09 December 2011

Wurds


I wrote the following in response to a colleague hearing my voice in my written words

I enjoy the harmonies and dissonances of the relationship between what is spoken and what is written. I buy dictionaries, and have many in my library. However, unlike most people, I am rarely perturbed by poor spelling. I enjoy the multitude of spellings to produce the same sound (to, too, two, tu), and the multitude of sounds permitted from the same spelling (tough, cough, dough, plough). I enjoy the subtleties (as well as its near anagram: subtitles) of nuance between practice and practise (spelt differently but pronounced the same), advice and advise (spelt and pronounced differently), alternate [to take turns] and alternate [a substitute] (spelt the same but pronounced differently). I love fora, formulae, concerti, tableaux and majors general. I love ‘erb tea, bayzle, oreggano, rowt and vayze. I have a strong preference for Munchen, Nurnberg and Koln; for Addawa (Ottawa), DC (Washington DC) and Manhattan (New York City), because these are the names used by the people who live and work in those cities..

In my experience, what is said is often easier to understand if it falls into the natural cadences of spoken English. Of course, William Shakespeare recognised this with his iambic pentameters. In my experience, what is written may also be easier to understand if it falls into the natural cadences of spoken English. What I write is often crafted to sound like how I speak. Perhaps almost equally, what I say is often sufficiently well considered that it sounds like what I would write.

However, I am aware that many people typically speak in stumbling, incomplete and sometimes only semi-coherent clauses. This is given the illusion of a single train of thought or narrative by face-to-face engagement, in much the same way that film creates from a sequence of photographs the illusion of continuous movement. Therefore, to be comprehensible, there must also be formality in what is written.

For this purpose, I sometimes use formulae. For example, in recognising that the Canadian postal coding system [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_codes_in_Canada ] (for example, K1A 0B1) is less prone to transcription errors compared to that used in the UK (for example, DH1 2PZ; W1A 4WW) because the six characters alternate sequentially between letters and numbers, I present times/dates not as spoken but in a consistent formula: 12:34 Friday 12 February 1554. (However, in dating computer files I use the Japanese system: 15540212.)

Surprisingly, perhaps, I welcome the use of clichés in speech when their purpose is to aid intelligibility:  allowing quick links to what is already known and understood, but also listen for their use as a substitute for thought and opinion (sales patter).

My ‘natural’ way of speaking is elaborated code that incorporates my classical and scientific formal education, my experience of travel throughout Europe and North America as well as to Japan, and my familiarity with many cultures through my love of literature and movies. When I feel refreshed I am usually able to speak from the restricted code of the person with whom I am interacting. However, when I am tired I revert to speaking from within my comfort zone involving words of many syllables and that may be unfamiliar to many of the people with whom I work; a consequence of which is that I inadvertently distance people.

I have loved word play from my earliest years, and enjoy subtle puns. Careful attention to nuanced and multiple meanings is also the domain of poetry, where apposition is currency. Of course, for the Mersey poets (Adrian Henri, Roger McGough, Brian Patten: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Penguin-Modern-Poets-Mersey-McGough/dp/0140421033/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323435629&sr=8-1) poetry involved play.  Although I have written poetry with which I am satisfied, it has rarely arrived by FedEx or DHL, but by scooping ripped-up photographs from beneath Parisian photo booths. Sadly, my tendency towards obsession with minutiae does not serve me well regarding style. Attention to style is required to write extended prose that is worth reading (Dickens, Hardy). Instead, I am left fretting about the inappropriateness of a full stop in a heading, the mosquito bite of a supermarket queue’s limitation to nine items or less, and my Lynne Truss-like frustration with incorrectly-sited apostrophe’s (sic).

I wonder whether the voice audible in the above is that with which people who know me are familiar [implied question mark].

