And you can't remember where your heart once lay

[sovay]

My poem "A Correct Interpretation" has been accepted by Not One of Us. It is the poem I wrote for the yahrzeit of the molasses flood, incorporating other Boston disasters and the way that time has gone strange since the spring of 2020. The title comes from Nigel Kneale's The Stone Tape (1972), defining a ghost: "Let's say it's a mass of data waiting for a correct interpretation."

The rest of my day was lost to my lungs. thisbluespirit linked me a treasure trove of British TV plays which is waiting for me like an event horizon; it has already furnished several items about which I have been curious for decades and one which I did not expect ever to see. It would be nice to be able to do anything with my brain at all.

Comments

[yhlee]

Yay poem!

Thinking of you.

[sovay]

Yay poem!

Thank you!

Thinking of you.

*hugs*

[minoanmiss]

*sends oxygenating vibes*

[sovay]

*sends oxygenating vibes*

*hugs*

[asakiyume]

So glad for a molasses flood poem in Not One of Us

*heal up, Sovay's lungs*

[sovay]

So glad for a molasses flood poem in Not One of Us

Thank you. It is a good home.

*heal up, Sovay's lungs*

God, I'm trying.

*hugs*

[rydra_wong]

a treasure trove of British TV plays

WOW. I will be diving into that. Oh, they have Rodney Ackland's Absolute Hell, which I saw and remember as being amazing! It's Ackland's de-censored version of his play The Pink Room, from 1952; in 1988, a few years before his death, he re-wrote it to make explicit all the stuff he'd had to bury to get past the censors (it's a very queer play).

So it's fascinating because it's absolutely a work of the 1950s but saying out loud all of the things that could only be said in code.

Also it contains a passage that has spoken to me all my life:

"Well, I've always, ever since I was a child, felt it was so 'rude', so absolutely unbelievable and sort of surrealist, for two people not of the same sex to have sex together that I must say it does give me a really rather terrific and most horribly, I'm afraid, perverted -- kind of thrill."

[sovay]

"Well, I've always, ever since I was a child, felt it was so 'rude', so absolutely unbelievable and sort of surrealist, for two people not of the same sex to have sex together that I must say it does give me a really rather terrific and most horribly, I'm afraid, perverted -- kind of thrill."

That's magnificent.

(On the recommendation of your comment, I watched the first five minutes of the play even though I am not at the moment functional to be awake any further HELLO BILL NIGHY I ASSUME YOU ARE THE CHARACTER WHO DELIVERS THE ABOVE-QUOTED LINE IT IS EXACTLY IN YOUR REGISTER so I'll be following up on that tomorrow, thank you.)

This channel is full of things that I read about in college and grad school and had no chance of seeing since I was reading about them in articles from the BFI. There are a couple of programs I am specifically hoping will turn up if the process of uploading continues, but even if not, I'm really looking forward.

[rydra_wong]

HELLO BILL NIGHY I ASSUME YOU ARE THE CHARACTER WHO DELIVERS THE ABOVE-QUOTED LINE IT IS EXACTLY IN YOUR REGISTER

CORRECT.

[sovay]

CORRECT.

WAHOO.

[rydra_wong]

There is a way he folds himself up into an armchair in that play which has stayed with me since the mid-90s.

[choco_frosh]

ksnerk.

[sovay]

There is a way he folds himself up into an armchair in that play which has stayed with me since the mid-90s.

That sounds like him.

(I understand the specificity and duration of gestures like that; they can crystallize actors for me.)

[edit] I forgot to mention I dreamed of watching something with Nighy in it; he was playing one of M. John Harrison's indescribably seedy urban magicians; I really minded the adaptation not existing when I woke. He was perfect.

[rydra_wong]

I forgot to mention I dreamed of watching something with Nighy in it; he was playing one of M. John Harrison's indescribably seedy urban magicians; I really minded the adaptation not existing when I woke. He was perfect.

Now I too mind that it doesn't exist; I can imagine just how perfect that casting would be.

(But what a wonderful thought. Thank you.)

[sovay]

(But what a wonderful thought. Thank you.)

(You're welcome. I never feel I get to take credit for my dreams.)

I should have recognized Ackland by name; he's co-responsible for a number of films I've seen and a couple of significance to me, including one I love and one I've wanted to see for the last fifteen years which actually just turned up on Kanopy at the start of this month. Also he seems to have written the MOI short deployed at the start of Their Finest (2016), which just warps the entire thing right back through Bill Nighy. I hadn't realized he specialized in disaster writers: I imprinted on him with I Capture the Castle (2003). Absolute Hell would have done the trick if I'd seen it first. As a viewing experience now, it is sort of like a triple Patrick Hamilton with an Isherwood chaser, except it really matters that it's post-war. I'm so glad it was produced for television; otherwise it would be the kind of play I can only read the script of and want a time machine for. [edit] I would like to try to write about it, but I can make no promises, since what I have been doing since mid-April really is mostly coughing.

[rydra_wong]

I would like to try to write about it, but I can make no promises, since what I have been doing since mid-April really is mostly coughing.

No expectations, I'm just glad you enjoyed it and hope your lungs are doing better at some point.

[sovay]

No expectations, I'm just glad you enjoyed it and hope your lungs are doing better at some point.

