Fairly productive day overshadowed by the killing of Qassem Suleimani.
Much brighter day. The local council seem to have abandoned their responsibility in cleaning streets and the pavement outside out how has been carpeted with wet, decomposing leaves for months. Of course, we pay taxes for the council to encourage us to clean our own roads.
Maybe I’m naive, but I thought it was the villains who went about assassinating their enemies. Terrorists. I thought the good guys were the ones who abide by the rule of law (or at least the pretense of it). If the media’s response is a gauge of how significant the killing of Suleimani seems to be, then there’s going to be trouble. When Johnson’s government is equivocal about the attack and calls for de-escalation then you know that this hasn’t been well-received by the powers that be. Though Trump’s supporters in the US seem to be enthusiastically flag waving.
At least it took the interminable LBC discussions about Corbyn and the Labour Party off the air today. LBC is a Labour-basher but can be entertaining – in the way that people used to visit Bedlam – in hearing nutty right-wingers phone in. Moderates don’t seem to get much call time. The presenters are excellent as portraying themselves as being even-handed and simply expressing the commonsense of reasonable people. They are, however, incredibly skilled in how they manipulate language. (I’d be interesting to see if anyone does linguistic analyses of the differences in the way that the media reported in the election. We already know that the Tories were reported far more positively than other parties.)
We have a great little Oxfam bookshop in town that often has some brilliant books. There’s something serendipitous about browsing in a charity bookshop. It doesn’t have the restricted organisation of a bookshop like Waterstones. The books are far more random. I don’t go all the time. Once or twice a month. Today I bought Soren a couple of novels to read (Young Dracula by Michael Lawrence and – what looks like something I’d probably like reading – Tales of Terror from the Black Ship by Chris Priestley) and, for myself, a copy of The Mythology of the British Islands by Charles Squire. I know VERY little about Celtic mythology and it seems to be a pretty good introduction.
The serendipitous part is that I’m writing a story that needs “fleshing out”. I’ve got the skeleton of the plot and ending more or less figured and just need the “colouring”. I’m not sure I can explain it any better than that. I tend to use Oblique Strategies when I’m writing creatively. “Consult other sources – promising -unpromising” the card told me. Although celtic mythology has absolutely nothing to do with what I’m writing, I have a “sense” that I can use something from the mythology in there somewhere. The story’s set in Britain and needs something mythic going on in the background. Subtly, though. I have a tendency to “sprawl” ideas when I plan and then lose interest. Subtle and simple.
I read X-men #4 today. It’s definitely an odd comic at the moment. What used to be mutant superheroes punching mutant supervillains when I was a kid, is now characters describing in detail how they will subvert the capitalist world order at the Davos World Economic Forum. Of COURSE it appeals to me – but I’m not sure it’s going to attract the Marvel Cinematic Universes teenage fanboys. Or maybe it is and I’m just being too cynical. Anyhow, Professor X did turn out to be Professor X when he took off the mask. And he was killed. And resurrected.
