Morning Gret

No apologies needed. absolutely. You take this
at your own pace. I am just the reference hound
who gallops off every now and then.

Additions to your classification menu
https://www.fulltable.com/VTS/c/classific/gret/classification/menu.htm

I am particularly grateful for the opportunity
of drifting back into past zones of inspiration
and Roussel in particular. He devised this method
whereby homonyms generated narratives
e.g. billard = pillard
https://madinkbeard.com/archives/roussels-method

1. I was wondering how John Ashbury might chime in
and I have added a link to the Roussel Society’s
Tribute to Ashbery on Youtube in 6 parts.

2. My copy of Impressions of Africa arrived yesterday,
the last copy being lost by a student many years ago.
It reminded me how much I also enjoyed Locus Solus.
to be added Sunday tomorrow.

3. Melville and the Confidence Man are now running
through my head again, and I went back to my standby
on Confidence Man, Andrew Delbanco
Melville His world and Work
containing links to some pages.

If I chased Roussel to understand Marcel Duchamp before 1914
Dead Souls helped me to understand Wyndham Lewis.
Richard Cork’s book on Vorticism quotes a memory told to him
by Winifred Nicholson of her time at the Omega Workshop
c1913 when Lewis was a dynamic but malevolent presence.

Adjusting textiles in one room, and alone in the premises
she heard Lewis coming and dived behind a curtain
so she observed him in his long black coat and wide brimmed hat
standing in front of a full length mirror. She was appalled
to see him adjusting hat and lapels and advancing on the mirror with
different smiles and different handshakes. She was relieved
to see him leave and came out from behind the textile to flee into
the early morning. Julian Symons told me (name drop) that Lewis
would often pretend to be different people with careful
selected clothes and bodily language in accordance with
his pamphlet The Code of the Herd Leader.
http://www.wyndhamlewis.org/images/lewis-code%20of%20a%20herdsman.pdf

Reading Dead Souls about the great Con Man Chichikov
I gave a yelp of recognition reading how the
Great Trump Snake Oil Salesman started his day
before visiting the gulls
practicing sincerity and guile
in front of a full length mirror.

More from me in due course
we send our love this sweltering day
Oriole is out adjusting the array of pots
several of which have already been taken over to Rachael.
I did a barrage of snaps of the new house
and our walk to the recreation ground
https://www.fulltable.com/VTS/m/mulp/scr/NH2/menu.html

I’d love a copy of your Spaghetti musings
and thanks for the Ferrante recommendation
The Lost Daughter is on my list
not least because Thursday I started helping
Geoff Grandfield who teaches at Kingston
with his PhD by studio practice on
visualisations of loss generated when a child
is adopted. How it all meshes together!

Chris

lewis self portrait