A Monochrome photograph- Aldeburgh

Working in monochrome can be rewarding, This image shows off the shadows thrown by the fire escape on the lookout tower; using black and white accentuates these and avoids drawing the eye away by any splashes of colour. 

Looking back I should have waited until the person in the picture had walked on- not because I have anything against them but because they are not the focus of the image. That said, they serve to give a sense of scale as well as hinting at a human interaction, one assumes they had just visited the studio that operated out of that space at the time. 

The other thing about a black and white photograph is that becomes something that could have been taken at any time- yesterday or 100 years ago. The image becomes, to some extent, timeless.

A Suitable Boy- a primer

A Suitable Boy- a basic primer.

What is a novel? You can find several definitions in various dictionaries; this one sums it up pretty well:

Novel: ‘a fictitious prose narrative of considerable length and complexity, portraying characters and usually presenting a sequential organisation of action and scenes’.

Source: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/novel

So let’s consider for a moment how it applies to a particular example; namely, A suitable Boy, by Vikram Seth. Why this book? Well, its adaptation for Television by Andrew Davis provides a suitable excuse (pun absolutely intended) to discuss it. So this is  a Suitable Boy Primer that also ponders the nature of the novel. I like to give value for money.

‘A fictitious prose narrative of considerable length and complexity’ is a perfect description of Vikram Seth’s creation. At thirteen hundred and forty-nine pages it’s a veritable door stop of a book, one that is rapidly overtaking War and Peace as shorthand for going on at length. ‘portraying characters’ is  a massive understatement for this story. The family trees of the main four families in the book contain nigh on forty names for a start. Finally, ‘a sequential organisation of action and scenes’ certainly applies. The action and scenes described take place over the course of a year and nineteen chapters in a variety of locations.

So ‘A suitable Boy’ is indisputably a Novel in the classic sense. Novels are artificial constructs that tell a story in a choreographed way, in which the end of the story seems inevitable and satisfactory once you reach it. But like the best novels, the story, both the narrative and the seemingly inconsequential details, are so immersive that you scarcely notice the structure and the artifice. They are there nonetheless, as are nods to the history of the novel, for those who have eyes to see.

Seth employs a neat device to signpost his chapters; each has a rhyming couplet that hints at the content without giving too much away. These allusive fragments constitute a poem in their own right, by turns matter of fact, descriptive and shocking. ‘A kiss stokes fury, Twelfth night sparks a snub, and even bridge stokes tumult at the club’ promises a chapter of conflict and intrigue.

The Novel begins with a wedding. Savita Mehra is marrying Pran Kapoor and her mother voices her determination to procure a similar outcome for Savita’s younger sister, Lata. The ’suitable boy’ of the title is the one who will marry Lata. This is the main arc of the story. But presaging the search for the aforementioned paragon is not the only purpose of Savita’s wedding. It also serves as a device to bring together most of the main characters in the book in order to introduce them, as well as launching several sub-plots. If this seems familiar it should be. Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe starts with a tournament at which he introduces the main players in his medieval romance. This actual scenario re-occurs in George Martin’s ‘Game of Thrones’ to good effect.

Without giving away too much I can reveal that Lata has three main suitors for her hand as the story unfolds. This mirrors Thomas Hardy’s ‘Far from the Madding crowd’ in which Bathsheba Everdene is wooed by three very different men; Shepherd Gabriel Oak, Soldier Troy and Farmer Boldwood. (yes, she is called Everdene, just like Katniss in ‘The Hunger Games’, you think that’s accidental?)

There are many ways to write a novel. The Basque novelist Miguel Unamuno attempted, in Abel Sanchez, to write a story that was devoid of anything that could tie it to geography or time period; he wanted the characterisation to be paramount. Other writers include details that provide clues to the period in which they were writing. Jane Austen’s female characters meet Militia officers and Naval Captains because Napoleon was on the other side of the channel at the time. Still other writers, describing a period that is already in the past, use objects, events and music to evoke the particular time they are describing.

