Eulogy for Joan Didion

I wanted to write this month about Joan Didion anyway, amongst two other very famous feminist writers.

But now, a few days after Christmas, I see the Joan Didion obituaries coming in. On the one hand, I feel sad that such a great writer and commentator has passed away, and on the other hand, I think, good for her; she had a pretty amazing life and continued in that way to almost the very end. The very end being an impressive 87 years, Joan Didion seemed like a workaholic writer who loved her work but maybe didn't care too much for either sleep, nor eating her greens. 

So who are the other two feminist writers I have in mind: Doris Lessing and Sally Rooney.

Doris Lessing was a disillusioned communist, proto-feminist and master of the inner-space narrative. Doris Lessing was written some wonderfully insightful, sensitive and inter-twined tales within the Golden Notebook. These tales cover a wealth of emotions and historical themes; there is a lot of sex, well, there is a lot of straight sex, some of it good, some of it wild & wonderful, but also some it not so good. The gay sex, like the gay characters, was disappointing and a bit painful to read, one weak spot in an otherwise wonderful story.

I would have imagined that the disillusioned London Communist (Lessing) and the disillusioned Californian Hippie-come-Hipster (Didion) would have had a good amount in common and mutual sympathy, but maybe Didion was jealous of Lessing's celebrity status? I can only guess.. they should have been kindred spirits. During the Amsterdam non-fiction book club this month, we discussed this point and Evie suggested that Didion's strict training as a writer at Vogue and the need for bright, concise and on-point prose "Didion didn't just hit her exact word counts, she hit her exact character counts", could have clashed with Lessing flowing & lyrical inner-space narrative style, taking hundreds of pages and with no definitive conclusion? 

Sally Rooney has been dubbed a "millennial writer" (I'll come back to what that might mean later); she is also known for writing about sex in a direct and exciting manner, not normally associated with more sophisticated, modern, feminist writers. Actually, I expect her first two books were more salacious, but I haven't read them. In her 3rd novel, there isn't that much sex however there is one really quite a remarkable phone sex scene. Two things stand out: firstly, only a writer and/or poet could have that hot phone sex. While part of me is jealous, this was a joy to read. Secondly, this scene doesn't seem salacious. Despite the sticky ending, it is pivotal to the plot. I really wasn't sure where this wonderful story was going, but after this scene, I realized A ends up with B, plus C with D and Jane Austen would have approved of this underlying, classical romance theme. Salley Rooney is the hot young, Irish writer of our age, I suspect like F S Fitzgerald will be being read in 50 or 100 years from now! Her characters will connect to future generations, the same way as we still Gatsby, Nick Carraway, Jordan Baker, Dick Diver & Nicole… Anyway, Rooney seems connected to the "communist writer" theme, which broke Lessing's spirit and all the "communist writers" intrigued Didion (a recurring topic in her book "The White Album") and slightly counter-intuitively, 50+ years later on Rooney is powerfully arguing needs re-evaluating. 

My personal opinions are and have always been pretty centre-left, but as I get older, I get more frustrated by the "harder-left" as they appear to be a distraction to what we can achieve in small steps now, for example, in the last UK general election, which seemed to be a choice been a swing to the hard-left (although the FT argued that maybe Corbyn's policy would just bring the UK back into line with other western European countries?) or carry on with hard-right (even more extreme free-market plus less local & national government). Maybe Rooney's powerful intellect and fine writing can re-invigorate left-wing politics, the failure of free markets to curb CO2 emissions so far may mean that future generations will eventually push back and impose more limits and give great guidance to businesses in the future. 

I would love to have known what Didion would have made of the upcoming decades, but for now, I'm grateful for excellent writing and sharp descriptions of the 60s, 70s and 80s… she takes you to places in American culture that very few other writers have so perspectively described, a wonderful legacy and RIP Joan Didion, God bless America.

