Friends fear he's writing about Philip Larkin again (and might be writing about him a whole lot more still). jwikeley.substack.com/p/what-are-day
I think "light industry" van Gogh might be my favourite van Gogh
Ishiguro: "The Remains of the Day was supposed to be a comedy. It was a kind of riff on PG Wodehouse, The butler was supposed to be funny. I probably find him funnier than most people do. The idea of a guy who doesn’t have any sense of humour is quite funny." (unused quote from an interview I did)
Beginning to think the title 'Bleak House' may refer to more than the house known as Bleak House
Just how hopeful is 'The Darkling Thrush'? A belated Happy New Year from me and Thomas Hardy (with help from Donald Davie, Carol Rumens and John Berryman). open.substack.com/pub/thesubur...
Thomas Hardy's Happy New Year
Wondering if it's possible to pinpoint a point at which critics start talking about 'the poem' (as a kind of object) as opposed to 'poetry' (a kind of process or direction). And if it's possible to go back in time and stop that from happening.
"Dickens has captured the psychological pressure, which is one step away from terror, of being a cog inside a machine." engelsbergideas.com/notebook/dic...
In ‘The Signal-Man’, one of Charles Dickens’ final stories, the author is haunted by the world of the machine and the inability of humans to stop its destructiveness.