PAUL'S BLOG
MY BLOG 02/06/2023 It's WriteOldWorld's first June, and with just seven full months of existence behind it, WOW is still a very young website for old and very old writers. We contributors (from today, ten of us) have written here about all sorts things, essentially about what really interests us now, in our old age. Some things we've written about interest us STILL, perhaps since childhood or adolescence, and that says a lot - some things endure. Other things we've written about became really interesting for us RECENTLY (which may mean ten or twenty years ago, when we approached retirement age), and that says a lot - some things get our attention only after half a lifetime of experience. Of course many things didn't exist when we were born - global, national and personal situations (e.g. legal adulthood at eighteen), infrastructure and technologies (e.g. television), many nation-states (e.g. Jamaica), and much more. The world has changed enormously in the last 65 or more years, and there are new things to be aware of and interested in, while some old things have disappeared (which doesn't necessarily mean that no aftereffects linger). The four new contributions below are about the new world and the old, mostly memories of the old world. My poem is about our world now, with AI serving and exciting many people, and its future development and use deeply worrying many AI experts, who even warn of the possible extinction or marginalization of humanity by AI. Adrian Rumble, Margie Hord and Eileen Sullivan's pieces are about the old world, still with us in the poems of Philip Larkin, places like the traditional town of San Baltazar, now a neighbourhood within a large city, and in the memories of our grandparents, in this case a grandpa on the shores of Lake Erie.
MY BLOG 16/05/2023 It's been almost two months since the last new contribution to this website for creative old people who write, and people of any age who read. Have old people - except those already published successfuly - stopped writing stories. memoirs, poetry and more as a pastime or hobby? Of course not. Many are scribbling (or tapping) away, right now, or yesterday and again tomorrow... just not sending their stuff to WriteOldWorld. Perhaps they're sending it elsewhere, or perhaps just keeping it to themselves, which is a pity, though if that's best for them, it's fine by me. WriteOldWorld already has a good representation of writing by creative and thoughtful old people, but more would make it better. I wait here in hope of more. Meanwhile, I write, making my own life a little fuller, and publish here, making some other people's lives a little fuller, perhaps, helping them understand what goes on, or can go on, in old people's heads. See my latest poems (or verses) below and on my WOW page. The first owes its existence to the fact that I'm a retired teacher and know many other retired teachers in a thought-provoking new world. The second owes its existence to my old brain (matured in 84 years of experience) and to The Beatles' much younger brains in 1967, specifically their 'Magical Mystery Tour'. My piece is wordier than theirs (sorry, I can't help it) and obviously not as inspirational as their words-music-performance, but I hope it will 'get to' you if you read it. Don't forget to listen to 'Magical Mystery Tour' again.
MY BLOG 10/04/2023 Well, it's been an odd 3 weeks since my last post - a week of what seemed like Covid for my wife and myself (though we weren't actually tested for it because it's now with us endemically, no longer a raging pandemic, and it might have been flu) and another week of masking and semi-isolation just in case. Back to the old routine now, and getting things done. Finished my first Mexican novel in some time, L. M. Oliveira's 'Las Marcas del Agua'. Good, I think, though showing almost only the grim and grisly side of Mexico, which isn't what I see around me most of the time. What impressed me most was the picture of Mexico as a severely divided, unintegrated country (socially, socio-economically, culturally, ethnically, racially), both back in the 16th century (The Conquest) and still now in the 21st century (New Enterprise). Well, that may be true of most countries - just look at the USA. I see a similar Mexico in places in 'My Mexico: The country of an old English immigrant', but not so overwhelmingly nasty, grim and grisly, much more enjoyable and hopeful. Got ahead with my second long short story for this site, 'Questology'. It should be finished in a few weeks, and end up about the same length as the first one, 'The Weirdos', 40-50 pages. While that story is about a young man not conforming to his dysfunctional family's expectations and forging the beginning of his own independent adult life, this one is about older adults screwing up the world as they seek "whatever", especially their own individual "satisfaction" and "well-being". Started reading the first book by Harry Bernstein, 'The Invisible Wall', published when he was 93 (he died at 101, after having 3 more books published). It's a memoir of his boyhood in a factory town near Manchester, England, on the Jewish side of a poor workers' street. Yes, a bit of an unintegrated country, in this case poor English Christians (many lapsed) facing off across a street against poor English Jews (many also lapsed). Today conflict continues, no doubt, but with people of Caribbean, African and South East Asian descent, not Jews. However, to end on a more positive note, the UK does have a Prime Minister of Indian Hindu descent at the moment, and Scotland a First Minister of Pakistani Moslem descent. And Jewish Harry Bernstein (later emigrated to America) was an example for us here at WriteOldWorld - like him, let's keep on keeping on, including writing, and reading, of course.