Piranesi - The Dante of the Twenty-First Century

 *** Warning - there are possibly a few spoilers and more importantly, this article is not for the faint-hearted, I discuss some dark topics ***

Kafka's "The Trial" is almost undoubtedly one of the most famous classics of the 20th century and in my opinion, deservedly so, I particularly like this review from Auden:

The Dante of the Twentieth Century -- W. H. Auden

also from Camus and Márquez

It is the fate and perhaps the greatness of that work that it offers everything and confirms nothing -- Albert Camus

It was Kafka who made me understand that one can write differently -- Gabriel García Márquez 

For one of the Amsterdam bookclubs, we read "The Trial" last month and then "Piranesi" by Susanna Clarke this month. 

I was expecting Piranesi  to be a lighter book e.g. as per the amazon pitch

For readers of Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean at the End of the Lane and fans of Madeline Miller’s Circe, Piranesi introduces an astonishing new world, an infinite labyrinth, full of startling images and surreal beauty, haunted by the tides and the clouds.

The strange thing is that I found Piranesi to be even more sinister than Kafka's The Trial:

* On one hand, The Trial is written in a direct, harsh and brutal style: a chaotic and whimsical world full of corruption, double standards and power politics? However, my interpretation of The Trial is of being in the perverted fantasy of a middle-class, bank clerk, bored to death by his total un-inspiring and highly bureaucratic job. While Kafka'a world is surreal and shocking, it also feels at times a bit comical and satirical. If Kafka had lived to the 21st century, I can imagine he would have enjoyed a night output at the Torture Gardens, especially if he was allowed into the VIP rooms. 

* On the other hand, Piranesi initially feels much soft, unlike Kafka's brash style which immediately makes you on-guard and constantly vigilant for the next attack, Clarke draws you into her private and mythical world with charming prose and a narrator who initially seems full of life and good humour, if a little crazy. However as the story goes on and we go deeper into this underworld, which was initially charming and even slightly romantic, the disturbing mythical nightmare themes start coming out. Piranesi is a book centred on a labyrinth, and like the narrator, I felt a little nausea and a little lost, as I was struggling along with where this story was going. 

So the big difference for myself: was that unlikely Kafka's The Trial where I left with a sense of sharing the author's absurdist humour, in his over-the-top depiction of power plays and petty corruptions of the petite-bourgeoise; Clarke's Piranesi might start off lighter but gets progressively darker and darker until I'm starting to feel very uncomfortable. We are in the unfortunately well-documented world of sexual psychopaths and the living hell of their survivors. 

One part of the book, while referencing preserved Moor bog bodies from ancient times: 

“In 1976 Manchester Museum had in its collection four preserved bog bodies, dated between 10 BCE and 200 CE, and named after the peat bog in which they had been found: Marepool in Cheshire. They were: • Marepool I (a headless body) • Marepool II (a complete body) • Marepool III (a head, but not one that belonged to Marepool I) • and Marepool IV (a second complete body). Arne-Sayles was most interested in Marepool III, the head. Arne-Sayles said that he had performed a divination that had identified the head as belonging to a king and a seer. The knowledge the seer had possessed was exactly what Arne-Sayles needed to further his own researches. Combined with his own theories, it would result in a watershed moment for human understanding.”

although this is from nearly 2000 years ago, given Arne-Sayles is a shocking sexual psychopath, I couldn't help but think of the modern-day horror of The Moor's Murders. Ian Brady and Myra Hindley were two of the most shocking killers ever. 

So unlike The Trial which initially seems brutal but where I think I see comedy and farce, Piranesi while beautifully written and with tantalizing psychological insights into the imaginary prisons of the victim's mind, I also have a deep foreboding feeling about this novel and where it is going. Which is exacerbated as I'm still not 100% sure what story the author is trying to tell here?

Bizarrely and I know you should never judge a book by its cover, it appears to be marketed as a children's book:

Mijn biografie in het Nederlands!

Ik was in 1970 in Norwich geboren, een mooie stadt.

