A milkmaid, a corn-binder and a lover Each girl sat down on her three-legged stool, her face sideways, her right cheek resting against the cow, and looked musingly along the animal’s flank at Tess as she approached. The male milkers, with hat-brims turned down, resting … Continue readingHARDY AND THE RECLAIMED LAND OF EARTHLY PROMISES
The comical death of Buffo the Great Buffo is the Clown of Clowns. The Head of Clowns. The Master of Clowns. He wears a bladder on his head. Think of that, says Carter. He wears his insides on his outside, and a portion of his … Continue readingClowns, Tornadoes and Angela Carter’s Nights at the Circus
The engineer and the bot A Google engineer claims that a bot has become sentient. It is unclear whether the bot is growing and moving towards personhood, wants to put out some tentacles and taste some flowers, or just likes to chat with Google engineers, … Continue readingSENTIENT BOTS AND THE MYSTIQUE OF PERSONHOOD
Crawling across the street at night Some years ago, when I was walking down a street at night with performer Kristian Al Droubi, I asked him if he would crawl naked across the street at a pedestrian crossing. The street itself was empty. It might … Continue readingPERFORMANCE AT PLAY, PUBLIC SPACES AND THE VIEW FROM A HAYSTACK
The age of reading When I was a child, children’s books and adult books were not as neatly segregated as they are now. Or maybe it’s children who were not so neatly segregated. Children’s books were the ones bought for us or the ones we … Continue readingA GREEN WITCH, A TOWER AND A THUNDERBOLT
The wounded one Doris Lessing’s benighted world of Shikasta, initially intended to carry the much more harmonious name of Rohanda, will be instantly recognisable to Earthlings as a twice-renamed version of their own home. This novel was written at a time of conflict, within revolutionary … Continue readingHOW TO MAKE FRIENDS WITH ALIENS
The old man and the fish When I was a child, I travelled home from school on noisy, crowded buses, filled with raging passengers, impatient conductors and led by oblivious drivers. As you can imagine, these are spaces where fellow-feeling is rare. The other human … Continue readingTHE FISH, THE FOOD CART, THE OFFAL AND THE GUT’S MEMORIES
An unloved raincloud Ged, apprentice wizard, walked with Ogion, his mentor, through the mountains, as they meandered their way to Ogion’s home. It was a long and silent walk, with a mage who wasn’t too fond of speech and a teenage apprentice who did his … Continue readingA Walk in the Forest at Night and the Silence of Wizards
It starts with an old woman It starts with an old woman, in a village, in a remote part of the world, where life was a lot harder than we remember. Her pregnant daughter lives higher up in the mountains, closer to the edge of … Continue readingWhen Peter Met the Wolf
The boy, the father, the lover and his sister A former crusader named Frederick arrives at the Abbey of the Treasure of the Gods, with Marin, his young son. The two are accepted into monkhood. It is very soon noticed that Marin leaps into his … Continue readingImpossible Saints, Isolated Rebellion and the Smell of Old Roses