Dylan Thomas
The Collected Stories
In the autumn me and a few mates went on a weekend cycling jaunt from The Gower to Pembroke, cycled past Dylan Thomas' house at Fernhill and visited his Laugharne boat house (http://jdwhols.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/last-of-summer-wine.html). Given it's the centenary of his birth I decided that there was a calling to read him as not ventured into his books before. After unsuccessfully trying to get a cheap second hand introduction to his prose I discover that my dad has an anthology which I borrow.
It may be my current state of mind (this first bit written in December 2014) but the start of this book does seem very very dark what with wandering around doom laden welsh hills, unjoyful sex and death. Fascinating though and very readable. The style reminds me of James Joyce crossed with William Burroughs - a slightly surrealist edge with vivid descriptions of characters covered by a foreboding storyline where you fear the worst. At least I do.
The middle part is written in the late 30s (later in the decade than the first part) and is about memories growing up in Swansea taken from Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog. Next is three chapters from Adventures in the Skin Trade written in the war about moving to London and bizarre carryings on. These haven't got such a dark psychedelic edge to them as the first part and to be honest are a bit of light relief although hardly a comedy. Some are very funny and all have a brilliant insight into people's behaviours, thoughts and feelings. There are a lot of times that I recognise Thomas' insights in modern character depictions often in telly comedy for instance the way that teenagers talk nineteen to the dozen repeating the same few words and depictions of drunkenness. And to be honest I recognize a bit of myself in some of the anecdotes. I won't tell which ones.
We finish with some short stories, more like essays, from post war then for the nuts and port course a few very early stories the last in draft. Overall it's given me a taste for Thomas and I'll have to search out his poetry. I usually struggle with poetry but maybe it's time for me to dip my toe, if not dive, into that artistry much like we did in the cold autumnal waters of Amroth in Pembrokeshire back when I was a young man.
Herbert Marcuse
Eros and Civilisation
I saw this book referenced in another which I read earlier in the year thought it looked interesting and put it on my Amazon wish list. Having received for christmas and having flicked through it I realised that it's a bit more heavy duty than a quick skip through sex and society and is an analysis of Freudian thought as related to society and theory of freedom or liberty within society. Knowing nothing about Freud except that all men are obsessed with their mothers, apparently, and probably I'm incorrect in that perception, I start reading in trepidation with google to hand to understand new concepts that Herbert probably assumes his reader knows all about. To be honest my googling is minimal which is due to the clear way in which the concepts are introduced and explained rather than any previous knowledge on my part. I won't try and summarise the entire book but I'm immersed in Freudian concepts that I've only read about in name such as id, ego, superego and the pleasure and reality principles.
We start with how our instincts for pleasure have, necessarily, been repressed in order to keep us as individuals alive and therefore allowing society to flourish and we go on to how this internalised repression has developed into institutional societal repression to the extent that it's gone beyond it's original purpose, to allow us to survive as individuals and a species whilst still gaining pleasure, and moved into the realms of despotic control where a few gain maximum pleasure, as far as they can, whilst the rest of us suffer.
Much is made of the alienation of work and the theory seems to be that all productive work must be alienating to an extent as it's time spent not satisfying our basic instincts. I'm not sure I agree with that entirely but maybe that's because I've been conditioned to think that work is good as it helps society. Which is exactly the sort of repression of the id or basic instincts that Freud is talking about. He has a pessimistic view of civilisation as we needed repression of our instincts and also of ourselves as humans to progress and if we try to gain freedom the whole of society will unravel back to an anarchic state where everyone does just what they want to the detriment of both their long term survival and the detriment of others. Marcuse seems to be proposing a different future where as the amount of time we need to work to survive is reduced then we may become more collective as a society and sharing (to each as is their need) and gain individual freedom and happiness that way. This seems to be pointing to a communist / Marxist / socialist / collectivist anarchism future. There is still the issue of time and the fact that we can't attain true happiness as we know that time is limited and our happiness is fleeting. In fact remembering happy times is best because our memories don't put a timescale or end point in that happy memory. Death obviously comes into this regarding time and as we are likely to find happiness in being at one with our id, rather than struggling for survival, then finding gratification through peace, or nirvana, maybe the ultimate happiness. And death is the ultimate peacefulness.
The epilogue talks about psychotherapy and the fact that it's cures are so that one can operate within society which is necessarily repressive. Therefore it is to ensure that your personality, id, can operate within a sick society. Thereby teaching you to enforce repression on your free spirit or basic instincts. Therapy is therefore "a course in resignation" forcing your instinct, id, to be repressed enough to conform to the norm to enable it to survive society and implied that it gives up hope of full happiness. From this personal viewpoint as society becomes less repressive and libertarian then there will be less repression of your instincts and therefore we will become more content, perhaps even happy, within our freer society.
I've done what I said I wouldn't and summarised the book. Probably incorrectly but that's what I took out of it. It's very readable and at times I felt addicted as to a great novel. The references to greek heros, philosophers and woodland nymphs adds context and is entertainingly diverting. Enjoyable and very much food for thought, whether you agree with Freud or not. I'm still not sure that everything I do is a result of the first few years of life but the underlying theories ring true. In conclusion either depressing (society needs repression and it will only increase) or uplifting (society will tend towards being freer and collective) depending on what bits of Freuds' theories you take and how you apply them. I'm for the latter. The alternative is too depressing and represses my basic instinct to gain happiness and gratification.
Maurice Richardson
The Exploits of Engelbrecht
Another long standing book on my Amazon wish list that was bought for christmas. I saw it recommended by Michael Moorcock who I used to read a lot and could now get a lucrative job writing fantasy screenplays I'm sure. If he hasn't already. Exploits is a collection of short stories about a surrealist dwarf boxer (authors description) who gets involved in all sorts of competitions such as witch shoots, fights with grandfather clocks, man hunting etc. etc. All take over a very long time and distance and are, well, pretty weird which I guess what a surrealist sportsman would engage in. Although entertaining and very readable the stories are short and could be lengthened with more description as to the how and why with a bit of character development, most of whom come and go superficially. Having said that these were written for a regular magazine publication rather than as a book and by the end of the book you get a pretty good picture as to some of the characters. Most of the sports have heavy betting often with fixing involved and mainly to gain time rather than money. Yes, clocks feature heavily. The afterword by Moorcock says that this book is a treasure. And when was Michael ever a fantasist?