Ik bracht mijn middelbare school in de "City of Norwich school" door, het was een "Comprehensive school" maar in de oude tijd (voor 1970) het was een "Grammar school" (alijn voor de beste student in het 11+ examen).

Op school mijn paasie was voor wiskunde, maar ik ook luister naar viel musiek, mijn liefde bands were The Communards en UB40.

Ik studeerde wiskunde in Oxford, en mijn eerste baan was wiskkunde docent in een prep school in Hampshire (heel exclusive). Ik heb zijn een leraar, een interesent baan gevonden.

In 1996 heb ik mijn carrier verander, ik begon in een "groot Amerikanse IT Consultancy" as Software-ingenieur, een goede keus voor mij...

Queer literary classics

In terms of English (and French) classics, there seem to be a surprisingly high number of queer writers amongst them. A few which spring to mind are 

* Oscar Wilde (in you face out, in the highly intolerant London 1890s)

* Henry Miller (aka The Master - although I prefer Edith Wharton as a writer)
* Proust ("extreme mummies boy", more liberal 1910s Paris)
* Thomas Mann (1900s married with 6 kids but lived in a painful state of psychological torment over his attraction to young men?)

* EM Forster (1920 Maurice)

* Christopher Isherwood's 1930's classic "Goodbye To Berlin"­

* James Baldwin (1950 Giovanni's Room)

* Armistice Maupin (70s/80s) Tales of the City (gay liberation in Sans Fransico)

* Jeanette Winterson - Why be Happy When You Could be Normal?

* Sarah Waters - one of my favourite writers and IMO going to become a classic

I recently had the pleasure of re-reading Oscar Wilde's The Portrait of Dorian Gray (1890) for the Amsterdam Queer Bookclub, and as well as the joy of revisiting this old friend. I read parts of it plus listened to a wonderful new Stephen Fry recording (Stephen Fry has the perfect voice for Wilde's prose and wit. I also saw a little bit on Netflix: a beautiful production, wonderfully acted and a great set, for me, Colin Firth rather stole the show as a particularly Faustian Lord Henry. 

One intriguing detail we discussed in the book club that trio of the three main characters represent different perspectives on Wilde himself i.e. something along the lines of:
* Basil Hallward - as Wilde saw himself?

* Lord Henry Wotton - as the world saw Wilde 

* Dorian Gray - as Wilde himself would have liked to have been seen!?

well, I'm almost certainly misquoting this significantly, but I'm intrigued and want to dig into this idea further?

Nobel-prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro is also a fan of History Professor Yuval Harari

I'm about to start Kazuo Ishiguro's "Klara and the Sun" Apparently the nobel-prize winner, Kazuo Ishiguro is also a fan of History Prof. Yuval Harari and popular futurist Yuval Harari:

Ten years ago, Harari was an obscure history professor at a university in Israel. Today he is the world’s most famous public intellectual and science writer: with a fan base that includes Bill Gates, Barack Obama and Kazuo Ishiguro. His books Sapiens and Homo Deus have sold millions worldwide, and he is courted by the …

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2177119-yuval-noah-harari-why-the-reluctant-guru-is-upsetting-scientists/#ixzz6tccaT39v 

It is not just that I (like much of the rest of the world) profoundly connect to the clarity of ideas in Harari's history books. His books and public speaking events are now enormously popular. He has the rare ability to reach out and talk to all side, rich and poor, powerful and weak. 

Yuval Harari has gone on to be an extremely popular "futurist" and public speaker, he always appears very calm and sympathetic, also he is not pulling back from asking the "big tough questions":

1) I'm passionate about protecting the environment, a paid-up member of the green party for the last 15 years. Yuval Harari sees tackling global warming as one of humanity's top priorities. For those of you going "duh of course everyone knows about global warming", however there are still a lot of climate-sceptics out there…, especially within my family!? Fortunately, Harari doesn't seem to think it is already too late "for humanity" but he highlights the consequences are going to hit the poorest parts of the world first and hardest plus we really need to act quickly, otherwise the consequences are going to be even more extreme, especially for the poorest countries and communities.

