, “Family is a prayer. Wife is a prayer. Marriage is a prayer.”
Related, Prayer by Carol Ann Duffy:
Some days, although we cannot pray, a prayer
utters itself. So, a woman will lift
her head from the sieve of her hands and stare
at the minims sung by a tree, a sudden gift.Some nights, although we are faithless, the truth
enters our hearts, that small familiar pain;
then a man will stand stock-still, hearing his youth
in the distant Latin chanting of a train.Pray for us now. Grade 1 piano scales
console the lodger looking out across
a Midlands town. Then dusk, and someone calls
a child's name as though they named their loss.Darkness outside. Inside, the radio's prayer —
Rockall. Malin. Dogger. Finisterre.Can’t be long now until there’s a revival in Azorean Hoods.
Very much enjoyed this bit of A Month In Sienna by Hisham Matar:
“The flat I had rented turned out to be part of an old palazzo. It had frescoed ceilings and perfectly proportioned rooms. The modest exterior of the building made the beauty of these private spaces even more acute. Over the coming days, and whenever I left the house, I was often conscious, even without looking back, of the sober façade. It was like an ally to whom I wanted to unburden all sorts of secrets. The place reminded me how the buildings we encounter, like new people we may meet, can excite passions that had up to then lain dormant. Most of the time we are not even aware of such adjustments. They happen mid-stride, and are often mutual, for, just as we influence and are influenced by others, the atmosphere of a room too is marked by what we do in it. And most of what we do vanishes, but a slight and shadowy remnant remains. How else then to account for why we can perceive awfulness where awful things have occurred, or be quietly inspired by a room where for a long time attention had been given to what is beautiful and kind. Every time I returned to the flat I felt my anticipation grow. And over the coming days, everywhere I went in Siena, I did, in effect, carry with me, like a private song, the pleasure of those rooms.!”
The second half of this episode of The Sports Agents is well worth a listen; mountaineer Fay Manners stuck on a Himalayan ledge in an avalanche. And being rescued by the French. Comté cheese and everything.
PROMOTIONAL NEWS
Inspired by more designery efforts at physical penpaling I made a bit more of an effort with Prototype 2 of my strange Stampfans thing. No idea what it’ll be like on arrival but, if you’re curious, this is the PDF that went into the system.
I’ll give you back your day.
russell
(There are 968 of you. There are 968 kilometres between Land’s End and John o’Groats.)