Greetings!
Thanks to everyone who subscribed this week. I’m now up to a healthy three-figure number (it was a seven-figure number but I must have upset some people — just joshin’!).
But enough of this persiflage! On with this week’s newsletter.
Puzzle
The first thing I’d like to draw your attention to is a poem I wrote, here:
Several people commented that it was a very pretty poem, which of course it is. Wordsworth, eat your heart out. But there is a hidden theme word in it. See if you can work out what it is. There are four indications of it. I’ll put the answer at the bottom of this newsletter, but do try to solve it first if you can.
Oulipo
That poem-puzzle used an Oulipo technique as part of the mystery. Oulipo is an acronym for a French movement known as the workshop of potential literature. I think that that “potential” part of the description is very important, because it gives you (the writer) permission to experiment without feeling the need to create full-blown pieces of work (although some writers have done).
You can read more about the Oulipo, and some of my articles around the subject or using the techniques, by clicking on this link:
Scrolling down from there you will discover such delights as experiments in style, Oulipo writing prompts and reviews of Oulipo books.
If you are intrigued, then Fortune is smiling upon you because I am running a course on Oulipo. It lasts for five hours, divided into two sessions, and it’s online. Here’s the link:
Someone left a very nice review (I’m pretty sure there would have been more reviews but the City Lit had a major technology issue, resulting in all their systems being down for several months). The reviewer expressed the wish for a longer course — the original one was just two and a half hours long — and their wish has been granted. Here’s the review:
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!
I actually think the course would be great for creatives of all disciplines because it inspires concepts, titles and much more.
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!
A lot of peer inspiration was shared too, and I loved learning from other students. I’d had quite a stressful week before this course, but within no time I was feeling inspired and having a lot of fun! I had a great, entertaining morning, and in fact I was so motivated I used the technique to create some of my own work after the course itself. I would simply ask for more Oulipo as a longer course - virtual please! Thank you.
So I hope some of my readers will sign up for that. It runs from 10:30 to 13:00 UK time. To find out what time that will be where you live, consult the world clock.
A bit of a misunderstanding
Here’s a classic piece of English television. I hope you enjoy watching it.
Poll results
Last week I asked readers to tell me what subject they’d like me to write about. The results are in <fanfare>:
Look out for an article about my brush with cancel culture soon.
Rewriting the classics: should we do it?
Perhaps at this juncture it would be apposite to ask the question: should we rewrite the classics? My view is: Yes, kind of, but not in the way you might think. I’m not so arrogant as to think I have the right to tamper with other people’s writing, nor illiterate enough to believe that “fat” is a synonym for “enormously fat”, or so entitled as to think I know what people in the future will judge to be the right side of history (whatever that means) or so woke as to think children’s literature should be changed to avoid upsetting people who seem to be determined to find something to be upset about. No, what I’m referring to is not rewriting so much as reinterpreting, and I’m thinking in particular of some wonderful productions of Shakespeare’s plays I’ve seen.
I think putting the plays in a modern setting, for example, can make bring them to life for new audiences, and gives the director scope for a lot of playfulness.
For example, a production of Richard III in which his “heavy mob” all wore suits and dark glasses; the Hamlet production with David Tennant, in which CCTV is featured, or the production of Julius Caesar I saw in which the opening of Act 2 features somebody shredding some documents. That sort of thing is not merely playful: it is a great framing device that enables people to consider the text and the action in a different lighht.
As for rewriting the classics, I’ve collated a few articles on that subject, or related to it, starting with this marvellous article from Amanda Clark. It’s a lot of fun, so don’t let the title put you off reading it!
Upgrade to paid
If you upgrade to paid you’ll be able to access a new series I’ve started. Every Tuesday for the foreseeable future I shall be posting a five minute tip to explain how to do something or inform you of something you might not know about. Last week the article was about how to repair some dreadful goings-on in Word; coming up are articles about getting more from your printer, and some useful editing tools. As you will have discerned, for the time being these articles will be of particular relevance to writers. Which means you, if you have a newsletter on Substack (or anywhere else).
I realise that committing to a monthly or yearly subscription might be a step too far for some people. I myself am paying for only one publication at the moment because if I upgraded to all the ones I like I’d go bankrupt in a week. However, I think the premium posts come with a seven day free trial.
Also, I was a reluctant to do this but I’ve set up a page whereby you can make a small donation to my tea and books fund if you wish. I didn’t do this for a long time because it felt a bit like begging, but then it occurred to me that Substack doesn’t offer the possibility of showing one’s appreciation for a writer’s work on a very small basis, if that makes sense. Here’s a button for that:
Finally — and this isn’t some cheap and tired marketing ploy — I will be raising the price of a subscription soon. At the moment it’s $5 a month or $45 for the year. The price increase won’t affect people who have already upgraded — at least that’s what the Substack help pages say. The reason for the increase is that it takes time and effort to write this stuff, and that takes me away from the paid work I could be doing instead.
Color-coded wife
The weather in England (London, specifically) has varied from quite hot to freezing. I’m very fortunate because if I wish to know what the temperature is like outside I only have to ask Elaine to poke her head out of the window to see what colour she is when she comes back:
Neighbours
It’s nice being friendly with neighbours — up to a point. On returning from a walk yesterday, this is what happened just as we were about to enter our humble abode. N= neighbour.
N1 comes down the road, so we chat.
N1 leaves, but just then N2 comes along, so we chat.
Then N1 returns, so N1, N2 and we all chat.
Then N1 and N2 leave, and N3 arrives home next door, so we chat.
Then our cats decided it was time we took them for a walk.
All in all it must have taken a good half hour before we could get in and put the kettle on.
I think the idea of being a recluse has a lot going for it.
International women’s day
I don’t wish to be controversial, but what on earth is the point of International Women’s Day? I can see that it would be a good idea to have a day to stand up for girls and women who really don’t have a voice, but from what I could see (judging by the emails I was receiving) it seemed to be just another opportunity for cynical virtue-signalling.
For example, I received an update from a supermarket telling me which products were made by companies led by women. Why would I care about the sex, race, age or any other characteristic of the CEO? Call me ill-informed, but this sort of thing strikes me as phenomenally patronising.
Thoughts?
More reading
Here are a few referral links to newsletter directories. If you click through and sign up to these services, you’ll be sent links to other newsletters you might be interested in. And the people who run these services will promote this one too. So it’s a potential win-win-win situation.
I find this one especially useful for discovering newsletters and articles concerning leadership matters, which I’m quite interested in.
I very much like the variety served up. I receive one suggestion a day, and have subscribed to a few of them.
This has links to long reads. I haven’t really explored it yet, but it seems quite interesting. If you sign up using that link apparently I’ll get $4 credit towards an advertisement. I’ve no idea how much an advert costs though.
Puzzle solution
Finally…
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Thanks for reading, I appreciate it.
I often wonder: are all books just re-imaginings of older books? I mean, it seems like there’s a limited number of plots but a limitless number of ways to adapt them.
As for international women’s day (or Black history month in the US) I wonder how much of a difference does it make? Or are we just virtue signaling? I’d rather we got together and wrote some laws that would help to make these holidays irrelevant.
Love the poem puzzle and its upside-down solution!