Us and Them

says my friend, while we discuss reasons. Like why is one war more important than another. Or more recognisable; empathically or even morally entwined with our understanding. Ah, it is all a reflection of Us. So Ukranian families bombed from above and forced to sit in unheated basements without food or water have our fullest support, being most like. Whereas War itself doesn’t carry the same meaning throughout the globe.

Who says so? The media, and their financial /political limits.

I read thread after social media thread about Ukraine and Russia. So many of them are interjected by those embroiled in other wars, asking us not to forget them. Asking Us to be other than Them. We are more than that, surely. I would hope We are more than an easy division. Not everyone looks the same. And if I were to delve deeper into a Ukranian psyche, there is not so much that is similar. So spare your kindnesses for all those trapped by war, as we don’t know the half of it, and the half we profess to know is heavily and wilfully manipulated.

Open letter to Stephen King

Dear Stephen King,

As a long time fan of your work, I decided to read your self – confessed magnum opus , The Dark Tower series. I wasnt expecting it to be so entirely different, but anyway admired the poetic prose of book 1, The Gunslinger. However a sense of unfolding story using character development was withheld, perhaps in order to highlight the mythic nature of the tale. The effect of the stylised prose kept Roland, the hero, wrapped up; he never becomes more than cypher throughout. Again, I went along with it, trusting the author (always problematic) and hoping for more as the seriez developed.

In book 2, The Drawing of the Three, I was drawn in as I’d hoped, as worlds opened up and challenges became personal regarding character action and reaction. Until I got to Odetta/ Detta. And all I could think was, what the hell were you thinking? Did you do any research in the manifestation of schizophrenic affect or lack of? Did you read anything relevant at the time of writing? My copy tells me the book was published in 1987. By then, I believe, it was accepted that schizophrenia was a misnomer, which absolutely did not translate as split personality, but rather a disintegration of self, where real and imagined are undifferentiated. What you describe happens to Odetta goes back to The Three Faces of Eve (1957) and ideas around Multiple Personality Disorder.

By the 1980s when your book was published, it was already mooted that schizophrenia was an umbrella term for several different psychiatric illnesses. So my question is, WHY? What made you think it was okay to be quite so lazy regarding the condition of one of your main characters ? Why didnt you rewrite the novel with access to recent research about schizophrenia? I’m both bemused and disappointed by your cavalier portrayal of a serious mental illness that continues to beg understanding. I worked in mental health for several years in the 90s, with MIND charity, and the people I knew diagnosed with schizophrenia did not exhibit any of the behaviours you ascribe to your so called schizophrenic character. I so much want to hear what you have to say about this. I love your later work; Dumas Key, Hearts in Atlantis, The Institute, The Outsider… so what the hell Stephen King? How did a book from the series you revere and ‘had to write’ get it so wrong?

Yours, going through a feet-of-clay experience, Sandra Burgess /Tappenden

P.S. Having two names doesn’t make me schizophrenic. One is poetry-world related, one is through marriage. Just so you know .

O

roaring

I love Nadine Shah. It wasn’t love at first hearing, which was in my Newquay kitchen while decorating ( Ladies for Babies on 6 Music) . That was curiosity. Arresting. I played it several times attempting to understand what was going on.

Then Club Cougar, which was recognisable in a supposed knowing way. But when I heard Fool it was like falling in love in an active way, as opposed to previously assimilated tracks like Daughter’s Youth, and more especially the collaborative (Ex Re) Romance, which brings on a dreadful recognition, miserable passive alarm and old distress. And what is any woman supposed to do with that?

Shah’s Fool provokes an immediate response, Right, yes, right, that’s it. Whereas listening to Daughter is backward-accepting like repeating a memory without insight. However I’d say both bands are equally important as far as ‘message’ goes, but their effects are emotionly opposite, like overpowered v empowered.

I accept this is a tiny unrepresentative pool of female artists to draw any kind of conclusions from. It’s personal. What else. This is a blog. Bless you Nadine Shah anyway.

roaring