Greetings!
In this newsletter:
Inside Freedman Towers.
The course is over, long live the course.
An implication I resented.
How I’ve organised my books.
Experiment #100.
But enough of this persiflage! On with the newsletter.
Terry
Inside Freedman Towers
Later this week we’re meeting a couple of people from America, a fellow Substacker and his lady wife. We’re going to show them a bit of London.
Me: I think we should make sure we take them to a site of historical interest.
Elaine: Oh yeah?
Me: Yes. I thought we could show them the classroom I taught in last week. We can stand outside it in silent awe and reveration for a few poignant moments.
Elaine: 🙄
The course is over, long live the course
My course, Creative Writing Using Constraints, seemed to go quite well, and I was delighted to discover this morning that a few people have posted some of their work from the course in the Google Classroom, as I encouraged them to do. I’ve commented on the pieces already, and I’m hoping a few more people will share what they did as well.
My next course, on 12th July, is Writing for Blogs. Everything is prepared, but every time I teach it I have to go through every one of the resources I’ve listed (around 100 usually) to check whether they still exist. It is quite frustrating really. Sometimes a brilliant website or app just disappears. Sometimes the app is “upgraded”, rendering it unusable in the process. And sometimes — quite often in fact — a resource that was free is suddenly priced beyond anything which could be considered reasonable.
There is another version of the course running online, in November. So even if you don’t live in the UK you could still take part. Here’s a flyer about it:
An implication I resented
What I find even more annoying than lazy accusations (which I must write about one of these days) is an implied accusation. You can’t say anything because the person can just deny they meant what it sounded like, and in any case it would come across as too defensive.
Some years ago I arrived at a residential meditation course and J was there. She and I had met on previous courses, and got on quite well. We always had a laugh. This time she was with a friend.
Me: Well, J, have you done one of the advanced courses yet?
J: No.
Me: Oh, you really should.
J’s friend: J doesn’t have to do anything. She’s her own woman.
I told Elaine when I arrived home after the course.
Elaine: If she’s her own woman, why does she need her friend to speak up for her?
I thought that was a good answer. I can never think of a witty reposte until around five hours after the event, but on this occasion I didn’t need to because J immediately answered her friend with:
J: It’s alright. Terry’s OK.
The implied accusation of sexism was quite annoying, so J’s respionse was very welcome. It’s always hazardous accusing people of stuff on the basis of no knowledge of them and zero evidence. And taking things well out of context. After all, it’s perfectly normal to say to someone “Oh, you really must read this book/see that film/go on that course.” If someone thinks that’s a sexist comment, that’s more of a reflection on how they see the world rather than objective reality. I have to say, I can’t see how that sort of thing does the cause of feminism any good at all.
Back to the meditation residential, there was a bit of history there. On the previous residential that both J and I had been on, we had this conversation:
Me: Well, J, have you done the advanced courses yet?
J: No.
Me: Look, let me ask you something. How did you get here today?
J started to giggle.
J: I drove here.
Me: Well there you are, you see! I instantly materialised. So much more convenient.
Both: 🤣🤣
How I’ve organised my books
As I could never find the book I waned, I’ve been spending time organising my bookshelves. I still can’t find anything straight away, but at least now I know where to look:
Experiment #100
I’ve just published my one hundredth ‘experiment in style’. Woohoo! In celebration of this knighthood-worthy feat I’ve depaywalled ther lot of them, so you can read to your heart’s content. Here’s the link:
Obviously, if you wish to take out a paid subscription I won’t say “No”. I’ve been working on a list of articles for paid subscribers, in addition to the ones like the Experiments in Style Extra posts.
Anyway, I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this newsletter.
J's friend was just being an ass. I am sorry you even remember the incident. I loved the drawing of the bookshelves and the mystified cats. I have given most of my books away now, but I do have a small new section: books written by my Substack tribe.
Ah! the bookshelves...!