Start the week #54

Lots of links today!

Greetings!

Sorry this is a bit later than usual, but I’ve been for a walk, read a load of Substacks, taken two out of three cats for a walk (don’t ask), practised the saxophone and had a cup of coffee. And when finally I was able to work on it, Willow kept wanting to sit on me.

Minty, Mocha and Willow

I think you might wish to open this letter online, as it will probably be too long for email.

But enough of this persiflage! On with the newsletter.

Terry

Site Updates

The archived posts on Eclecticism are freely available for a year now. I forgot to mention that last week. You might want to delve into the archives: I posted great stuff there originally, and some would say it’s all been downhill since then!

Another thing I forgot to say was that I’ve changed the order of the wording in the covering email that goes out with free posts. It used to ask people to upgrade before they’d even read the article, which seemed premature and therefore obnoxious to me. The suggestion to upgrade now comes at the end, that is after the article. That seems more logical to me. I find myself irritated by YouTube videos that tell people to subscribe before the video has even started, and I think the covering email that some people send on Substack is the same sort of thing.

Jonas kauffman

Here’s a wonderful version of Nessun Dorma: Jonas Kauffman in rehearsal. It makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

My music diary

From beautiful music to the execrable variety, I’m learning the alto sax in a course at the City Lit Adult Ed Institute¹. I describe my experience as musical whack-a-mole. As I said to the tutor, last week I was having trouble getting lower C. I left it for a few days and then my lower C was alright. However, I lost my way on the way down in the A Major scale. The tutor’s answer was that the fact that I’m even discussing lower C means that I’m making progress, which I think is a confidence-building way of looking at it. Today I managed to remember my alphabet backwards, but every time I played A with the octave key on, it sounded like I was strangling a mouse. I feel I should point out that I have not strangled any mice, so this description of the sound I made is pure conjecture. The tutor suggested I keep a diary, noting the things I have difficulty with, so I disinterred one of the many A5 notebooks I acquired over years of attending conferences, and converted it to a music diary:

The bits in red are the problem bits. This is one of the entries from yesterday.

I don’t keep a diary as a rule, but I like the idea of a music diary.

Cat walk

My two girlfriends insisted that we went for a walk this morning, so I was obliged to oblige. Here’s the evidence:

The one in the blue collar is Mocha, while the other miscreant gorgeous creature is Minty. I wrote about the benefits of having cats here.

My maxims

(First published in Notes)

Having been writing for a while, I find myself more and more adopting the following maxims, given that like lots of people I find the idea of pressing ‘publish’ a bit nerve-wracking and I am a bit of a perfectionist. But such things can lead to paralysis: not publishing anything in case (a) people hate it (they mostly won’t in most cases) or (b) it’s not perfect. Here goes, numbered for ease of reference, not to denote order of importance:

1. I say to myself, like the Duke of Wellington (albeit in a different context): Publish and be damned.

2. I adopt an approach orginally applied to parenting by the psychanalyst Donald Winnicott. He came up with the concept of good enough mothering, ie not perfectly good (or bad), in contrast to the ideal of the perfect parent. So, by analogy, for me there comes a point where I either abandon (perhaps temporarily) something I’m working on, or say to myself: that’s good enough. And then go to #1

3. Once it’s published, if someone is ultra critical but not in a particularly constructive way, I invoke the wise words of the blues singer Bessie Smith: If you don’t like my potatoes, why did you dig so deep?

Low expectations: art class

For some reason I feel that I’d like to relate a story about low expectations. A school I joined as Head of Computing had put a class of pupils into a computer graphics course rather than the GCSE² course. This was the sort of course that anyone could pass with a bit of common sense and knowledge of how to use a mouse.

I asked the pupils why they were doing this course. “Because we’re thick”, they answered.

I happen to believe that most pupils in most circumstances raise themselves or lower themselves to the level of a teacher’s expectations.

I told them that I was putting all of them on the GCSE course, but that we’d keep them on the Computer Graphics course as a fallback, if they would like that.

The result was that all of them achieved the GCSE, and around 80% attained a C or above. All of them passed the Computer Graphics course.

James brown 

Which reminds me, somehow, of the James Brown song: I don’t want nobody to give me nothing:

Platform pic

My answer to Edward Hopper, whose paintings (sse Nighthawks) are far too vibrant and welcoming than is strictly necessary:

Essex Station, London, by Terry Freedman

In case that was too colourful for you, here’s another one:

Essex Station, London, by Terry Freedman

Triggered Literature

Just received: Triggered Literature, by John Sutherland. I haven’t read much yet because it came only yesterday, but have discovered already that someone regards Hamlet as a sort of school spree killer (mind you, the body count does mount up towards the end), and Macbeth as an example of toxic masculinity. Well, in fairness, he and his wife (an example of toxic femininity?) didn’t seem to believe in the concept of live and let live. In case you don’t know the play, this cartoon tells you the basic story:

Click here to see this book on Amazon (affiliate link)

So far, it’s been an enjoyable and informative read. I’ve been asked to review it for Teach Secondary magazine, and I’ll post the review here once it has appeared there.

