I like it when somebody gets excited about something. It's nice.

I watched the 2013 documentary Salinger this morning. 2am is never a good time to start with such a venture but it is the nature of being lost and nothing is more comfortable for the lost than the lost. My lady brought me Catcher in the Rye during a trip to London not long after we got together, and I’ve treasured it ever since for that reason. You wouldn’t believe how many miles that copy has travelled, I’ve taken it with me everywhere. I’ve enjoyed the story many times, but I was distracted most of my first reading wondering why everyone was originally so upset about this book? Caulfield seemed a little weak and angry but also just lonely. Like a 2am doco I suppose. I never really figured that out but if you haven’t seen it and liked any of Salinger’s work, I would recommend it. It’s a tough watch at times and to be honest, I finished it not liking him very much, but it was nice to see him sitting in the car smiling at the end. I don’t know if that smile was peace or amusement, but I must hope even the loneliest of us find some sort of peace eventually.

I think that if you maintain more questions than opinions in life, you’ll probably do OK so in that regard, why do so many creatives wander so far from humanity. I understand chasing the work and I completely understand chasing the craft. The work so often feeds the work to the point where you really don’t need much else to produce but once you're there, what is the point? Is the work a distraction during life? Is it a habit? Fuck me, that sounds like smoking, not creativity. Anyway, if you are tasked in any way to finding perfection in your work then I wholly recommend this film. So...Fuck you Mr Salinger, I hope you’re doing OK man, wherever you are…

Why do you go away?

“Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colours. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.” - Terry Pratchett

 

At the mountains.

Just finished a couple of versions of my Miskatonic University Seal. The dark version is in my opinion a little more of a modern take. This is produced by the Uni's secret society fraternity. The lighter version is a little more traditional although I think the font is still slightly mismatched. These are Part of a project I've been working on for a while. I'm afraid it still has a ways to go but feel free to enjoy these under creative commons licence.

Update- So after a little more playing around this is the new seal for my secret society project. I've swapped out the stripes and gone with a checker board for a masonic feel and ajusted a few other things. I'm happy enough with it for the moment but the finishes item will be a little different still. The motto will be changed and the Miskatonic University Arkham will also be replaced with the society name. I'll keep that under my hat for the moment but things are moving along.

The Servants, Michael Marshall Smith

 

I stopped reading Stephen King books a long time ago. Can I get a halaula. I don't mind a bit of horror and they are mostly good. Mostly (see what I did there?). I just always hated the fact within the last two pages the thing or guy or beast or clown would turn into a ghostly figure and drive his equally ghostly horses and carriage into the night sky. Then there was The Tommyknockers. Before I get abusive messages about putting Mr King next to Mr Smith, please bare with me.

I read The Servants a few months back. My first Michael Marshall Smith in a while. I've been reading the Strawmen books and a couple of other MM's but the MMS's are truly something else I'm sure you'll all agree. Like all his books under MMS it takes me months to recentre and find the right mental shelf to place the new found sentences. I love this about Smith and although The Spares tore me to my very thin soul I thank Mr Smith for the pleasure. The Servants is no exception although it is a slight departure. It's gentle, more like some of the short stories but it is still a very surprising book. Living in the UK currently made the story even more interesting as the images are so much more familiar and the subtleties of the new loosely plastered on top of the old are all there.

Young Mark is all of us. Mr Smith never lets us for get this but There is something else here too. His mothers peace, his stepdads fight and his fathers anger are even more us, even more real for the understatedness. Smith like every tell off I've ever had cuts me to the bone very quietly. This lil number happens while life goes on. The point is clear and I've grieved for the moments I've pissed away and I'm back now.

I'm sorry in a way now that I never persevered with The Tommyknockers. I'm also sure I don't need to now. Sorry Stephen. Thank you Michael. I should say I realise Kings idea was to morph but I believe the art in his his writing was the style even if I don't see it in the story. I can now appreciate the pace of The Tommyknockers. I never got it before Smith.

www.michaelmarshallsmith.com

The Spares

www.michaelmarshallsmith.com

Michael Marshall Smith is a British Novelist writing science fiction horror and modern fiction under the name Michael Marshall. I read his second book “The Spares” first published in 1996 after it was recommended to a friend of mine sometime around 1998. As well as having some of the most powerful imagery I'd read in a long time it was also sympathetic to many of the ideas I hold concerning the multi layering and over lapping of universes and the tendancy for human beings to play accross these realms. I have to date read all of Smiths novels and own an almost complete collection of his first editions. Smith is a cat lover who's eyes reach beyond and within the horizon.

Follow the link below for the short story “This Is Now” by Michael Marshall Smith

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/vampires/newstory/smith_p1.shtml

Talks with a Devil

P.D. Ouspensky (1878–1947)

Peter D. Ouspensky was a Russian occultist, esoteric teacher and author known primary for his work in regard to the Gurdjieff system also known as the “fourth way”. His second book “Tertium Organum”, published in 1912 and his fourth “A New Model of the Universe” in 1931 are considered his most important works with "Tertium Organum" still held in high regard in some circles. 

In 1916 his two part study of evolution, human nature and the relationship between humans the spritural world “Talks with a Devil” was published. The book was first released in Russian and then in English with a introduction and editing by J. G. Bennett. I stumbled upon “Talks with a Devil” around 2002 and it made a huge impression on me and continues to affect my work and ideas today.