SECOND MELODY
When will you pay me sing the bells of old Bailey *
*A song we children all sang under the age of five playing in the playground
As to Koestler. I was impressed by his perceptions of totalitarianism. He wrote most decoratively(!):
‘News travelled fast and far in the 16th century. The pulse of all humanity was quickening as if our planet, after travelling on its journey through space, some somnolent and bemused zone of the Universe, were now emerging into a region bathed in vivifying rays or filled with cosmic Benzedrine in the Interstellar dust. It seemed to act simultaneously on all levels of the nervous system of mankind, on the higher as well as the lower centers, as a stimulant and aphrodisiac, manifesting itself as a thirst of the spirit, an itch of the brain, a hunger of the senses, a toxic release of passions. The human glands seemed to produce a new hormone which caused the sudden surge of a novel greed: curiosity - the innocent, lecherous, creative, destructive, cannibalistic, curiosity of the child.'
Reading starts as practice. It only then, with more dedication, becomes practice with filtering. To whom and for whom does the breath of all this filter? I asked. Koestler cautioned as he considered:' Even three and four centuries later, the teachings of Marx and Darwin, the discoveries of Einstein and Freud, did not reach the vast majority of people in their original printed text, but through second - and third- hand sources, through hearsay and echo. The revolutions of thought which shape the basic outlook of an age are not disseminated through textbooks - they spread like epidemics, through contamination by invisible agents and innocent germ carriers, by the most varied form of contact, or simply by breathing the common air’ (The Sleepwalkers p 150 - 151. 1959)
Display at a car wreckers' yard. Christchurch. Photograph by Stephanie Beth. 2017
In the days we named our motorcars. This one was Wilbert. Derek Boon, Marja's young brother. inspects during my visit to Marja Boon and her family at Mahia Peninsula.
Cousin Cole Tiffen to my dad and aunties (1911 - 1978) with his band. Napier. Hawkes Bay.
c 1923. Image supplied by Ken Tiffen.
I attended Teachers College in Ardmore in the 1960s. Reading content was tunnelling through some standard texts such as Compte, Mill, Berman and Durkheim. Later, in the 1990s I nuzzled nearer to cultural Anthropology and the humanities, for instance after reading Mead, it was Boaz and Geertz.
At the end of the first year at Ardmore, Marja invited me to her family cottage at Mahia Peninsula with her family. My English teacher, Miriam Heath, from high school had a summer cottage there too.
I saw the first Albatross I had ever seen up there. I .........
Magazine cover. Konkret. An article by Layla Dawson 1990*
go to correctives.co.nz/Notes for more essay titles of hers.
* Layla is a family descendant of Mary and Charles Tuke.
By the 21st Century, life for billions was All about humanity affected by the economic collapse of 2008, the risen crisis of climate and the calibrated speed of dominance in technology. All of this was going on. What I needing to cushion within me was a story of the psychological importance of humans writing post-World War as these writing came so concentratedly and seriously from out of penetrating experiences and events.
Sure, and living through a major natural disaster has been quite a thing.
THE CHRISTCHURCH EARTHQUAKE
YES. TERRIFYING.
Note. As mentioned, Dawson essay Reference links may also be picked up here.
The Redzone. Our street. Christchurch. 2014
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Earthquakes (with 310 aftershocks) meant cracked concrete, some even found years later under the carpet, for example, here, David's office in 2017. One day it flooded from the ground. New carpet required.