A Suitable Boy is unashamedly anchored in time and place. The time is 1951, the place is India. The year is important, just four years after Independence, a fact that colours many of the plotlines. Seth puts his characters into a fictional city, Brahmpur, so convincingly described that the reader accepts it as real. The history and culture of India suffuses the book and provides a realistic background for the characters actions. The reader soon accepts the attitudes of individual characters as being in keeping with the setting.

This is an introduction to the story which is trying not to give too much away, in case you are planning to watch the Television adaptation or read the book. I think though, I can get away with mentioning one or two characters. Lata, as has been said, is at the centre of the story and other characters revolve around her. But they are all individually drawn and fascinating in their own right. Veena Kapoor, for instance, Savita’s husband’s sister is an example of a woman trying to maintain some sense of being something other than just a wife and mother. Her son Bhaskar is a mathematical prodigy and her husband is the sort of calm presence any family needs at times of crisis. Yet they would be classed as ‘minor’ characters.Veena's other brother Maan is a slightly more prominent character, indeed you could argue that the book is as much about him as about Lata. The infatuation that he is subject to begins at Savita's wedding and runs like a thread through the book. This is the extent of Seth’s achievement; to give every-one their due and weave all their stories together.

So whether you watch or read, you are in for a treat. I have read the book cover to cover on two occasions, some years apart, and fully intend to read it again. It is so rich, so varied and so life-affirming, and somehow defies definition. Is it a romance? A historical novel? An explanation of a political moment in time? A family saga? A hymn to India? It is all of these and more.

Mobile phone photography- vertical pictures

The river Deben at Woodbridge

So many of us use our mobile phones rather than a discrete camera to take photographs, especially when we are out and about. The visual look of a picture taken with the phone upright makes for a tall, slim photograph. This doesn't work for every type of picture. However, there are some scenes that are enhanced by it, especially outdoor shots. The example shown below approximately obeys the old photography rule of thirds; the top third is the sky, the middle third has objects of interest (in this case yachts at anchor) and the bottom third shows the foreground detail; plants seen under the water and a family of ducks passing by.

There is plenty going on (the sky has a nice swirl of clouds) at each level of the picture and the eye can move from the near to the far effortlessly. 

The Year of the Cat; Al Stewart's masterpiece remembered

A brief dissertation on a classic from my youth

It’s a staple of the pub quiz- guess the song from the opening lines. Sometimes it can be less easy than you think. ‘I never thought it would happen, with me and the girl from Clapham’. That’s the opening line of a Squeeze song that has two unique selling points; it batters you relentlessly with rhyming phrases (‘I got a job with Stanley, he said I’d come in handy’) and it never repeats a line, forcing you to pay attention as you listen to the tale of young love it spins. The title of the song is in the last line; ‘and so it’s my assumption, I’m really up the junction’.

We all have our favourites: ‘watching the people get lairy, is not very pretty I tell thee’, ‘all your dreams are made, when your chained to the mirror and the razor blade’. I want to talk about a song that starts with a classic opening line, one that sets up the story, slips in a cinematic reference or two and keeps up the high standard it sets itself all the way through. The song is ‘Year of the Cat’ by Al Stewart. It is the title track of an album from 1976, of which more later, which blends poetry and musical excellence to create a masterpiece. Here are the opening lines:

‘on a morning from a Bogart movie, in a country where they turn back time,

You go strolling through the crowd like Peter Lorre, contemplating a crime’.

By the time you hear those words you are already over a minute into the song (this is the 1970’s, when six minutes and forty seconds is par for the course for an album track). It starts with an upbeat piano riff to which acoustic guitar and drums are smoothly added, before Stewart's fluid vocals begin to tell the story. Peter Lorre of course was a supporting actor in more than one Bogart movie, which sets the mood for what is unfolding. 

I rate the next lines as among the greatest lyrics ever written:

‘she comes out of the sun in a silk dress running like a watercolour in the rain’

If the opening lines establish the listener as the hero of the scenario (again, this is the 1970’s, so it’s about a hero) the next lines introduce the female lead, mysterious, sensual and seductive. You the listener are in deep waters now, abroad in a foreign place, never quite specified but somehow Mediterranean, ‘by the blue-tiled walls near the market stalls, there’s a hidden door she leads you to’. The two protagonists go through the door and it is left to the imagination what occurs. But if the song doesn’t go into details, the music provides all you need to know.