2) I'm also passionate about tackling inequality, Yuval Harari speaks strongly on how the growing inequality in the "west democracies" is already undermining the basis of our societies. Again our model he emphasises that our western liberal democracy are not yet dead, but it does appear to be going into crisis and the growing inequality is an underlying threat. This is another contentious idea, atleast within my family, who still seem to believe in the Regan/Thatcherite revolution in the 80s as a 'generally very good thing', a source of friction at family reunions ;)

3) Yuval Hurari is also now best known as the "surprise darling of silicon valley": he warnings around avoiding an AI arms race, which is rapidly heating up between the US and China. Hurari sees the 2016 election scandals (both Trump and Brexit) as a wake-up call. I was shocked by the corporate (Cambridge Analytica/Facebook) and foreign state (Russia) interference in these elections, but Harari seems to think that the worst is still potentially to come in the rapidly evolving fields of AI and Surveillance Capitalism, The next generation of biometric tracking devices, while offering some amazing health benefits (why so many of us geeks have adopted them already), they also make us even more hackable! He also takes a gentle approach on Facebook, which is now trying to do the right thing, for example Mark Zuckerberg 2019 U-turn: praising Europe's GDPR data privacy laws! Very nice to see some praise for EU leadership and good governance. To be honest, I was less concerned about AI but then 2016 was a wake up call for me. AI is also the topic Ishiguro's new novel:  "Klara and the Sun is the eighth novel by the Nobel Prize-winning British writer Kazuo Ishiguro, published on March 2, 2021. It is a dystopian science fiction story"

The above three reasons are probably the ones that resonate with the vast majority of millions & millions of other people who have read his books, attended his talks, follow his youtube channel… his following is just enormous now.

However, I also love Yuval Harari for the above reasons plus a few of extra reasons:

1) For most of my adult life I have followed a vegetarian or vegan diet. Again my family are resistant/mocking, back in the 90s I was mocked and warned that it was unhealthy to be vegetarian (unless you are fastidious about making sure you get enough protein). Vegan diets were just a fad too far, and there were dire stories about what would happen to me if I was foolish enough to follow my vegan ways… Over the last two decades, the more I've read and learnt about nutrition & health, the more I've learned about who a whole-good plant-based diet is critical for good health. I'm now in my 50s and in relatively good health, which I partly attribute to my almost vegan diet. So I LOVE that one of the greatest intellectuals of our time is vegan.

2) Next I really like that Harari meditates for two hours every day and goes on long retreats every year, again respect! Personally, I struggle to meditate even 10 or 20 minutes per day and almost never go on any retreats (unfortunately I'm a bit of a workaholic). Personally, I equate prayer with meditation which is an idea that Harari sometimes touches on, he also pushes back against any black & white thinking with regards to religion, he argues that religion has severed a critical role in the evolution of all modern civilizations and that some people with "religious beliefs" are more open and less dogmatic than some of the more modern secularists? Although I do see Harari as more sceptical about religion than myself,  I still LOVE the idea of meditating for a couple of hours per day, I tend to see this as an act of devotion.

3) Lastly he is openly gay, when I grew up being gay was at best very unfortunate, a sickness/abnormality which was barely tolerated. It is easy for many to forget the open-homophobia of the 1980s. Matthew Todd's "Straight Jacket" is also a shocking reminder of the disgusting prejudice of the UK government of the 1980s i.e. Mrs Thatcher, who started down the road of re-criminalisation of gay men (i.e. section 28 legalisation which made it illegal to talk about gay people in a normal way in front of children), even more shocking were the rank and file Tory MPs and their out-spoken hatred of gay's, they advocated camps and refused to even criticize the fire-bomb and arson attacks on gay organisations!!! Tory MP Kellett-Bowman responded to these life-threatening attacks on gay men with "I am quite prepared to affirm that it is quite right that there should be an intolerance of evil", shortly after this utter disgusting statement in the House of Commons (yes it is even in Hansard), that witch Mrs Thatcher made Kellett-Bowman a Dame of the British Empire i.e. well done you're a good egg. I don't want to dwell too long on the sorry mistakes and hatred of the Tories in the 1980s, but personally, I'm delighted that Harari is openly gay and this just isn't an issue for anyone in the UK (I guess it is still a problem in some countries in Africa and Asia).