MY BLOG 17/03/2023 Why blog here for just a few visitors each day, sometimes not a single one? Well, it’s like keeping a diary or journal, I suppose – keeping a log of this late stage on my life’s journey for myself and anyone else who carries to read it. I’ll be able to look back when this stage of the journey is over – when this website closes down – and read some of the things I thought, perhaps surprise myself a bit. I recently started a WriteOldWorld Facebook group, and I’ve been posting thoughts there too. Over the past week or so they’ve been about contributions to WOW. That made me think about the topics of the contributions – cruel results of the domestication of animals and human civilization, old age, post WW2 life, meaning in life, human trafficking and prostitution… – and the experiences and concerns of the contributors. We contributoers to WOW were born in 'The West’ shortly before, during, or up to a decade after WW2, Generation W, you could say. With big exceptions outside 'The West', we humans have never had it so good. In Britain, we were born into or soon entered a world of almost universal state-provided healthcare, education (including higher education), unemployment benefits, and retirement pensions. All that state-provided stuff has declined a bit since then in Britain and some countries, while advancing a bit others. Those of us contributing to WOW have had such cushy lives benefiting from it (though that hasn't stopped us complaing). Let’s face it, Generation W has been the easiest and most comfortable in history, but it’s been wobblier for Generation X, and is now in great jeopardy for Generation Z. Not all members of Generation W are conscious of that, our good fortune beyond previous belief, and the happiness that human life can give, but contributors to WOW are, and also of the disappointment and the horror out there too. And of the agency that may, or may not, be in our hands to avoid mistakes and make things better.
MY BLOG 09/03/2023 From stories (and history) in the last post, let me return to poetry, which for many people is mostly the lyrics of songs. I previously I noted here that songs are often poetry put to music, or music put to poetry (unfortunately, too often not very good poetry). Not for nothing are the words of songs in English called lyrics. A famous definition of poetry is that of W. H. Auden in his book The Poet’s Tongue – “memorable speech”. We remember and can recite poems – and sing songs – like no other texts, partly because they’re usually quite short, but also because of their memorable speech. With songs already in my mind, that definition – “memorable speech” – brings a song to mind:- Unforgettable, that's what you are, Unforgettable though near or far, Like a song of love that clings to me How the thought of you does things to me… Songs can put memorable speech together with memorable melodies and make both even more unforgettable, often bringing back vivid or moving personal memories. Poetry and songs exist as sound, while other texts, including most literary ones, exist normally as thought in the writer’s mind, then writing, then thought in readers’ mind, with only occasional bits of speech breaking the silence. If you’re having trouble getting to grips with a poem, read it aloud, several times, and let your mind go where it will. The poem must speak to you, out loud. If that doesn’t work, the poem isn’t for you, or it isn’t a successful poem.
MY BLOG 01/03/2023 History and story are about telling tales, long or short, on-going or over and done with. The English words are usually about different types of tale, though with a common Latin root, of course, and a common narrative character. History is most often singular and ever on-going (though there are also briefer, over-and-done-with histories – of bygone empires, past wars, and the like), and it is what you and I are living in and as teeny-weeny parts of now. As we do so, we experience situations and events that we can, and sometimes do, tell as stories, with an ending, even if it comes after several, or many, episodes. A few of us end up as a story, a biography, which others may or may not listen to or read. And be careful if you know any fiction writers – you may get twisted into a character in a novel. As we live in history (the ever on-going kind) we may worry a bit, or a lot, about what’s to come for us and for future generations of compatriots and humans in general. Some people prefer not to think about that, and don’t even follow the news, which too often suggests nastier and nastier things to come. A few people (perhaps more than I imagine) are curious about what’s to come for Planet Earth and the Universe irrespective of how we humans fare. I suppose history (the on-going kind, perhaps not for ever) will only continue if there are humans or other intelligent beings to document and tell it – without that there will only be untold terrestrial and cosmic happenings. Mm… there’s a story there, about our species, not individuals, or even nations. Most stories, and thoughts, about human mortality and death treat it individually – how I (and my loved ones – it's horribly lonely alone) might become immortal, how a fortune (or killing) might be made from promising wealthy egomaniacs raging against the dying of their candles immortality through cryonics or whatever. But the BIG story for on-going history is perhaps about the mortality, almost certain extinction, of our species, homo sapiens. This story would be about working towards the… well, let’s say longevity and mental health of our species instead of its impending suicide – see https://www.fhi.ox.ac.uk/ and https://existence.org. Oh, and back here with our human feet on our nicely paved ground, some writers switch the normal uses of ‘history’ and ‘story’ – H.G. Wells’s 'The History of Mr Polly', Allen Weinstein’s 'The Story of America' – probably to keep us on our toes while we’re still telling tales.
