#98 The Offcuts
Rolling hills of Rego and painted pebbles
I spent this weekend in the Quantock Hills of Somerset for my future sister-in-law’s hen do. It was a lovely trip full of good food, cocktails, and silly fun. Live, laugh, love etc. It’s all getting real now; my little brother is getting married. I have a speech to perfect, final decorations to help sort and accessories to finesse my outfit. Emotionally, I am not prepared. I am a bubbling mix of excitement, joy, and pride.
This morning, I finished Soft Core by Brittany Newell. It wasn’t for me. There were a lot of loose ends that I felt weren’t tied up. I was confused by how things ended. It all felt unresolved in a frustrating way. The premise of a stripper with a pseudonym living different lives and harbouring secrets is what enticed me, but it all fell a little flat.
The next book I’ve lined up to read is Termush by Sven Holm, translated from Danish into English by Sylvia Clayton. First published in 1967, this novella is a science fiction dystopia which explores morality and humanity through the wealthy guests staying in a luxury hotel at the end of the world. At nearly sixty years old, I’m intrigued to see how much I’ll relate to both the writing and the characters. A ye olde White Lotus, perhaps?
Other reads from the week:
The rise of the influencer novel
The showgirls preserving the retro maximalism of Las Vegas
Nayara Coenen - What men reveal to women they don’t respect
Stevie Martin - You don’t need a special office to write in
Olivia Purvis - Reasons to be cheerful
Cat - I’m back in therapy (again)
willow - Congratulations! You’re a cool girl
Grayson Perry Has Seen the Future is a two-part series following the Turner prize-winning artist on an AI and robotics discovery mission in Silicon Valley. While accepting the inevitability of new technologies in our lives (in terms of presence and impact), Perry is often perplexed by what he finds. The first episode opens with him chatting to a woman who discusses meeting and marrying her husband. Of course, it turns out her other half is an AI chatbot. The series promises to raise profound questions about what it is to be human. It’s worth a watch.
I scrolled back to a video from the beginning of March this week - I wonder how many miles I’ve scrolled throughout my life in total. A hundred marathons? Seventy Iron Mans? To the moon and back three times? I cannot fathom. This video shows penguins at Edinburgh Zoo receiving a gift of painted pebbles from children at the Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity. During mating season, penguins pick a pebble to present to their mate. If the feeling is mutual, the other penguin will keep the pebble in their nest. The children will have watched the zoo’s live webcams to see who their pebbles ended up with. How utterly adorable.
Paula Rego is one of the most important female artists of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Born in Portugal in 1935, she often depicted ideas of female agency and the complexities of human relationships in her work. The Victoria Miro gallery is currently displaying the largest exhibition of her drawings to date. Story Line shows the evolution of her use of media and her approach to storytelling. I’m planning a visit this week - it’s on until 23rd May if you’re keen.
Nature is the never-ending well of opportunity for creatives. Spending this weekend in the lush, rural greenery of Somerset was a dream-inducing escape from the concrete jungle of (my still-beloved) big, smoky London. Romantic poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth were notably inspired by the surroundings of the Quantock Hills. The Nightingale by Coleridge is a conversational poem that describes the experience of walking through Holford Coombe. The snippet below encompasses Coleridge’s appreciation for the natural landscape.
A balmy night! and though the stars be dim,
Yet let us think upon the vernal showers
That gladden the green earth, and we shall find
A pleasure in the dimness of the stars.
And hark! the Nightingale begins its song,
‘Most musical, most melancholy’ bird!’