 

Emma, Jane Fairfax and Austen's magnum opus

Over the last five years, I've finally completed all six Austen major novels(1) and Emma is now my favourite. There also seems to be a few differences between the original texts and some of the modern adaptations...

While Pride and Prejudice is probably now Austen's most popular novel, I suspect that might be partly because of some of the slightly sexy film and TV adaptations in recent decades. Interestingly according to one highly acclaimed Austen scholar: ASU Professeur Devoney Looser mentions the Pride and Prejudice adaptation trend with "hunky Mr Darcy's" (my words not hers), started much earlier with the theatre and then film adaptation in the first half of the 20th century i.e. an interpretation of Pride and Prejudice which has grown in popularity over the last 100 years! So maybe the Colin Firth 1995 (BBC TV mini-series) wasn't the first Darcy-female-heart-throb (women's fantasy lover) but is part of a much longer tradition? I need to re-read Devoney Looser's wonderful The Making of Jane Austen. 

Anyway, I'm a bit with Fay Weldon here: okay I wouldn't dare be quite as rude about the Pride and Prejudice plot as Fay Weldon was in "Letters to Alice: On First Reading Jane Austen", but Fay Weldon is a very distinguished writer (plus FRSL & CBE). Still, I also find Emma's plot more engaging and Fay Weldon cites other key critics claiming Emma as "Austen's masterpiece". I do sense Emma is Jane Austen's magnum opus: although I'm sure many will cite other Austen books as their favourites, Persuasion seems very popular with many modern Janeites? (2)

I've recently had the pleasure of a double-dose of Emma with two almost back-to-back book club events in May 2021 :
* May 4th, the Amsterdam English Classics read Emma this month; this is my regular book club

* May 11th, the London Jane Austen book club also discussed Emma this month focusing on the perspective of one of the minor but key characters: Jane Fairfax. With covid-19 most bookclub's are still online, so I was grateful to be invited to this event.

Jane Fairfax's character is a useful contrast to Emma's, Jane Fairfax is charming and talented but also a poor relation to Miss Bates (another key character) while Emma is wealthy, lazy, unaccomplished but comfortably established at the top of Highbury society. Jane Fairfax is also sometimes pushed around and bullied by the more noisy and bossy elements of the upper-classes in Highbury (the village just south of London where the novel is set). Jane Fairfax is talked down to by the insufferable Mrs Elton (a bit pantomime villain and friend to the slave trade). However Jane Fairfax is stoical and her eventual reward is marriage to a wealthy, handsome Frank Churchill, who can both sing & dance, so what more could a girl want!?

Well, I'm not 100% sure the story has a happy ending for Jane Fairfax, as the somewhat feckless Frank Churchill is both egotistical and so insensitive he is verging on cruel. Points heavily emphasised in key Jane Fairfax scenes, which we discussed at some length this week's London book-club event with a focus on the "Emma [the novel] from Jane Fairfax's point of view".

Although I didn't get that much traction with my suggestion that the novel has a distinctly dubious ending for Jane Fairfax; I do see others online who share my concerns. This essay from North American Jane Austen society (one of the oldest and largest Austen fan-clubs) stood out to me:

Jane Fairfax, perhaps even more than the minor characters in Austen’s other five novels, provides the author the opportunity to portray “the difference of woman’s destiny” (384).  By considering the focus of Jane Fairfax’s education and the grim financial as well as psychosocial reality of her future life as a governess, contrasted with her ultimate choice to marry a man who acts contrary to social norms and treats her with disrespect, Austen exposes the limitations faced by a poor woman with a genteel upbringing.  Austen shows us that women’s choices are grim:  they must be sold in one market or the other...