MY BLOG 19/02/2023 Poetry - it's not for everyone, right? Or wrong? Well, it's true that some people say explicitly that they don't like poetry, and most people don't read poetry published in books and magazines or go to poetry readings. However, almost everyone does enjoy some songs whose lyrics (a poetic word, that) can be considered poetry - in fact, some fine songs were originally written as poetry, without music. Also, almost everyone forced to read or listen to some poetry, as at school, has to admit honestly that some pieces are strikingly composed and moving. And there's rap, of course, often coarse and jolting, but so is some highly regarded poetry. Speaking of rap, below is the first verse of my new rap (unfortunately, the video of me performing it was lost to a virus and my legs can't take a repeat performance yet): YO, POETRY SAVES, BRO That brat he gonna be a poet Tho he ain't no way near to know it. Now posin splay-foot screw-you fire, His rap don't doom that badass liar. Just joking, of course - that's the only rap this octogenarian has ever written, and I haven't performed it - yet. Who actually writes poetry nowadays? Far from everyone, that's for sure, but probably more people than you imagine - as I've said, some rappers and lyricists (perhaps most of them, given a broad definition of poetry), obviously all published and recognized poets (including great ones, though there may be debate over who they are), and many people who write poems in their spare time but don't presume to call themselves poets, most with some ‘proper’ profession or job - teacher, postman/woman, administrator, librarian, doctor, engineer or whatever. Four of the contributors to WOW have contributed poems, and I know that at least one other occasionally writes some. Do you, or have you ever? If so, and you're 65 or over, I'd love to see some.*
MY BLOG 13/02/2023 Life-skills talk today is often about everyone needing to be computer literate (and bilingual), but Statista puts illiteracy at 33% still in Sub-Saharan Africa, through 23% in South Asia, to 6% in Latin America and 2% in Europe. How different the world must be for illiterate people, apart from the fact that most are severely impoverished in every way, with under-nourished bodies as well as minds. Paradoxically, many illiterate people are bilingual or multilingual. But literacy doesn't necessarily mean much reading, or writing. Substantial reading has to be learnt or adopted by most people, though some take to it like beavers to water even when surrounded by non-readers. My wife has been a big reader for the past 70 years or more - she comes from a large reading family, where books passed from hand to hand, and comments on them, discussion of them, flew between mouths and ears. She's very much a paper-and-ink book person still, though she has read a couple of books not otherwise available on my Kindle. She'd soon become depressed without books to read. Even though some books disappoint or depress her, they give her food for thought and keep her mind well nourished and active. I've been almost as a big reader for several years less even though I'm a year and a half older - mine was not a reading family, except my mother off and on, and it was half the size of my wife's. School got me reading, and my mother a bit more. I've been an ebook reader (Kindle) for over a decade now, but I have read a few paper-and-ink books in that time, at least two in Spanish bought by my wife. The relationship between reading, thinking and warding off depression is much the same for me as for my wife. We both read fiction and non-fictioin, me much more of the latter than her, and a day without an hour or more of reading a book is like a day without getting out of bed - though we both read a bit in bed before going to sleep every night! How has reading figured in your life, and in the lives of those around you? And are you a writer? My wife no longer is, though she once was, including long letters, while I am, almost compulsive. People use their literacy in different ways, and some people who have it hardly use it, which is very sad.
