Kindling

Doorplate at Snowshill Manor

Back off dead-tree books and on the Kindle for Peripheral Vision by Patricia Ferguson. This was one of the choices in A Good Read a few weeks back and I think I've already mentioned it as being in the queue/Stack/Floating-point Register before but now I've actually started it. It is strangely without dialogue which seems to match with its other worldliness quite well. It has many reasons to read on as well as being generally well-written with the promise of plenty of revelations to come. I remember that the reviewers on AGR did agree that it did not need the resolution that actually came along which may reflect the general post-structuralist desire to get away from neat and satisfying parcels of literature but does sometime make for an annoying lack of closure. Head says go with the flow of real life - heart says let them all live happily ever after but let's wait for the end of this one to decide.

PS. Later - Wouldn't you know it - The Graun has a piece on unresolved fiction this very day.

It looks like Christmas Day may well be marred in the deWeyden Household in that it seems that there will be no Schott's Almanac for 2012 and worse, no QI Annual either. I think I read something from Mr Schott himself about the lack of Almanac but there is nothing about the QI Annual and I am worried that they have gone for the Board Game instead which just seems a cop-out. Maybe they are just saving it up to go for concentrated sales.

What is coming out and what will not wait for Yule unwrapping is this - oh and also this, so a certain amount of pre-Christmas happiness will be had. I'll just have to hope that there is plenty of Lego to keep me occupied on the day itself.

Elvis Has Some New Dancing Shoes

Well the attic has been rifled for various decs and the tree is up. No tinsel this year and it still looks wonderful. Have I ever told you I hate tinsel? Well I don't hate the look of it - it's a bit like cobwebs - they look alright from a distance but the thought of touching them makes me shiver. If you want to get me to leave you alone - should I be mugging you say - then just wave some tinsel on a stick at me and I will be away to a corner gibbering waiting for the nice boys in blue to take me away to a place of safety.

As usual, Christmas has arrived suddenly, without warning. Last week it was boiling hot and now all the office boys are warning us of snow. Bring it on - I love snow as much as I hate tinsel. It wipes out all the darkness - levels us all even. So there we are - really important things going on in the world and I am talking about tinsel and snow. I did want to rant about something today but I have taken the deep breath and counted to 10 and now it's all gone away.

Scintillaphobes Unite

Accidere ex una scintilla incendia passim

The sky here at the moment is exactly like that at the start of The Snowman, which has already been watched in our house this season. Christmas doesn't really start until we have broken out The Muppet Christmas Carol. Light the Lamp not the rat!

I'm not sure that this story of a machine to map dreams is anything like it suggests. It would of course be nice to have a machine which would document dreams in a manner more efficient than the scribbled notebooks I have and it is a long time since I was consistent in my notes; I would say that I only record about 1 in 20 dreams. This is disappointing as I have many memories of interesting things. What I can do is list the various recurring themes.

- Regression of time back to when I was doing the exams for my degree.

This is always uncomfortable but actually makes me feel happier on waking when it turns out to be just a dream. Possibly links every worry with the stress of exams. Actually I don't think I worry about this when I am dreaming, just for the few seconds when I wake up and before I realise that it is just a dream. I do recall one specific dream set in some dome-like lecture science lab, all wood panelling and models of complicated molecules. Didn't have walls (see below) but I could still tell it was round and dome-like.

- Being in buildings without walls or ceilings I've not actually seen Dogville but I know that it is performed on a minimalist set with just door frames. I did get the impression that there was actually some special effect in my dreams suggesting the walls, which chimes with my dreams. I rarely get an impression of being enclosed in buildings when I am dreaming, though I do sometimes have to squeeze through small gaps which I always take as a worry about putting on weight.

- Giles annuals. As you might know, I have a copy of every Giles Annual (though of course some of them are just facsimiles). It was a major milestone to get the last one to have one for each of 50 years. My dreams about them involve finding out that there are other, special annuals out there which I have to acquire to maintain my collection. These specials are very poor when compared to the true 50 - they have random collections of characters and no punchlines. I imagine that this is something to do with completing things. It may be about letting simple things go in life or it may be about my habit of dumping books in the middle of reading them.

- Being let loose in some sort of shop where I am looking for a decent model kit to build. I never actually buy anything which may be related to the above feeling on non-completion.

- Trying to find a library in some weirdly-shaped shopping area. Never actually read anything.

- A general, dream-like version of Malvern Link where I grew up. All of the shops in the various other themes are often to be found here but they change location and design with each dream. This has another link to the Giles Annuals in that the Giles Family (Grandma etc) live in a different house for each cartoon they feature in. They would change class and wealth as well.

I am sure there are many more hangups in there (or should I say here) but I cannot tease out any themes at the moment.