 The middle section of the song is to my mind simply perfect. It starts with some subtle Spanish Guitar foreplay, leading into an urgent lead guitar solo that reaches a peak and morphs almost unnoticed into a saxophone break, an extended ecstasy of sound that gradually subsides via soaring strings to a repeat of the opening piano. How was it for you darling?

As the lyrics resume the consequences show themselves;

Well morning comes and you’re still with her, and the bus and the tourists are gone/and you’ve thrown away your choice, and lost your ticket, so you have to stay on’, but there is no need for regret, because ‘the drumbeat strains of the night remain in the rythm of the new-born day’.

At this point the listener understands that they have had a glimpse of a classic holiday romance, the kind of escape from normal life that is too wonderful to last ‘you know sometime you’re bound to leave her’ but that was completely worth falling into and will be remembered and cherished lifelong. The saxophone resumes as a passionate reminder of what has occurred as the song plays out.

Year of the Cat, the song and the album, are exemplars of the kind of moment that often occurs all too rarely; when an artist experiences a congruence between their creative powers, the right musicians to bring that creativity to fruition and a receptive audience. It also serves as a reminder that the standard narrative of the middle years of that decade being a low point between the high point of ‘71/72 and the outburst of rage and innovation that was triggered by punk rock can be a carelessly lazy description of what was going on. 1975 and 1976 had their share of duds, but they also benefited from a gloriously eclectic set of charts that saw artists like Dolly Parton and Gordon Lightfoot rub shoulders with Cockney Rebel, ELO and reggae acts such as Susan Cadogan and of course Bob Marley.

The B side of Year of the Cat, the vinyl single, was also from the album; Broadway Hotel. In those days, if you bought the single, you would often go on to buy the album as well. So my vinyl copy is something of an artefact in its own right.

So now you've read the review, go ahead and listen to the song. Remember to don your linen suit or silk dress first to get into character.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ak_MTXQALa0

This time last year

Last year we visited Haigh Park in Wigan and attended one of the Friday Food Festivals. It was packed, it was a sunny summer evening, and we stood in close proximity to other people and bumped into them without a care. Because that was 2019 and such things didn't matter. Now it's 2020 and it matters very much. This is my first attempt to express my feelings about the pandemic in verse. It's rough and ready and doesn't aspire to anything beyond conveying a sense of loss somewhere between there and here..............

If you were there at all last summer- this is for you (and if you are in the photograph, I hope you don't mind).

This time last year, we were there

Mingling and moving through a crowd of strangers

Shoulder to shoulder without a care

No thought in our heads of any dangers

 

We were there this time last year

Knowing all we had to do was make some choices

The aromas demanding attention as we drew near

Shouting to hear ourselves above the voices

 

Last year, we were there, last time

Surrounded by faces we didn’t know

Hearing random conversational rhythm and rhyme

Lit by the sinking sunset glow

 

This year it cannot even go ahead

How could it, when so much has changed?

Our certainties have turned and fled

The fabric of our lives is disarranged

 

Go ahead, this year, with a trip? We cannot

even contemplate a Hotel stay

A chance to visit somewhere when it’s hot

Let chance throw something new our way

 

We cannot go ahead this year

And stand with strangers we will never see again

And laugh and smile and be free from fear

So thanks for last year, Haigh Park Wigan, here’s to coping with the pain

Re-creating Escher's 'Three Worlds'

Inspired by Escher's Three Worlds

I have been interested in Escher's art since I was at school and own several reference works about him. Although like many I love the 'impossible' images I also like some of the more subtle, often earlier, pictures that are more naturalistic. One of these is the one entitled 'Three Worlds' which is from December 1955. In his book The Magic Mirror of M.C. Escher (Bruno Ernst 1976 Ballantine Books) Ernst calls this Lithograph the high point of Escher's Landscape period, "a lithograph of calm, autumnal beauty"; and he goes on to say that "the unsuspecting viewer can scarcely realise what a triumph it was for Escher to succeed in representing here three different worlds in one place, and so realistically too". 