MY BLOG 06/02/2023 I'll leave the war stuff from Nick and me on this HOME page for a while longer, but turn in this new post to the topic of literature, in general terms. Individually, we first meet literature as children, growing up - in our 'cultured' home where we're told or read stories, typically at bedtime, and then given books to read, or - at school, where it's a subject to pass or fail, and perchance enjoy, or, - even in our 'uncultered' home, in dramatized literature, on TV, from children's cartoons to 'good' children's films, or - in the legends and rituals of our isolated tribe in the Amazon jungle, the Papuan mountains, or wherever - yes, the world does still extend beyond The Global Village, Inc. I can't remember stories at bedtime much but surely did get some, and certainly children's books, and then literature classes (and captivating history and even science stories) in secondary school, which I did enjoy. My father never read a book as far as I remember, just newspapers, but he did enjoy dramatized stuff, including 'literary classics' and soon-to-become ones. My mother did read, mostly fiction, worked as a volunteer assistant librarian in our town library, and brought me novels from there to get me reading more than 'school stuff'. What was your first and then developing encounter wih literature like? At school, I began to 'learn' (be educated with the ideas) that , - on one hand, anyone can write stories and accounts of things (possibly things others may enjoy reading), and, - on the other hand, there is 'great literature', 'good literature', 'flawed but interesting stuff', and 'unreadable rubbish'. It was mentioned that literature began with oral bits and pieces, some quite long, memorized and passed on from generation to generation. And we were all required to write essays and occasionally 'imaginative' pieces - "It's good for your mental development... and you never know, one of you might be the next Shakespeare, or Agatha Christie!" Was literature at school like that for you, or very different? Then I went to university and studied Literature (capital 'L'), in English and Spanish. The courses generally expanded on the last years of literature classes at school, entering deeper into technical matters and the nature of literary criticism. I noted that virtually all the great, or even just remembered, writers of the 19th century back began as amateurs, then managed to make a living out of writing, often barely. Some were rich, didn't need money, and wrote because they simply had to, or to entertain or impress their peers. Nowadays, there are creative writing courses at universities, literary publishers are inundated with offerings from hopeful authors, TV/streaming/movie producers are looking for stuff to dramatize, AI is getting more literate, inspired, ambitious by the day... Wow! And there's us here, just pursuing our mental development/maintenace - and you never know...
MY BLOG 02/02/2023 I'll start by giving my answer(s) to the question at the end of yesterday's post: Can art be great when it glorifies war? First, I note that human art, and specifically literature, has probably from the start included pieces glorifying war and heroic warriors, along with religious pieces (with many warrior gods), prayers and eulogies for top bods, and histories and legends. War and its heroes are there in ancient Greek literature, in the Nordic sagas, and before both. We can hardly exclude 'the literature of war heroics' from great art, but I would accept it only with reservations and critical discussion. There's the issue of whether art is about impressing us, 'turning us on', aesthetically or emotionally or morally or... whatever. The Encyclopedia Brtannica says: "The moralistic and aesthetic positions [in the philosophy of art] are extremes, and the truth is likely to be found somewhere between them. Indeed, art and morality are intimately related, and neither functions wholly without the other." Some would disagree with that, on either side, with the extreme aesthetists talking of things being "terribly beautiful", "excruciatingly delightful", "orgasmic", "to die for". I, personally, agree with the combined aesthetic-moral position. And that's for the sake of humanity, including my grandchildren, their children, and for as long as it goes. Both Heaven and Hell (the concepts - I believe in neither) can be aesthetic and emotional 'turn-ons', and also excruciatingly boring in their contrasting ways, but I'll take the eternal lull of moral Heaven rather than the eternal torture of immoral Hell. And, of course, 'it's complicated', ever more so as humankind heads forwards (if that's really where we're headed) through its so far brief existence (very brief compared with dinosaurs and cockroaches). The following (with my addition, based on the article itself) is from The Atlantic magazine: "In her cover story for the March issue of our magazine, the staff writer Megan Garber argues that Americans are living in a kind of 'metaverse', where the line between entertainment and reality is blurrier than ever. That lack of clarity could be hastening the [US] nation’s descent into conspiracy [theory and dystopia...]". It could be the whole of humanity's descent, not just the USA's. The 'entertainment' mentioned is 21st century art, and specifically literature - best-seller fiction, on-screen theatre, even trending, viral posts. Beware the future-now FX blur of art and entertainment! NOTE: In September, 2022, as I designed WOW, I wrote: "It's a right old world... now more than ever, with reality and virtuality so cleverly but dangerously scrambled." It didn't take much to see that, of course.