I enjoyed it very much. Thank you for making me aware of it.

[rydra_wong]

Tangentially, I think you might enjoy knowing that I just spent the car journey back from Stanage (a Peak District crag) with my climbing partner and I having a very over-excited conversation about M. John Harrison's Climbers, both having just discovered that the other was a fan of it.

I explained that I still get excited whenever I see the cements works in Hope, having read about it in Climbers long before I became a climber.

[sovay]

I explained that I still get excited whenever I see the cements works in Hope, having read about it in Climbers long before I became a climber.

That makes perfect sense to me. I am glad of your conversation!

[rydra_wong]

An interesting question, in case you happen to have thoughts: what Harrison book would you recommend to someone who (like my climbing partner) has read Climbers but no other Harrisons because he "doesn't read sci-fi"?

I did try to explain that Harrison's sci-fi is not exactly standard genre stuff (I should have said that I'm pretty sure Climbers is not less genre that Harrison's other works, whatever that genre actually is).

We got onto the topic via Fawcett on Rock, a climbing book from the mid-80s which has many joys, not the least of which is that Harrison ghost-wrote it and occasionally an unmistakably Harrisonian voice of melancholic narrative weirdness and anomie breaks through and is not even slightly what Big Ron (Fawcett) sounds like.

[sovay]

An interesting question, in case you happen to have thoughts: what Harrison book would you recommend to someone who (like my climbing partner) has read Climbers but no other Harrisons because he "doesn't read sci-fi"?

Either The Course of the Heart or Things That Never Happen. I can't speak to the most recent novel or the most recent short story collection because I have yet to get hold of them, however, so if you think either would be particularly well suited to your climbing partner's tastes, go for it!

We got onto the topic via Fawcett on Rock, a climbing book from the mid-80s which has many joys, not the least of which is that Harrison ghost-wrote it and occasionally an unmistakably Harrisonian voice of melancholic narrative weirdness and anomie breaks through and is not even slightly what Big Ron (Fawcett) sounds like.

I've heard of that, but never seen a copy! I miss browsing used book stores so much.

[vass]

Congratulations on the poem. I am sorry about your lungs.

[sovay]

Congratulations on the poem. I am sorry about your lungs.

Thank you. I am so tired of them being like this!

[poliphilo]

And there I was thinking all those TV plays were lost beyond recall. That's a quite extraordinary stash.

[sovay]

And there I was thinking all those TV plays were lost beyond recall. That's a quite extraordinary stash.

It looks like a personal archive, which I think must be the only way to do it. I'm really grateful.

[poliphilo]

I just watched The Mayfly and the Frog- a play I saw when it was first broadcast in 1966- and I was 15. It's a chamber piece with John Gielgud and Felicity Kendall- light, bittersweet, utterly charming.

[sovay]

I just watched The Mayfly and the Frog- a play I saw when it was first broadcast in 1966- and I was 15.

Oh, that's wonderful! I will watch it.

[pameladean]

Oh, excellent poetry news!

I send kindly thoughts to your lungs.

And hugs to you. P.

[sovay]

Oh, excellent poetry news!

Thank you!

My lungs and I appreciate it.

*hugs*

[thisbluespirit]

Congrats on the poem, and I'm delighted to know the YT person's stash was of interest! ♥

[sovay]

Congrats on the poem, and I'm delighted to know the YT person's stash was of interest!

Profoundly!

Thank you.

[choco_frosh]

Congrats, and sorry that your lungs hate you.
< hugs >

[sovay]

Congrats, and sorry that your lungs hate you.

Thank you!

*hugs*

[oracne]

Yay sale! Also yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay that YouTube channel.

[sovay]

Yay sale! Also yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay that YouTube channel.

Thank you! Right?!

[strange_complex]

Congratulations on your poem. That Youtube channel of the TV plays really does look good as well. I scrolled down, and then scrolled down some more, and it just kept on going, seemingly forever! Definitely lots of interest to explore.

[sovay]

Congratulations on your poem.

Thank you!

That Youtube channel of the TV plays really does look good as well. I scrolled down, and then scrolled down some more, and it just kept on going, seemingly forever! Definitely lots of interest to explore.

It's an incredible mix of things I didn't have access to, things I didn't expect to be able to see, and things I didn't know existed. I am reminding myself that I don't have to write about everything I watch (it's not like I'm writing about anything at the minute).

[rydra_wong]

They've just uploaded the 1989 Woman In Black (long unobtainable, though I think there was a DVD release a couple of years back)!

[sovay]

They've just uploaded the 1989 Woman In Black (long unobtainable, though I think there was a DVD release a couple of years back)!

I just saw that and told spatch! It's one of the things I've known about for years, but didn't have access to! (I don't think the DVD release was any use in my region.)

[gwynnega]

Yay poem! I hope your lungs have a better time of it soon.

That YouTube channel looks amazing.

[sovay]

Yay poem! I hope your lungs have a better time of it soon.

Thank you!

That YouTube channel looks amazing.

The major attraction is the television drama, but I can recommend the short documentary on the Flying Scotsman, especially if you would be delighted by one of the passengers interviewed on the non-stop run of 1968 turning out to be the Rev. W. Awdry. (In hindsight, we didn't know why we were suprised.)