The three different worlds are the trees reflected on the water, the surface of the water itself, supporting the leaves, and the fish swimming in the depths of the pond. Escher had already depicted trees reflected in water in 'Rippled surface' 1950; that was more stylised, more obviously an artistic simplification of reality than 'Three Worlds' which is much more naturalistic (one might almost say photographic). The two are shown side by side for contrast:

The three worlds image has stuck with me. A few years ago I was at Rushton Hall in Northamptonshire for a lunch and the reflections of trees in the water caught my eye. I took some photographs with the deliberate intention of copying Escher's picture: 

I have lilies in place of leaves and no visible fish, but hey, two out of three aint bad- as I believe some-one sang once. 

La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman reviewed

The Book of Dust: Volume one La Belle Sauvage

Author: Philip Pullman

Introduction

The fourth book set in the multiverse imagined by Philip Pullman, La Belle Sauvage is a prequel to the collection of novels known as the ‘His Dark Materials’ trilogy and the first part of ‘The Book of Dust’. The first books, with young protagonists and a strong fantasy element, were initially seen as children’s books, but their complex themes suggested otherwise. In the second instalment, ‘The Subtle Knife’, both young characters suffer bereavement whilst the third, ‘The Amber Spyglass’, is a metaphysical whirlwind of ideas.

Personally I would applaud Philip Pullman for challenging his young readers to engage with stretching ideas. One of my favourite series of books as a young boy was the Viking trilogy by Henry Treece which traced the career of a Viking, Harald, from his first voyage through an interlude in Constantinople to his final voyage which takes him to the New World. Those stories place their characters in difficult situations that demand a physical and a moral response. Their main theme is that people have to make choices by which they will be judged and remembered.

If you embark on a Philip Pullman novel you can expect to be challenged as well as entertained. So how does La Belle Sauvage measure up?

What’s it about?

At the opening of Northern Lights (the first book in the ‘His Dark Materials sequence’) we meet Lyra Belacqua, a young girl living in an Oxford college under the protection of Scholastic sanctuary. This book describes the events that led up to her being placed there by her father shortly after she was born. The first thing to say is that it is much more than merely an exposition or an explanation but a dramatic story in its own right. It too has two young protagonists, only in La Belle Sauvage the boy, Malcolm, is the younger character. It begins in a restricted locality and gradually opens out not just in geography but in terms of Malcolm’s view of the world.

The title of the book refers to Malcolm’s canoe; his parent’s inn is on the river Thames and it is the key to his survival when the rivers flood. It is made clear that this is no ordinary flood but an epic event; Malcolm is given advance warning of it by a Gyptian, a member of an outsider community who run boats on the river. They are significant players in Northern Lights.

Malcolm and Alice find themselves embarking (in both senses of the word) on a perilous voyage in La Belle Sauvage to take the baby Lyra to her father, Lord Asriel, in London. It is perilous not just because of the storm but because of a mysterious man who is trying to kidnap her. So the main body of the book is an extended chase sequence which becomes ever more harrowing as well as gradually entering a mythical phase in which the storm has broken open the normal structure of reality.

As well as the idea of a relentless chase, familiar from many books and films, there is also the familiar element of the mismatched pair who must navigate their own relationship whilst eluding danger. Malcolm and Alice find that together they can do things neither could achieve on their own.   The story also contains the plotline of stripping away support and protection from its characters to place them in jeopardy (think Harry Potter in the last book when Mad-eye Moody and Hedwig are dead, his wand is broken and Ron has left him). The sequel to this, as in Harry Potter, is the materialisation of support from unexpected and often mysterious directions. The further Malcolm travels down the Thames the further away he is from home and everything familiar and the tension in the book rises until the dramatic denouement, followed by the coda which resolves the story.

Does it work as a story?

As I commented in a previous post, when you first read a book you want to follow the story and see where it ends. Depending on what kind of story it is this can be a matter of interest or a desperate urge to find out. In reading parlance we say a book that incites that urge is a page turner. Given that this story is written to be an exciting adventure, does it qualify? I would say yes; after dipping in and out of the book to begin with I found myself devoting extended hours to it in the attempt to reach the end. This is even more impressive given that I already knew the outcome to some extent having read the later parts of this ongoing story.

