Going through old notebooks

“He began each work ... only with the medium,
to what end he did not initially know.”

(Kurt Schwitters’ working method)

Just finished ...

... re-reading 'Nadja'.

What - many years ago - seemed distracting (the shifting narrative voice, the photographs, the lengthy summary of the play, the uneven energy of the prose, the parenthetic & digressive sentences, the closing cutting from a newspaper) now seem of central importance. Fundamentally, what is this text? How is it to be read?

And that Nadja was "really" Léona-Camille-Ghislaine D - does this 'solve' anything?

Another UK visit!

Yes, we're coming over to London on Friday (29th) with the older Wafflette. Anyone up for a coffee &/or trek around the bookshops & galleries get in touch.

Les Vacances de M. Belgianwaffle

And what better way to inaugurate eight weeks of pleasing oneself but to hear Sea and The Cake in Brussels last night. Pictured above (left to right) Sam Prekop (guitar and vocals), Archer Prewitt (guitar), and Erik Claridge (bass) - at least I think that's correct. As for the drummer, I'm not sure whether he was John McEntire or a fill-in. They're not exactly the most visually memorable band in the world - the whole set was marked by admirably low-key style. A few twiddles of the string pegs and microphone adjustment and it was on to the next song. Refreshing, really. Good tunes & I heard for the first time how the bass underscores what would otherwise be a little too amiable music.

I got home around 12.30am after a brisk walk and feeling rather exhilirated at this (rare) taste of nightlife. Usually, I'd have been in bed a good hour earlier. O middle age!

Geography of the Imagination

Somewhere there must be a list of books which you are meant to read but the individual volumes will be witheld for a tantalizing period until just the right moment arrives.

Thus, Guy Davenport's 'Geography of the Imagination'. I happened to be down in the library - looking for Hannah Arendt's 'The Human Condition' - when the assistant mentioned they'd received a book I'd asked for I can't remember how long ago. And - finally - there it was.

And it really is as good as I had been led to expect. The Olson essay alone would make it a treasure.

If you're reading, Nelly, you were right all along.