02 October 2011

Tories announce bad ideas

Yesterday, just ahead of the Conservative Party Annual Conference, Eric Pickles announced that £250 million had been found to enable local councils to re-instate weekly refuse collections. This is a terrible idea. Weekly bin collections encourage people to throw away things that could be recycled.Our bin is emptied two or three times each year, simply because we re-use or recycle everything else.It is not difficult, although clearly the commitment to recycle is beyond many people.

Also yesterday, Philip Hammond, Minister for Transport, announced an intention to raise speed limits on motorways to 80 mph. This is a bad idea not only because the number of accidents will increase and the intensity of the damage to life, limb and vehicles, but also because petrol consumption will worsen, thus increasing CO2 emissions.

15 April 2011

Nation, identity and government

Surely the term 'nation' is used for mythological purposes. The term is tied up with a sense of identity. It invites citizens to identify with, and to strengthen their sense of belonging. The mythology points towards (apparent) genetic and cultural similarity, and so is often used to distance "people who are not like us", whether brown-skinned versus white-skinned, culturally Christian versus culturally Muslim, and even genetically-Norse versus genetically Saxon (here in the North East of England there is a strong desire to claim Viking genes, thus differentiating people in the North East from people in southern England). I say that it is a myth because it represents a story that I choose. I could choose a different story. An obvious example of this mythologising is the frequently-used term "this island nation" used by many British people to differentiate themselves from people of continental Europe, and to disclaim the validity of 'supranational' government from Strasbourg / Brussels. A second example is the US attempt to forge one nation out of disparate peoples, that is, to invite them to believe that they are one people.

The myth of the nation is powerful because it helps to determine perceived political legitimacy. In Belgium the myth of a Belgian nation appears to be stretched near to breaking point. The myth of a Macedonian nation straddling Greece and Macedonia terrifies the Greek government. The myth of a Kurdish nation has been perpetually squashed by Turkey, Iraq and Russia.

I believe that the term 'nation' is also increasingly in crisis because of the eagerness of many people to embrace dual (multiple) identities: African American, Asian British, Polish British, French Muslim, Galician Spanish (there appears to be a Celtic identity seeking to create unity between Galicia, Brittany, Cornwall, Wales and Ireland).

16 March 2011

Cherry blossom petals

I arrived at this movie from several places: some familiarity with animé, including the entire R2 Studio Ghibli collection; some familiarity with Japanese cinema, past and present; a visit to Tokyo and Kyoto several years ago.

Five Centimetres Per Second [DVD] [2007], like Still Walking [DVD] [2008], is unadulterated Japan in several respects. The characters behave in a restrained and understated manner. Cherry blossoms (but not cherries) and railways (but not the grease and technology of trains and rails) are important. The voice acting, especially the two female leads, is superior in the original Japanese.

The movie consists of three episodes. In each there is a pervading sense of sadness, loneliness and unresolvedness. The first episode has the most satisfactory story. Although the director, Makoto Shinkai, in interview states that the theme of the movie is the rate at which things happen (blossoms drift to the ground, a train journey takes many hours, a rocket suddenly blasts off [presumably from Korou] into space), it is the exquisite and pervasive sadness infusing the movie that lingers, as in Grave Of The Fireflies [DVD] [1988].

One of the wonderful features of Five Centimetres Per Second is that it bases itself in the real world, with real, recognisable places, such as in Tokyo, and realistic activities and motivations. In this respect, the movie resembles movies such as Only Yesterday [DVD] [1991] (as well as aspects of Whisper Of The Heart [DVD], Grave Of The Fireflies [DVD] [1988], The Girl Who Leapt Through Time [DVD] and Ocean Waves [DVD] [1993]).