Realms of Imagination

This is another book I received recently, and I’m very much enjoying it. If I sound surprised, that’s because I am, because I didn’t think I liked fantasy. It has been published to support the Fantasy exhibition at the British Library. I’ll be reporting on that soon, in these very pages.

See this on Amazon by clicking here (affiliate link)

In the meantime, here is one of Giovanni Piranesi’s Carceri etchings featured in the exhibition. These date from 1750/61. It reminds me of both Escher’s drawings and, in a way, Borges’ Library of Babel.

One of Giovanni Piranesi’s Carceri etchings, in the British Library Photographed by Terry Freedman

Husband shopping

Elaine and I had decided to go into different shops in the shopping centre recently, but she finished in “hers” first. While in “my” shop I overheard this conversation:

Salesman: Can I help you, madam?

Elaine: I’m looking for my husband.

Salesman: I’m afraid we don’t sell husbands, madam, but come back next week because we’re expanding our range.

Experiments in Style

I’ve now published 61 of these experiments, in which I take a very simple story and rewrite it in different ways. My most recent version is epistrophe, and in my next paid post I’ll be looking at what that is and give a couple of examples. One is very well known, the other not so much but extremely powerful. Other versions include Hardboiled, Courtroom Drama, Unassertive and many more. You can see the full list here: Index.

Correspondence with Rebecca

Rebecca Holden

and I write letters to each other on alternate Wednesdays. We discuss tea, the weather, books, and various other topics. My last letter to her was published last Wednesday, and this coming Wednesday she will publish her reply on her own newsletter.

Recommendations

I mentioned earlier that I’d been doing a lot of Substack reading. Here are some of the ones I’ve enjoyed, and I hope you will too.

Anu Prabhala

discusses perspective in Perspective — Prisoner or Empowered. She very deftly weaves in lessons from the Bhagavad Geeta.

Perspective—Prisoner or Empowered?

Lisa Marks

has written about motivation, and finding your own voice. An important message and reminder I think:

Your Monday mote

Stephanie Sweeney

asks how do you know when a piece of writing is done. (Never, if my experience is anything to go by.)

But when is it done?

Holly Starley

runs a monthy writers’ meeting on Zoom, in which people, er, write. I haven’t been to one, but it seems like a nice idea. Here’s a link to the last one, and I suggest subscribing so as not to miss the next one.

You Say Tomato, I Say Apple

Paul Macko has provided a link to a blog directory. It reminds me of the old Yahoo (and other) search engines from years and years ago. Over 2000 blogs are listed here, on a variety of subjects.

One Thing: 01/19/24

Creative writing course

As I mentioned earlier, I’m running a course in June. It’s called Creative Writing with Constraints, and it should be very useful to writers of all kinds, and a lot of fun. Feedback from the last time I ran this course included the following comments:

• I loved this taster course, and it was enjoyable, inspiring and entertaining! A great course to remove any writing anxieties and just have fun with words, and interesting twists of probability!

• Terry Freedman is a masterpiece. He delivered one of the best courthouses I have been a stuffing on. An engaging roof through workaday with a bit of matricide thrown in. More stump from the wobbler please!

• Terry was fantastic! So glad I took the course and look forward to others with him.

• I joined this course out of sheer curiosity - intrigued about the mystery and eccentricity of Oulipo after I searched for the term online. This course was a delight, and it was so much fun creating ideas and pieces of writing using lots of different techniques, games and twists of probability! I found it a bit like collage or assemblage with words. It would be a wonderful course for a writer of any level, to explore how play and experimentation can help you to have words running off the page with minimal anxiety – even if you are nervous about blank pages and where to begin!

• Our tutor was wonderful, and very knowledgeable, with a clear passion for the technique. I feel everyone had a chance to engage, share work and ask ample questions!

Here are the details: Creative Writing with Constraints.

That’s all for now. Please do comment, share or subscribe. Thanks!

1. This is the very same august educational establishment where I’m teaching a course in creative writing in June. More information later in this newsletter, if I remember.

2. GCSE = General Certificate of Education. A collection of several GCSEs at Grade C or above is regarded as essential for going on to ‘A’ n(Advanced) level and thence to university, or for getting a job if leaving school.