Since Austen shows that Frank Churchill is not a good choice for a woman who can choose, she may also be showing that choosing such a man is really the last resort for a woman who has few choices—and that this lack of choice is a social problem.

 http://www.jasna.org/persuasions/on-line/vol28no1/hall.htm

Anyway, Jane Fairfax does eventually marry a wealthy and handsome young man, the classic Austen ending and I'm very grateful to the London club for organizing the Jane Fairfax-focused event, plus the all-round lively & insightful discussion we had this week.

Finally checking on Wikipedia, I also see more claims that Emma is Austen's greatest novel

Although Austen's Pride and Prejudice is the most popular of her novels, critics such as Robert McCrum suggest that "Emma is her masterpiece, mixing the sparkle of her early books with a deep sensibility"

Notes

(1) The six major

(2) Janeite's are hardcore Jame Austen, according to Wikipedia there is often a negative connotation "term of opprobrium", but there is also a more jocular interpretation: Janeitism is "the self-consciously idolatrous enthusiasm for 'Jane' and every detail relative to her".

Ref:

• https://www.meetup.com/English-Classics-Lovers-Club/events/276855632
• https://www.meetup.com/The-Season-A-London-Jane-Austen-Meetup/events/277405142
• http://www.makingjaneausten.com/ Just how did Jane Austen become the celebrity author and inspiration for generations of loyal fans she's become today? ASU (Arizona State University) Prof Devoney Looser's The Making of Jane Austen.
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fay_Weldon
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_British_Empire (CBE - Captain of the British Empire)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Society_of_Literature (FRSL - Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letters_to_Alice:_On_First_Reading_Jane_Austen
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma_(novel)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janeite

Why I loved "My Brother’s Name is Jessica" by John Boyne

 

"My Brother’s Name is Jessica", a controversial book for some but I definitely enjoyed it: it is very good-humoured i.e. plenty of comedy moments, plenty of interesting (English) historical details and an original perspective on our journey towards greater transgender acceptance.

Straight off the bat, the first things to know about this book is that it is a bit controversial:

John Boyne, the author of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, has hit back at those who criticised him for writing about a boy struggling to cope with the transitioning of his sibling. Boyne’s new novel for young readers, My Brother’s Name is Jessica, was attacked on social media and the novelist was criticised for writing about an issue with which he is unfamiliar. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/may/31/john-boyne-hits-back-at-critics-of-transgender-novel 

and YES he is tackling one of the defining questions for our age: over my lifetime acceptance of Gays and Lesbians has got dramatically better: when I grew up (80s) being gay was still vilified in the mainstream media: that aids was a "gay plague" and senior politicians were happy to full the "moral panic" affirming that we deserved to die in hell. This is from 1987 Hansard records (official report of all Parliamentary debates):

"On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. I heard the honourable Member for Lancaster (Kellett-Bowman) say that it was quite right that Capital Gay should have been fire—", at which point he was interrupted by a point of order. Kellett-Bowman responded, "I am quite prepared to affirm that it is quite right that there should be an intolerance of evil." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elaine_Kellett-Bowman#Capital_Gay_arson_attack

and is one of several low points for LGBTQIA+ acceptance in the homophobic backlash of the late 80s. I hope in 2021 this sort of shameful statement would be illegal under Hate speech laws?

