[NB: this article assumes that you have read the book] All writing, it might be said, works by synecdoche: the writer supplies the part and from it we infer the whole to fill the space the writer leaves. Alan Garner is a master of omission: what makes it onto the page is spare and lean … Continue reading ‘Let words be nice’ – reflections on Alan Garner’s ‘Treacle Walker’
Author: jfmward
Author, bicycle enthusiast
Coming back to Ludwig
Wittgenstein at the bar of the Folies Bergere By what James Joyce would call a vicus of recirculation, I find myself once more in agreement with Ludwig Wittgenstein after an unexpected falling-out. It was my reading of Wittgenstein’s well-known dictum that ‘the meaning of a word…is its use in the language’ along with his notion … Continue reading Coming back to Ludwig
The Shepherd Boy and the Philosopher: a fable about numbers
‘It's surreal to me that it's 2022 and there are still people out there who think 2 + 2 = 4 is an objective truth that was true before humans even existed and not just like a thing society agreed on because it's useful’ (culled from Twitter, where people say the most extraordinary things out … Continue reading The Shepherd Boy and the Philosopher: a fable about numbers
Trickster Johnson continues to expose the weakness of our ‘unwritten constitution’
If the United Kingdom survives Boris Johnson’s disastrous premiership it may yet be grateful to him. No one man has done more, and in so short a time, to expose the absurdities of our archaic political system and the weakness of its ‘unwritten constitution’ in which vagueness has too long been mistaken for flexibility. Johnson’s … Continue reading Trickster Johnson continues to expose the weakness of our ‘unwritten constitution’
“Remainers’ Brexit”? he’s right, you know!
In the realm of contemporary politics, I must confess to confusing David Davis and Lord Frost. It may be my mind’s refusal to accept that Nature could permit such a waste of space as to suffer two such grey and uninteresting men of such dismal incompetence to exist simutaneously, or my incredulity that there could … Continue reading “Remainers’ Brexit”? he’s right, you know!
President Brexit’s last stand – a new version of an old lie
Jake Mogg may not be the subtlest of all the beasts in the field, but like the serpent in the garden (to use Dante's description) egli e bugiardo e padre di menzogne – he is a liar and the father of lies. The Brexit crew have a passion for 'Research Groups', for which I believe … Continue reading President Brexit’s last stand – a new version of an old lie
To whom it may concern: the conduct of Cressida Dick with regard to the Sue Gray Report
From one perspective, I can see it is reasonable that 'In order to make a police complaint, you must be eligible to be a complainant. This is defined by the legislation as someone who has directly witnessed the incident or who is directly affected by it. Complaints can be raised by other people on their … Continue reading To whom it may concern: the conduct of Cressida Dick with regard to the Sue Gray Report
Α or Ω ? Reflections on ‘A Vignette’ – M R James’s last masterpiece
'Feeding the Cockerels' by Myles Birket Foster A Vignette is generally described as 'the last ghost story MR James ever wrote' – not unreasonably, since it was published posthumously in the year of his death, 1936, in the November edition of The London Mercury (at that time, a major monthly literary journal), James having died … Continue reading Α or Ω ? Reflections on ‘A Vignette’ – M R James’s last masterpiece
Lying with impunity
I have today had a letter from the office of that egregious ass, Jake Mogg, known principally for lying in the House of Commons, as shown above, though he has lied elsewhere, too [see Mogg the Mendacious, Mogg Mendax]. The letter (which is quite as underwhelming as you would expect) was in belated response to … Continue reading Lying with impunity
The Beat-Boxer and the Steam Machine: a paradigm of primitive speech
Let us suppose a beat-boxer, one of those gifted with the skill to reproduce a whole orchestra of percussive instruments using only his voice, and let us have him put in charge of a large and complicated steam-driven machine of the sort which has something fed in at one end, processes it, and puts the … Continue reading The Beat-Boxer and the Steam Machine: a paradigm of primitive speech
COMPLEAT TROWZER 