Just as in most Studio Ghibli movies, some of the backgrounds in Five Centimetres Per Second are sumptuous. The attention to small details is gorgeous, for example, the articulating footplates between carriages on the train. Moreover, the 'camera angles' in Five Centimetres Per Second feel fresh and alive - although I suspect that this feature may be drawn from more traditional manga animé. The main characters in Five Centimetres Per Second, with their doe eyes and pointed noses, are pure animé. In contrast, the main characters in Studio Ghibli movies are drawn to appear more realistic. An aspect I find appealing about Studio Ghibli movies is that there can be many objects that are animated simultaneously. (The Ghibli museum in Mitaka screens, amongst other shorts, Water Spider Monmon, which is alive with movement.) In contrast, I found the staticness of characters and objects in Five Centimetres Per Second, which at times appeared like a sequence of still pictures, disappointing and mildly irritating.

The movie is paced appropriately to the subject material: slow and quiet. However, the final section of the movie transforms into a kind of pop-music video, which may be indicative of some kind of emotional resolution, but if so it went over my head. The music was okay, but not haunting as in Spirited Away [DVD].

The English subtitles of the Japanese soundtrack are perfectly reasonable, despite some typographical errors. However, each subtitle quickly vanished, and occasionally I had to replay some dialogue in order to read what was said.

The extras on the DVD are the usual.

Overall, I have absolutely no reservations about watching the movie, nor about buying it. It will undoubtedly appeal to people who enjoy feel-sad movies, as well as students of animé and animation. I am comfortable with the 4* rating I have given it.

01 January 2011

My cultured father

Sunrise at 08:29 this Minimal cloud cover should mean that the south eastern sky will start lightening at about 07:00. Sunset at 15:48 means that the day is two minutes longer than yesterday.


Today is the 75th anniversary of my father's birth. However, he died nearly 19 years ago. I feel sure that he would have lived-to-the-full all the years he was denied by his early and untimely death. He would have continued to rejoice in the natural landscape of his adopted Cornwall. He would have continued to enjoy music, the arts, crafts and the social activities that characterised the final ten or so years of his life, some of which were interests developed from boyhood with the encouragement of his mother, and that in turn he passed on to me. (I remember that he had two vinyl LPs (long-playing records): Tchaikovsky's "1812" and "March Slav" that I got to know well, and a jazz record called "How Hi the Fi" (that I have just checked out as being recorded by Buck Clayton and Woody Herman in 1954) but I cannot remember ever having heard it. I now quite often listen to jazz on BBC Radio 3, along with acres of 'classical' music. I think that my father was quite satisfied about me becoming a 'Prommer' (i.e. attending the Henry Wood / BBC promenade concerts every summer evening for three months, mostly in the Royal Albert Hall in London). I am uncertain about whether he ever attended a Prom concert. However, he took my brother and me to a concert of Harrison Birtwhistle music at the Royal Festival Hall in London sometime in the late 1960s or early 1970s, and it is obvious that he was familiar with this concert venue. This was the venue for one of the all-time greatest performances of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, in mid-November 1957, of which I have a recording. It is possible that my father attended the concert..I like to imagine that as a 21 year old young man, recently returned to London winter smogs after National Service in sunny Cyprus, he was trying hard to ignore the coughing and to concentrate on the performance.

Happy new year

Happy new year. Welcome to 2011 (not that numbers make much difference to reality). I hope that this year will be peaceful, prosperous, fulfilling, satisfying and above all happy.

Durham UK is 54.8 degrees north, and 1.6 degrees west. This means that sunrise and sunset are later than London UK in the winter. It also means that, living closr to the Arctic, the weather in Durham is mostly a good deal more miserable than the south east of England. Hmm!

Sunrise today at 08:30, although the total cloud cover, gloom and rain means that no-one on the ground will have noticed. Would that I were seated in a jetliner heading for New York City. Sunset today at 15:47. I am looking forward to longer daylight hours, sunshine, warmth.

The snow has now all-but gone, although there remain heaps of dark, mucky, frozen slush heaped up out of the way: one heap I saw yesterday was at least 2 metres high. Although wintry showers are forecast over the next week, and plenty of overnight sub-zero temperatures, it does not look like a return to Siberia is imminent.