However, the 1980s were very different times and Mrs. Thatcher's reaction was to show her support for Kellett-Bowman by making her a DBE (Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire). Still, while gay and lesbians in the UK are now much more wildly tolerated, the progress for the bisexual and transgender community seems a lot slower. Many people are deeply sceptical and hostile about transgender teenagers, this seems as controversial as being gay was in the 80s!? For myself, the most charming character in this novel is the confused dyslexic Sam, the younger brother: less popular and less athletic, plus struggling with his own identity as well as his Jessica's new gender identity. His journey through confusion, denial, acceptance and finally embracing the amazing diversity of life, love and humanity... is the main arc of this novel. Generally, his parents are largely preoccupied with their careers "getting to the top of the greasy pole" i.e. Sam's mother has ambitions to become the PM (Prime Minister). I was drawn towards Sam, often wanting to give a hug and reassure him that everything will be okay, things will get better: either his family need to become more understanding or he needs to break out and meet some more liberal-minded people (like his loveable and empathic hippy Aunt Rose). I can imagine that many people will see this novel as having "too many thinly drawn caricatures". I was recently hosting an Evelyn Waugh book club event (Decline and Fall - 1928) and this was also a complaint i.e. that Waugh's book has too many thinly drawn caricatures. This was a surprise to me as Evelyn Waugh, as I thought Waugh is now seen as one of the greatest writers of the 20th century? It is true his character is quickly drawn caricatures but for me, Waugh manages to "hits a nerve", he can be very funny and also shines a light on upper-middle English society in his time "warts and all". I think John Boyne's characters are also quickly drawn caricatures (this is a teen novel) but his brilliance is that he also captures the essence of these people and our time.. Sam's parents were believable and even reminded me of a former time (25 years ago) when I was teaching the daughter of an ambitious cabinet secretary who was regular in the news and possibly had her "eye on the top job"! Also, some of the best moments in the books are when John Boyne plays with our expectation and characters break out from our stereotyped imagination: I particularly enjoyed the football coach and the school nurse, who both show humanity and remind us that there is "there's nowt so queer as folk". I was at a recent DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) event and the closing comment resonated with me "remember to be kind and gentle", the underlying questions and choices in this YA (young adult) novel are tough for many and it is important to remember some people are more uncomfortable with change, myself included sometimes even if the rest of my family regard me as "extremely woke". I think the author of "My Brother’s Name is Jessica" has written a novel with the intention of reconciliation and to help all sides move forward, an ambitious target for a book, but he carries off with some humour and some aplomb. 

Crazy and the joy of video editting

One of the more fun things I've done in the last year is to learn video editing, specifically Adobe Premiere Pro.

For the last couple of years, my husband Thomas has been studying music production (Amsterdam has any talented musician and music producers) and is using Logic Pro and is producing one EDM track per week (sometimes with my vocals!).

We have a ThomasDave youtube channel as well as a regular website https://thomasdave.eu/

Here are some details for our latest video crazy, respect to cottonbro for sharing their amazing shots and video

Sometimes you go too crazy, and only your special guy can save you from yourself. Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/4BhJ9u...​ iTunes: https://music.apple.com/nl/album/craz...​ Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Crazy/dp/B0915...​ Bandcamp: https://thomasdave.bandcamp.com/track...​ For more of our songs, check out https://ThomasDave.eu/​ Attribution: shots by cottonbro, https://omycotton.com/​ and https://www.pexels.com/@cottonbro​ Video edited by Dave Pitts.

Johnson, hubris, greek methology and covid19

Earlier in April 2020 ... I was sadly lamenting the UK governments mismanagement of covid19 i.e. they were too slow to act and sent a very dangerous message playing down the risks in late Feb / early Mar ... with Johnson in his normal braggadocious manner claiming it was okay to still shake hands, even with confirmed coronavirus patients (i.e. "don't panic, business as normal"). 

Clearly and strategically this has backfired with PM being hospitalized and then moved to intensive care this week.

Discussing this with my husband Thomas, hubris was the word that came to mind

hubris

/ˈhjuːbrɪs/

Learn to pronounce

noun

1. excessive pride or self-confidence.

   "the self-assured hubris among economists was shaken in the late 1980s"

   Similar:

   arrogance

   conceit

   conceitedness

   haughtiness

   pride

   vanity

   self-importance

   self-conceit

   pomposity

   superciliousness

   feeling of superiority

   hauteur

   uppitiness

   big-headedness

   Opposite:

   modesty

   • (in Greek tragedy) excessive pride towards or defiance of the gods, leading to nemesis.