MY BLOG 01/02/2023 The two samples of WOW content on the HOME page now are about war. The poem, Neanderthals, talks about the Primaeval Homo Erectus War (PHEW) long, long ago, and Nick Shepherd's piece talks about his war, in his memory, in his being. FHEW1 was almost certainly the beginning of territorial and interracial wars as homo so-called sapiens moved out of Africa and came upon homo neandertalensis, raping their women, slaughtering the men and boys, and eventually all of them (but incorporating neanderthal dna into their - our - genes). It's one of our oldest and nastiest stories. We all, especially our leaders, know a lot about war, and about the smouldering strife that can burst into its flames. But not enough to eliminate it from our collective behaviour under the banner of patriotism, religion, political ideology, civilized empire building, or some other 'reason'. For many Übermenschen, war is just another weapon in their arsenal. All of the current contributors to WOW know war one way or another. Three of us were born in time for WW2 (Nick, Paul and Roger) and four in time for the Korean and Vietnam wars. I remember night after night during the Battle of Britain and after in the air raid shelter in our back garden, serving Mum, my sister and me along with our neighbours on either side, while Dad was away for six years in North Africa, Italy and Austria. Even if you're young now, you all know war too, though far less intimately and traumatically than people in Ukraine, The Middle East, The Horn of Africa, Myanmar and so on and on - just through the news of wars and their effects, perhaps. Being aware of and worried about war is not enough, of course. While many homo so-called sapiens continue to be more than ready for war at the least provocation (or opportunity), with others prepared to follow if called upon, the rest are faced with extremely difficult practical and moral issues. I personally don't agree with pacifists who rule out military action even in the face of unprovoked agression against one's country or clear and fast on-going genocide in another country, but I do consider them to be on the right side while companies offering the service of mercenaries and the mercenaries themslves are on the wrong side ("Want to fight a war? ZAPUM is at your service!"). War is not only a massive element in human history, it's also a major theme in literature and other arts. And there lies another big question: Can art be great when it glorifies war?
MY BLOG 31/01/2023 A dear, if sometimes difficult, friend of mine, Colin White, longtime professor of English Literature at the UNAM, Mexico, departed for over sixteen years now, talked and talked about life and literature, lecturing, in his inimitable way, about the latter. He once said something like this to me: "If you aren't a... mm... 'genius' and want to put yourself into a book, best make it a memoir or autobiography, and tell the truth... as far as possible. If you want to write fiction, novels, best write about other people, inevitably largely imaginary; plenty of yourself will be there anyway." He never published a memoir (sadly) or a novel (though, apparently, he did write one as a young man). Instead perhaps, he built three sailing boats (with a little help from us, his friends), all in Mexico City, so they had to be laboriously transported down to the coast far away and far below. They were different, like surprisingly distinct novels by the same author, the first with a ferro-cement hull, the second, smaller, with a laminated wood hull, and the third, smaller still but complete with galley, cabin and head, with a strip plank hull. Usually with one of us, but sometimes alone, he would sail them out into the Gulf of Mexico and back (once to Grand Cayman Island, where the mast broke and was provisionally replaced by a pine tree trunk), or along the coast (Tuxpan-Veracruz, Tuxpan-Cancún). Living most of his life far inland, from time to time between about age 40 and 70, he probably became different characters out at sea or in another port, from a youngish sea-farer with a wife and children back home to an old one, barely able to manage the sails, with an equally old wife back home, and grandchildren 'elsewhere'. Our lives are real (well...), but to others (and even ourselves) we play many at least partly imaginary characters in them. What do you think, Wiiliam, Colin, reader?
MY BLOG 24/09/2022 In many ways WOW is the offspring of www.50plusartspace.org, my previous website, so let me pay tribute, then, to the contributors to 50plus over its two years of life. Many of them were over 70 years old, and several over 80 like me, doing some kind of art in the last stretch of their life, which can be the most creative part. 13 were writers (fact/impressions, fiction, poetry) and 11 visual artists (painting, photography, textile art). This post, about My Mexico: The country of an old English immigrant, is illustrated by work by some of the latter. I'll risk a generalization: All art arises from experience (so does science, of course). In art, people take experience, however they perceived it, and react, compare, combine, modify, and invent, logically and imaginatively (while science doesn't play around like that). Logical invention - or creation, if you like - can become ideological, and imaginative invention can run wild. In writing My Mexico: The country of an old English immigrant, I tried to deal with my 57 years of experience in my adoptive country objectively, but some personal ideology and a little imagination run wild probably crept in. I hope they, and the 'story' in general, are stimulating for most readers, provoking some questioning as well as much agreement in those who know Mexico, and some amusement as well as surprise in all. Below are excerpts from the second chapter, about my first day in Mexico back in March of 1965. I was a 25-year-old Englishman from a small town in the countryside 40 miles from London (first row of images, textile art by Gill Davies - not related to me - and watercolours by Jeni Saretti). I had spent 4 years as a student in Dublin, and a total of about 2 1/2 years in Spain (4 months in Zaragoza and the rest in Madrid). And I had arrived by cargo/passenger ship (Satrústegui, image below the first row) from Cadiz, Spain, with 24-hour port calls in Tenerife, La Guaira, Venezuela, San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Santo Domingo and Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic - a sort of step-by-step approach to and entry into Latin America and Mexico. The other illustrations - of Mexico - are paintings by Alfonso Portugal, Adriana Portugal, Ambrosio Guzmán, Carolina de la Vega and Estela Krause, and a photo by José Manuel González.