La Belle Sauvage works for me because I lost myself in it, accepting the underlying rules of the world of the book and getting drawn in to richness of that world. In his essay on Faerie stories Tolkien talks of the concept of sub-creation whereby the reader (or watcher in the case of a film) can inhabit an imaginary world. He also says that if the spell is broken the reader is left looking in on the invented world from the outside and it no longer works. Philip Pullman’s spell still works for me with this book. Readers need to be careful with a Pullman, you can easily find yourself talking to your daemon or expecting to see a Zeppelin flying overhead!

Wider themes

Lyra’s Oxford is in a world alike and yet unlike our own, a vision of an alternative present resulting from an alternative history. The society she is born into is dominated by The Magisterium, a religious organisation that somehow seems more concerned with power and control than virtue. Pullman uses the Magisterium to explore themes of societal control through ideas and some of these are very dark. The League of Alexander for instance encourages schoolchildren to inform on their teachers and parents if they suspect them of heresy or even lack of religious enthusiasm. This is deadly serious stuff and a world away from the Inquisitorial Squad at Hogwarts which is largely played for laughs.

The forces of the Magisterium have a totalitarian look, like the Nazis in the 1930’s or the communists in post-war Europe. Their influence is insidious and all the more terrifying for being seen in a recognisably English context. Pullman is instinctively anti-authoritarian and wants to warn us of how easily we can slip into this.

Another theme that is discernible in this book is that of the mythical hero. Lyra is destined to grow into some-one who will change the world and this book begins to set up this aspect of Lyra. Lord Raglan wrote a book called ‘The Hero’ in which he lists 22 aspects of the mythical hero. Some of these apply to Lyra:

Number 1: The hero’s mother is a Royal Virgin- Lyra’s mother, although not royal, comes from the upper echelons of society and is clearly remarkable in her own right

Number 2: Their father is King- Lyra’s father is a Lord and a significant person in society

Number 4: The circumstances of conception are unusual- Lyra’s mother conceives her after an affair with Lord Asriel, who then kills her husband in a duel.

Number 6: An attempt is made at birth………….to kill the hero- or at least to capture her, by the books villain, Bonneville.

Number 7: the hero is spirited away- in this case by Malcolm and Alice.

Number 8: the hero is reared by foster parents- In Lyra’s case the staff of Jordan College.

Only Mr Pullman can say whether Raglan’s list was in his mind when writing. It is perhaps better to say that this book is given authenticity by being true to the patterns of storytelling. Lyra does not have a magical weapon but she is given the Alethiometer which is a key to her success. She is also, like Harry Potter, the subject of a prophecy and there is an incident on an island in the Thames in this book that hints at why she becomes so special. Although Lyra does nothing in this book the action revolves around her and she inspires devotion or obsession in the heroes and villains. This is the theme that underlies everything else in the book- that of a child destined for greatness.

Any Caveats?

The story has a slow start although the pace does pick up. You can’t escape the thorny question of suitability for audience with this book. The meetings between heroes and the villain result in graphic violence, including sexual violence that definitely does not belong in a children’s book. One commentator on Tolkien (Paul Kocher) suggested that if the Hobbit was to be seen as a book read aloud to a circle of children sitting on the floor, then in the interval between it and the Lord of the Rings the children have been packed off to bed and replaced by the adults.

You could say the same about this book and yet authors cannot ring fence their work. This book will be read by children because of His Dark Materials. I would say that parents maybe need to read it themselves first to judge at what point they could introduce it to their children. If you do this, however, think about your own childhood reading and don’t wrap your children in cotton wool.

Do I recommend it?

Undoubtedly yes, the multiverse has a hold on me still!

Maggie Hambling Scallop shell sculpture, Aldeburgh, Suffolk

There was some controversy about this sculpture when it was first proposed. I love it, not just the way it reflects its setting but the way it inserts words into the landscape........ 

Shell Sculpture: Aldeburgh

The beach at Aldeburgh is never silent; the sound the waves make as they retreat from the shingle is an aural backdrop for other voices your imagination might hear. No doubt Benjamin Britten thought so too. 

Sunflower and visitors

This image encapsulates the serendipity of photography; I was focusing on the butterfly and it was only afterwards I found I had captured the bees................